Beelzebub

Blimey this was a tough one. That, plus most of the week spent at a conference means this week’s posting is a little late. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across … Read more >>

A tough week, I found, so no danger of getting far without Chambers. Still an enjoyable challenge as always. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 SCOTCH MIST – SCOT … Read more >>

My ongoing quest to complete a whole Beelzebub unaided led to a full grid, yet with a couple of silly errors. Still, a good week and always a pleasure to work out the … Read more >>

A very enjoyable week, with some really nice anagrams. For my own part, I managed all but 13ac unaided, which may be a record for me, yet that one eluded me due to … Read more >>

A slightly strange one for me, racing through all but a handful unhindered and thus unaided, struggling on a few more, and finally finding myself absolutely stumped at 21dn, for which I’ve reproduced … Read more >>

A mixed week for me. I proudly managed all but a handful quite quickly without opening a dictionary, stumbled on a couple more, then failed on 4dn having inexplicably written in HORNPIPE at … Read more >>

A good week, I think. This took me several sessions, but I was determined not to cheat. Everything was ultimately solvable, though 1ac was unfamiliar enough to require some undirected Chambers-browsing on my … Read more >>

One of my fastest Beelzebub solves of recent times, as witnessed by me blogging this on the Sunday, for once. There is just one – at 29ac – for which I can find … Read more >>

A very tough week for me, not helped by not being able to locate an unusually high number of the answers in Chambers, rather than just the names and places. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, … Read more >>

I’m not sure if this was hard or easy – I made heavy weather of it at first, managing only a few answers in a first session, then raced through the rest on … Read more >>

A solve of two halves for me – all but 25ac and a handful in the SE corner went in very quickly, while the rest took two or three more sessions, a bit … Read more >>

I think this is me all up-to-date with Beelzebub now, as the closing date for this one was put back to the 29th, no doubt for seasonal reasons. No obvious Christmas themes in … Read more >>

This one was tackled the East Coast Mainline, so with no access to aids. Sitting down to blog, I see that while I didn’t quite finish the puzzle, I did put in a … Read more >>

This was easily the toughest Beelzebub I can remember having come across. A first, unaided session yielded only three or four answers. Reinforcements were called in, and the remainder of the puzzle took … Read more >>

A quickish blog, as various factors have led to my falling a little way behind with solving Beelzebub. I’ll use this week to play catchup and then hopefully normal service can be resumed. … Read more >>