Beelzebub

Almost caught up with these now. This was a nice, tough one including lots of hard words that were satisfyingly solveable from wordplay. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 … Read more >>

I’ve fallen behind with blogging these, due to various other commitments and tribulations, so I’m going to try to catch up properly this week. 23dn escapes me at the moment: I think I … Read more >>

Almost an unaided finish this week, albeit with a couple of slips, and I wasn’t quite brave enough to guess 24dn without a bit of research. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double … Read more >>

After a few weeks of struggling, thankfully a more tractable puzzle this week. I think I managed all but a few unaided, checked all but one of the remainder in dictionaries before entry, … Read more >>

I made heavy work of this one, I’m afraid. There remain a few that I still can’t explain. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 CONCAUSE – CONC + A … Read more >>

I think this was the toughest Beelzebub I can remember for some time, though I made it harder by entering one or two wrong answers early on. Even so it took a fair … Read more >>

A tough week, I thought, especially without online access to Chambers any more. Apologies for the late-ish blog. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 4 EFFECTUAL – EC in FATEFUL*. … Read more >>

I seemed to race through this one unaided, though almost inevitably not without a slip. At 15dn I substituted in an initial M, in the optimistic hope that MACE might mean “reprimand” somehow. … Read more >>

A relatively manageable week I think, albeit followed by a pretty tentative blog as I no longer have online access to Chambers. I wonder if I’m the only one having trouble re-subscribing, or … Read more >>

This was one of those that went in very quickly indeed, but that I couldn’t quite finish unaided. In fact, if anyone got 15ac purely from the anagram then I’d be very impressed! … Read more >>

A pretty tough week, I found. Despite the auspicious puzzle number, I don’t see any Hastings-related material here, but then I will tend to miss whole themes entirely. 19ac remains unexplained. *=anag, []=dropped, … Read more >>

A rather interrupted solve for me, this one: initially tackled in two sessions separated by a week in Scotland, with the last two entries remaining unsolved several additional days later. I’ve reproduced the … Read more >>

Another relatively swift solve for me this week, with only 2dn forcing me to turn to Chambers in the hope that there wouldn’t be too many entries in there beginning with those six … Read more >>

Either I’m getting the hang of things, or this was a relatively straightforward week. I think I finished mostly unaided, just checking a few of the more obscure terms in Chambers before writing … Read more >>

Despite a good crop of longer entries, I seemed to find Beelzebub relatively straightforward this week, making my way through unaided, with just the one slip at 5dn. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic … Read more >>