[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
I enjoyed this, thanks Italicus.
Sorry the blog is late everyone. I wrote up the blog then forgot to post it live.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1,16 down | FLYING SAUCERS |
Horrifically ugly faces in first of Ridley Scott’s original Alien designs? (6,7)
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anagram anagram (horrifically) of UGLY FACES IN and first letter of Ridley then first letter (original of) Scott |
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| 4 | GHOSTS |
Force landlords to supply spirits (6)
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G (g-force, gravity) HOSTS (landlords) |
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| 9 | GNAT |
Expert angler keeps twirling fly (4)
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found inside (kept by) experT ANGler reversed (twirling) |
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| 10 | ABERRATION |
Wandering bear destroyed allotment (10)
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anagram (destroyed) of BEAR then RATION (allotment) |
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| 11 | CRUSOE |
Castaway sailors embroider reports (6)
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sounds like (reports) "crew sew" (sailors embroider) |
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| 12 | NOMINATE |
Turned on friend accepting popular commission (8)
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ON reversed (turned) then MATE (friend) containing (accepting) IN (popular) |
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| 13 | BLACK SWAN |
Bachelor needs wife? An inductive fallacy (5,4)
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B (bachelor) LACLS (need) W (wife) AN |
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| 15 | ISLE |
Man, say, insulted on a regular basis (4)
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every other letter (on a regular basis) of InSuLtEd – the Isle of Man |
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| 16 | SCAM |
Fraud caught morning after end of assizes (4)
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C (caught) AM (morning) all following last letter (end) of assizeS |
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| 17 | UNBIASSED |
Organisation offered to enlist American behind European fair (9)
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UN (an organisation) BID (offered) contains (to enlist) ASS (a behind, American) and E (European) |
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| 21 | DUELLIST |
Outstanding learner takes on lean combatant (8)
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DUE (outstanding) L (learner) with LIST (lean) |
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| 22 | PEOPLE |
Brazilian legend embodies boundless hope for humanity (6)
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PELE (footballer, Brazilian legend) contains (embodies) hOPe missing outer letters (bound-less) |
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| 24 | MEAT WAGONS |
Nasty women gas about retreating army ambulances (4,6)
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anagram (nasty) of WOMEN GAS contains TA (Territorial Army) reversed (retreating) |
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| 25 | IMPS |
Essentially considers politicians to be servants of evil (4)
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middle letter (essentially) of consIders then MPS (politicians) |
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| 26 | SYNODS |
Councils approving signs on Surrey’s borders (6)
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NODS (approving signs) follows (on) outer letters (edges) of SurreY |
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| 27 | SEANCE |
A cardinal caught in bishop’s office having meeting with 4 (6)
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A N (used to indicate a whole number, a cardinal number) C (caught) inside SEE (bishop's office) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FUNERAL |
Recreational drug artist left as final farewell (7)
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FUN (recreational) E (ecstasy, drug) RA (Royal Academician, artist) L (left) |
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| 2 | YETIS |
Fantastic creatures one’s cowed by nonetheless (5)
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I'S (one's) underneath (cowed by) YET (nonetheless) |
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| 3 | NEATENS |
Grooms dined in Nova Scotia (7)
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EATEN (dined) inside NS (Nova Scotia) |
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| 5 | HAREMS |
Actor’s claims about women’s quarters (6)
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HAMS (actor's) contains (claims) RE (regarding, about) |
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| 6 | SATANISTS |
Worshippers abused assistant (9)
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anagram (abused) of ASSISTANT |
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| 7 | SCOTTIE |
Dog racing venue cancels opening fixture (7)
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aSCOT (racing venue) missing first letter (cancels opening) then TIE (fixture) |
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| 8 | REINCARNATION |
New version is more explicit about defending northern state (13)
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RACIER (more explicit) reversed (about) containing (defending) N (northern) then NATION (state) |
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| 14 | CHARLATAN |
Article found under church altar unfortunately is phoney (9)
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AN (indefinite article) follows (found under) CH (church) and anagram (unfortunately) of ALTAR |
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| 16 |
See 1 Across
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| 18 | IMPASSE |
Father is entertained by Messi breaking deadlock (7)
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PA (father) inside (entertained by) anagram (breaking) of MESSI |
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| 19 | ECLIPSE |
Obscure points about parts of film (7)
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E E (East, a point of the compass, twice) contains (about) CLIPS (parts of film) |
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| 20 | LIZARD |
Storyteller maintains Zulu finally defeated saurian (6)
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LIAR (storyteller) contains Z (zulu, phonetic alphabet) then last letter (finally) of defeateD |
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| 23 | ORION |
Hunter working either side of river in Spain (5)
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ON (working) contains (either side of) RIO (river, in Spain) |
Is there a ghost theme?
A tad late PD nice puzzle did wonder about a ghost ghost theme.
A ghost ghost theme with an initially ghost blog?
I liked the supernatural theme. Never heard of BLACK SWAN in anything other than an avian sense before and the colloquialism for ‘ambulances’ was also new. I was also looking for a dinosaur at 20d until rescued by wordplay.
Not one of the GHOSTS, but favourite was SCOTTIE.
Thanks to Italicus and PeeDee
Very much enjoyed this. Pleased when I finally thought of REINCARNATION which opened up a lot of others and allowed me to complete unaided. Last one in was the unusual spelling of “unbiased”. It just looks so wrong with a double S but Chambers confirmed that it was a permitted spelling so who am I to argue.
It seems a long time ago now that I solved this, but I seem to remember it was good fun.
I agree with Hovis about the spelling of “unbiased”.
Thanks to Italicus and to PD.
Very enjoyable. It’s not the first time I have stumbled on American behind.
Kept looking for the review throughout yesterday but as SCB commented @3 it was obviously being ghostly!
Couple of things I needed to check with our blogger’s decryption but overall a splendid 8d.
Thanks to Italicus and to PD for the review.