Beelzebub 1,260

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Another solve of two halves for me, almost literally.

I made steady progress in the pub on Sunday evening, but returned home with pretty much exactly 50% of the grid filled, in particular the top right corner. A second sitting at home with Chambers finished things off, but it was quite a challenge towards the end.

*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.

Across
1 PROTESTER – PRO + TESTER. Interesting that we don’t come up with names like “tanner” and “tester” for our coins any more.
9 INES – IN + E + S.
13 VEXILLOLOGIST – VEX + ILL + (LOGO IT’S)*.
14 FEE TAIL – FEET + AIL.
16 UNCI – C in UNI.
18 ABETTAL – BET in (AT AL[l]).
19 PRECEPTORY – P + (EP in RECTORY).
20 RADAR – RAD + AR. “Radar” O’Reilly is the character played by Gary Burghoff in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H.
22 SUJEE – JE in SUE.
25 LED CAPTAIN – (I PLAN CADET)*.
27 CHARADE – AD in CHARE. “Chare” is interesting, and draws the connection between “chore” and “char”.
30 EORL – [savag]E OR L[out].
31 SOCIATE – A in (SO + CITE).
32 UNDERSTRAPPER – [s]UNDERS + TRAPPER. The definition is simply “subordinate”.
33 PYAT – (TAY + P[rompting])<.
34 ECDYSIAST – (STAYS ICED)*.
Down
2 REEF – FEER<.
3 OX-EYED – YEX< in OED.
4 TITI – TITI[an].
5 E-LAYER – LAY in E’ER. Also known as the Kennelly–Heaviside layer.
6 SLIPPED DISC – (L in SIPPED) + DISC[over].
7 ELABORATORY – BALE< + ORATORY. A rather pleasing archaic word for “laboratory”.
8 ROWER – [g]ROWER[s].
10 NINTH – [beethove]N IN TH[is] and a nice &lit.
11 ESCAPE – CAP in SEE*.
12 STILBENE – (BEST LINE)*.
15 LATICES – LAT + ICES.
17 SPRUCE UP – SPRUCE + UP. “Spruce beer” was a new concept to me. Not sure I fancy it.
21 APHONY – A PHONY.
22 SPICAS – PIC in SAS.
23 JALAPA – A LAP in JA.
24 VARDA – (AD + [ca]RAV[an])<. “Varda” doesn’t appear in my Chambers, but I think we can assume it’s this sort of thing.
26 EAGRE – [m]EAGRE.
28 PIPI – PIP + I. “Pip” for “disgust” is buried deep in Chambers, but it is there.
29 UTES – [m]UTES.

 

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