I know that Gaufrid has been finding Beelzebub to be leaning towards the easier end of the spectrum recently. I can’t say I’ve always found the same, but certainly this one all came together rather smoothly.
A potential exception is 18 down, which I can’t seem to find in my Chambers, so perhaps readers can confirm or correct as appropriate.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SHORT-STAFFED – STAFF in (THE RODS)*. |
| 11 | CANNONEER – NO ONE in CANER. |
| 12 | CURE – CUR[s]E. |
| 13 | URDY – derived from urdé, and the duplicated component in [h]URDY-[g]URDY. |
| 14 | WARREN – RE in WARN. |
| 15 | TAILORED – (DIOR ET AL)* and &lit. |
| 16 | FOND – two definitions. Here I think “dotard” is used in the sense of “one who dotes [on]” rather than “someone showing the weakness of old age”. |
| 17 | ERISTIC – (R + IS) in CITE<. |
| 20 | LECLANCHE CELL – LE + CLAN + C[ar] + (CE in HELL). |
| 24 | ALGIERS – G in ISRAEL*. |
| 26 | CURB – [ministe]R in CUB. |
| 27 | TESTATOR – TEST + ROTA<. “Leaving” as in bequeathing. |
| 29 | ALDINE – D in A LINE. |
| 30 | YOKE – YOK + E[quity]. |
| 31 | SPIN – NIPS<. |
| 32 | DECUSSATE – (ECUS + S) in DATE. |
| 33 | HORS DE SAISON – (RADISHES SOON)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SCUTTLE CASK – SCUTTLE + C + ASK. |
| 2 | HARARE – HA + RARE. |
| 3 | ON DIT – ON + D + IT. |
| 4 | TO-DO – two definitions: performance/as yet unstarted. |
| 5 | SNARING – A in (Sn + RING). |
| 6 | TELESCIENCE – ((CIE + N) in SELECT*) + E. |
| 7 | FRASIER – FRA + (I in SER). |
| 8 | EUROPE – RUE< + [h]OPE. |
| 9 | DRENT – R in DENT. |
| 10 | KENDAL GREEN – KEN + ENLARGED*. |
| 18 | RALENDS – R + A + LENDS. |
| 19 | THESEUS – THESE + US. |
| 21 | CARDIO – (I’D + RAC[e])< + 0. |
| 22 | LOOK TO – (OK + T) in LOO. |
| 23 | GULPH – GULP + H. |
| 25 | STOAS – S + TOAS[t]. |
| 28 | TOSA – the idea is that either [s]TOAS* or STOA[s]* could give you TOSA. |
There is another abbreviation for King, you know…
I’ve rambled on at greater length about difficulty on the latest update at the website.
Re 18d The word has spelling variants. I don’t know whether the spelling here is the preferred one (which you will get following Beelzebub’s suggestion at #1) or its variant.
I didn’t find this quite as easy as the previous two I’d done, but it all fell out sometime Sunday evening. Mind you, I couldn’t parse 12ac, so thanks for the explanation. Took me a while to parse 16ac until I finally bothered to look it up in Chambers.
It does seem that Beelzebub has set a little trap with 17/18 and that crossing “king”. Fortunately, I knew KALENDS and that went in early. I knew neither EKISTIC nor ERISTIC but I see from Chambers that both could be about settlements, but different types of settlement. 🙂