I found this very easy – no Chambers or Bradford needed. There were some difficult words in the puzzle (31A,19D) but I was helped on these by checking letters and the straightforward clueing.
Note: this is will be the last Beelzebub blog for a couple of weeks as I shall be away and won’t have much time for solving/blogging. Expect normal service to resume around puzzle 921.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 10 | SOD,I in EPIC – SOD for “fellow” was new to me. |
| 12 | initial letters of “BMW, And Porsche Satisfactory” – “rolls” is the definition nicely hidden amongst those other luxury cars. |
| 13 | DECADE,NT |
| 16 | L in C[-o]ULCH – which is “the stones, old shells, etc., forming an oyster bed and furnishing points of attachment for the spawn of oysters”. |
| 20 | (TOO IRASCIBLE)* – BOROSILICATE. |
| 25 | RIG,EL – “footie star” is the full definition as RIGEL is so called from its position on the left foot of the figure of Orion. |
| 28 | (LOCAL BEE[-s])* – ECOLABEL. |
| 30 | G in ALL,ONES |
| 31 | (REACTION CAN)* – ANACREONTIC. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BLUBBER,E in BED – which describes the appearance of the eyes or cheeks after you’ve been crying. Had to double-check when I got this though as BEBLUBBERED also sounds like it could be a definition for “fat”. |
| 3 | R in DEEP,PIN (going up) |
| 6 | I,CH in MELANGE,LO – MICHEALANGELO |
| 9 | LANCE,TED |
| 11 | (TEACH LIMITS)* – ATHLETICISM. |
| 19 | AS,in Z,T,RUG,I – probably the toughest word in the puzzle for me but the wordplay makes it gettable. |