Beelzebub

A tough week, I think. I haven’t been able to pull together all the elements in the wordplay for 11ac just yet. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 DESPOILMENT … Read more >>

After the first four across entries fell straight in, I thought this might be an easy one. Not so, but I got there. In two clues the wordplay escapes me, however, and I’ve … Read more >>

Apologies for a delayed post again. The usual top quality puzzle, with the bonus of several good long anagrams this week. I think I found this one of average difficulty, but made life … Read more >>

Slightly late, slightly rushed post this week, but a quality puzzle as always. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 SPEARHEADING – (EAR + HE) in SPADING. 10 AGAR-AGAR – … Read more >>

A tough week, I found. I’m still a little 34ac with regard to explanations for 22ac. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 TASK – T AS K. Clever one, … Read more >>

I found this to be an average week, in terms of difficulty. There remain one or two details that elude me for the time being. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. … Read more >>

Back down to earth with a bump for me, after doing very well indeed the last couple of weeks. There’s a fair bit in here that I can’t explain, and even a bit … Read more >>

Well I never, two weeks running with a correctly-filled grid and not so much as a look at Chambers. This week did feel a lot tougher than last week though, and by the … Read more >>

Brilliant, finally a whole Beelzebub completed without recourse to references, and in reasonably good time too. Whilst I’d like to think I’m getting better, it seems more likely that this was a relatively … Read more >>

This seemed a very hard one to get in to, with six twelve-letter entries and a good handful of eights and nines. Solving time was therefore spent mostly on the first half of … Read more >>

This seemed a tough week for me, reaching for the dictionary with about two entries written in. I think it was just the vocabulary that did for me, as the clueing seems clear … Read more >>

A mixed one for me, initially thinking I’d be done in record time, but eventually almost failing to finish at all. 5dn is yet to be explained. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, … Read more >>

A very nearly pangrammatic grid this week. No sign of a K, however. I suppose it’s not impossible that I’ve slipped up somewhere, but I’m fairly confident that it isn’t there. *=anag, []=dropped, … Read more >>

I’d say this was about average difficulty for Beelzebub, without too much to comment on, other than the unusually large number of abbreviations used – which became evident on formatting the HTML for … Read more >>

The usual top-quality puzzle, perhaps a little easier that the last couple of toughies we’ve had. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 UPSPEARED – (PAPERS DUE)*. 11 ERNE – … Read more >>