With around half the grid filled during my first pass through the clues I thought I was going to be in for a quick solve but in the end that was not the case. The last handful of clues, predominantly in the SW corner, took as long to solve as the rest of the puzzle put together and I’m still not sure that I have parsed 29ac correctly.
Across
1 Waller, perhaps, about to leave bundles (6)
FAGOTS – FATS (Waller, perhaps) around (about) GO (to leave)
6 Graphics format used by some American designer (7)
TIFFANY – TIFF (graphics format) ANY (some)
11 A tense appearance, having backed part of stock management (5)
RIATA – A T (tense) AIR (appearance) reversed (having backed)
12 Socialists again help out, after one goes missing (8)
PHALANGE – an anagram (out) of AGA[i]N HELP
13 Acing serve possibly brings objections (10)
GRIEVANCES – an anagram (possibly) of ACING SERVE
14 Plant offering antidote containing excellent line in organic compound (8)
GUAIACOL – GUACO (plant offering antidote) around (containing) A1 (excellent) plus L (line)
16 US soldier and politician in coarse yarn (4)
GIMP – GI (US soldier) MP (politician)
17 Positive nonsense produces this comment (6)
PHOOEY – P (positive) HOOEY (nonsense)
18 Drinking party? Plain Scots will involve concession there (7)
CAROUSE – CARSE (plain Scots) around (will involve) OU (concession there)
21 Inclined to give way about lake of stony waste (6)
SLAGGY – SAGGY (inclined to give way) around (about) L (lake)
23 Stylish, cutting down orange colouring (4)
CHIC – CHIC[a] (cutting down orange colouring)
25 One in Latvia shot white bear (8, 2 words)
LIVE WITH – I (one) in LV (Latvia {IVR}) plus an anagram (shot) of WHITE
26 Father put in acceptable flowers, encouragements for the kids (10)
UP-A-DAISIES – PA (father) put in U (acceptable) DASIES (flowers) – I had difficulty in finding justification for this entry but eventually found it given as a variant in Merriam Webster. Chambers doesn’t have it at all, but Collins and Oxford both state that the current upsy-daisy and ups-a-daisy are derived from the 19c up-a-daisy.
27 Vehicle support suffered – about to be involved in cut (8)
AXLE-TREE – LET (suffered) RE (about) in (to be involved in) AXE (cut)
28 Synthetic material can’t be kept in any longer? On the contrary (5)
NYLON – hidden in (can’t be kept in … on the contrary) ‘aNY LONger’
29 Evidence of damage after passage of the storm or blizzard, say (7)
WEATHER – WEAR (evidence of damage) around (after passage of) THE
30 Increasing a vote among party grouping (6)
WAXING – A X (a vote) in (among) WING (party grouping)
Down
1 Unclear about river (regarding its wildlife?) (6)
FROGGY – FOGGY (unclear) around (about) R (river)
2 Superlative wiliness securing line for rock peak (8)
AIGUILLE – A1 (superlative) GUILE (wiliness) around (securing) L (line)
3 Most of school sadly upset after swallowing a mixture of Indian cuisine (11, 2 words)
GARAM MASALA – GRAMMA[r] (most of school) ALAS (sadly) reversed (upset) around (after swallowing) A
4 Picked up a revolutionary fish roe (6)
TARAMA – A MARAT (a revolutionary) reversed (picked up) – Jean-Paul Marat
5 Nimble, incorporating cool flavours (7)
SPICERY – SPRY (nimble) around (incorporating) ICE (cool)
6 Expert in religion, ergo holiest in action (11)
THEOLOGIST – an anagram (in action) of ERGO HOLIEST
7 Immense, encompassing large and fat (4)
FLAB – FAB (immense) around (encompassing) L (large)
8 Formula One driver dismissing one treatment for gout (5)
FANGO – FANG[i]O (Formula One driver dismissing one)
9 A new sweet? Inclination to get one feature of Mexican cuisine (11, 2 words)
ANCHO CHILLI – A N (new) CHOC (sweet) HILL (inclination) I (one)
10 Certainly trendy, empty and historically insubstantial (5)
YESTY – YES (certainly) T[rend]Y (trendy, empty)
15 Request committee to abandon contest (8)
PETITION – [com]PETITION (committee to abandon contest)
17 Old Jack to contend with wife in field (7)
PURVIEW – PUR (old Jack) VIE (contend) W (wife)
19 Female in Indian army imprisoning male (6)
SHEENA – SENA (Indian army) around (imprisoning) HE (male)
20 Expression of discomfort given by a Chinese government (6)
ACHING – A CHIN (Chinese) G (government)
21 Offensive American term: there’s a lot of protest (5)
SQUAW – SQUAR[k] (there’s a lot of protest)
22 Swiss botanist to see about climbing party (5)
GODET – GET (to see) around (about) DO (party) reversed (climbing) – Charles-Henri Godet, the Swiss botanist who is so well known that he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry!
24 Early – very early – prehistoric hill fort (4)
RATH – double def.
There were a couple I couldn’t parse. 18ac I didn’t know either of the constituent parts. 1ac was just brain failure. I’ve certainly heard of, and heard, Mr Waller.
I’d taken 29ac to be a sort of cryptic definition, but your parsing make more sense.
Incidentally, the sudokus next to Beelzebub look easy in today’s magazine. Fortunately they haven’t made the same mistake with the crosswor.
Ah, I see what I saw was not this week’s sudokus. There are no sudokus this week, only last week’s solutions. And what with there being two solutions to Beelzebubs 1355 and 1356, I wonder if that means there will be no Beelzebub next week.
Just to note that there was a Nina in this Beelzebub – prompted by the passing of Terry Pratchett, I included the names of his witches in the grid: Granny WEATHERWAX, Nanny OGG, MAGRAT Garlick, with TIFFANY ACHING getting two full entries to herself.
The puzzle on 13 March also contains a Nina designed to mark either the passing of the paper version or the passing of the series as a whole. It is still not entirely clear what is going to happen, but things don’t look good. Perhaps the fairly obvious finality of this Sunday’s presentation will stir solvers not allied to fifteensquared to enquire. There are to be no puzzles in the final issue, which struck me as odd, since they’ve been more of an ever-present than most of the other features.
Thanks for dropping by Beelzebub. Despite knowing that there was going to be one, I was unable to spot the theme as I am not familiar with Terry Pratchett’s works.
If the indications regarding the demise of Beelzebub are correct then it is a sad day. This series of puzzles has provided many enjoyable hours of solving, for which my thanks go to both setters.
Many thanks to all who have posted and commented on the Beelzebub series. It’s been a great pleasure and privilege to contribute one in four of the puzzles in recent years, and your responses to them here have been much appreciated.
And many thanks for the Beelzebubs. They’ve made me Sundays.
Totally failed to notice the Pratchett theme and I’m a great Pratchett fan. Indeed, I knew someone, first name Gytha, which was where Terry got Gytha Ogg’s first name from.