Comments on: Independent 6745/Scorpion

By: Dorian lidell

Dorian lidell — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:14:11 +0000

Just FYI, 15dn is an anagram of AT CT (=”cricket’s boundary”) ROPES, &lit.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:32:40 +0000

In my last sentence I meant to write “if ‘reformed’ is supposed to be the reversal indicator, then hmm…”

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:44:27 +0000

If this was an easier Scorpion, I hate to think what a difficult one is like. I blogged a Scorpion puzzle a while back and it was far easier. This one took me ages. Some of the clues were brilliant I thought (11ac, 17ac, 25ac, 15dn) but some of the others I’m still very unsure about (I had a long list, which has been whittled down). S for ‘way’ in 10ac, ‘including transfers’ for hidden reversed in 24ac, ‘VIII in suspicion’ for the eighth letter of ‘suspicion’ in 1dn, all leave me unsatisfied. The intestine is not part of the stomach, so is it ‘where fuel’s broken down’ in 14dn? The waste from fuel is hardly ‘fuel’s broken down’. I thought ‘using mobile’ in 27ac was decidedly dodgy.

And I never understood 26ac. Nobody has mentioned it so perhaps it’s very easy, but how is ‘a reformed character’ IP? If it’s an anagram of ‘pi’ then it’s an indirect anagram; if ‘reformed’ is supposed to be the anag. indicator, then hmm…

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:43:30 +0000

I too thought it was (I won’t say ‘easier’) less difficult than usual for Scorpion.

Thanks for explanations esp for SPECTATOR which, though I got it right, had me baffled and it’s very good.

Quite happy with a = I in 13 across. While technically it may be a double leap, it’s only a v small one.

17 BEAT was brilliant, I thought.

Re ARTISTRY overseeing, I think, indicates IT reversing, maybe a little too far but opinions differ on these matters.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:06:47 +0000

6D – spot on. In cricket, the home captain tosses the coin and the away captain calls it.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:03:40 +0000

20A I have finally seen the shaft of golden light thanks!

By: C G Rishikesh

C G Rishikesh — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:02 +0000

20A: I should think that ‘gas’ (meaning ‘gossip’) is the def. for word required.

By: neildubya

neildubya — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:44:41 +0000

20a – GAS can mean to talk (at length) about usually trivial things.

Agree with your other points.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:33:36 +0000

13A: I didn’t see it as a question of working one way but not the other. The only way I can see “a”=I is by taking two steps via “one”. a=one and one=I (in the roman numeral sense) but I still don’t think that this necessarily means that “a”=I. Just because two words share a synonym does not make them synonymous.
20A: but where does “Gas” come into it?
27A: I agree that “using” makes the surface work but it completely destroys the cryptic reading which ought to be the more important of the two. “getting mobile” would have worked from a cryptic reading and be just about OK for the surface.

By: neildubya

neildubya — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:54:15 +0000

11A – that’s what I assumed also.
13A – me neither but if it works one way then I’m ok with it working t’other also.
20A – if you GO to the toilet you have a leak, perhaps?
27A – I assumed that “mobile” was the anagrid with “using” there to make it all sound nice.
6D – I think this happens in cricket but not completely sure.