Scorpion on a Monday? Surely we only see him on a Tuesday as his puzzles are themed.
Well it is themed with the new Bond film Spectre in the grid and several “Bond Girls” in the grid along with Broccoli the producer.
That was fun weekend in York finally meeting a few more of the other bloggers here and a few new faces to well known names.
Across
ONE in the middle of rHYl. A comment on the cost of rail travel perhaps? Still a tad annoyed that we were delayed by three hours last night coming back from York. Grrr.
4 Forest-dweller, dull, lacking energy, rejected my local (4,5)
WOOD(e)N lacking E(nergy) & MY reversed & P(ublic) H(ouse)
9 Confectionery family owning a large plant (5,4)
A inside ROWNTREE who were responsible for Kit-Kats, Rolos, fruit pastilles and much of the tooth decay in children 🙂
S(uspiciou)S in PUY (a type of lentil)
E(uropean) in the LEK (Albanian currency)
T(iara) & AN in IFFY
GAL & bOaRdEd regularly
JET (to spring) & SO (well…) in TIN (metal)
C.E. (anglican church) & R(ight) R(everand) in SANE (reasonable)
20 Regard music-maker, in a manner of speaking, as climber’s companion? (3,3)
Sounds like EYE SAX
22 One avoids receipts distributed for new film (7)
I removed from RECE(i)PTS* distributed
23 Perhaps a chest condition? (4)
Double def
27 Cup competed for somewhere on the Solent, the ultimate for sailor (5)
RYDE & (sailo)R
OB (a major Russian river) & RUS(sia) in VITE* moving
29 Fifty-one volunteers needed in Lorraine’s evening electronic game (9)
LI (51 in roman) & T.A. in SOIR (French for evening, a change from Nancy) & E(lectronic)
T(h)E empty & NET (goal)
Down
Just a cryptic def I think
N(orth) E(ast) & ZEAL in WAND. Seem to have seen this answer a lot recently
3 Tug resident on the Mississippi perhaps (4)
Double definition
ROW reversed & KIN (ancestral stock)
E(lectronic) inside OVER (deliveries) & FED (FBI agent)
Bit cryptic def but it’s OK. NIP (bite) & AND & TUCK (food)
Double def – think US military hospital & comedy
pHIl rYAn without outer clothing
13 Bohemian Rhapsody initially recorded consumed by premium gin? (4,6)
R(hapsody) in FEE (a premium) & SPIRIT (gin say)
S(pecial) C(onstable) A(nguish) all in ELATION
15 Old family member ordering Northern relative to give up books (10)
Sounds like – ordering say AUNTIE & CEDE & N.T.
BR(itish) & O (circuit) & C(aught) & COLI(n)
R(oger) in the W.I. & THE
Hidden reversed answer
LIDO with the L moved to the end
QUIET! less the end of (coup)E
The theme helped, as some of the non-themed answers took some teasing out. The theme was fairly obvious from the start (for me, anyway) when I got HONEY and PUSSY and thought ‘aha’, then when 22ac was obviously SPECTRE – on release from today – the others fell into place. The SE corner was trickiest for me, I was thinking 30ac was **NTE for ages.
And a pangram, too.
Thanks, Scorpion and flashling.
A bit too hard for me but still very enjoyable. Thanks to both.
Hard for me, too, and I couldn’t finish. I think a few residents of Mississippi would object to being called Yank(ee)s. Thanks Scorpion for the challenge anf flashlling for the elucidation.
Thanks flashling and Scorpion.
LOI was 15 down, knew the answer but didn’t know that’s how they pronounce “auntie” in the North?
Great fun and reasonable straightforward, though I dispute that Auntie is northern – my partner (Oxford & Cheltenham) used it as a child.
I found this exceedingly difficult too. The bottom right corner defeated me and I only got it with excessive cheating.
But then, I’ve only ever seen one Bond film, and that was over forty years ago.
No-one has mentioned Rowan Atkinson, who appeared in Never Say Never Again and also in the Bond spoof, Johnny English. I found this very difficult, particularly the bottom left side where all I could seem to get for a long time were a few vowels. I eventually ground out escalation and jettison from the word play and was able to finish it, with 15 being my LOI (I would never have thought of Auntie as being particularly Northern, although maybe southerners say Awntie).
@Leon W #3 – “I think a few residents of Mississippi would object to being called Yank(ee)s.” Certainly, but the clue refers to a resident on the Mississippi, referring to the river, not the state. A Minnesotan, for example, might qualify.
Sorry Scorpion, you are not for me, next time I see one of your efforts I will not even pick my pencil up.
For Experts only.