Independent 7,363 by Scorpion (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 22/05/10)
Posted by Simon Harris on May 27th, 2010
Whilst I used to be pretty well intimidated by Scorpion puzzles, these days I tend to enjoy them a great deal. This was the expected combination of a fairly stiff challenge and moments of humour. While not overly difficult, I did struggle with a couple, and 26ac, which may be my favourite clue here, took quite some working out.
I didn’t spot any themes or whatnot, but 24ac is nicely topical.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | SEAWEED – AWE in SEED. |
| 10 | LOOK-SEE – [b]OOKS in LEE. |
| 11 | ASH-PLANTS – PL in ([se]AS[on] + HANTS). |
| 12 | LOTUS – LOT + US. |
| 13 | EVADE – AVE< + D[eclin]E. |
| 14 | EBB – [us]E + B&B. |
| 15 | AMAZE – AMAZ[on] + E[clair]. Last one in for me, even though I saw the definition pretty quickly. |
| 16 | SEA SHANTY – (ASH + ANT) in YES<. |
| 21 | EMAIL – (I AM in LE)<. |
| 22 | LID – LID[o]. |
| 23 | OVULE – (UV in ELO)<. |
| 24 | TRASH – [airpor]T + RASH. |
| 26 | NECKVERSE – NECK + REV + S[om]E. Certainly an unfamiliar word, but eventually workoutable from the wordplay. It’s a fascinating term, defined in Chambers as the test of ability to read for those who claimed benefit of clergy, usu Psalm 51.1, success giving the privilege of being branded on the hand instead of hanging. |
| 28 | OPUS DEI – D[emur]E in PIOUS*. |
| 29 | SIAMESE – IAMS* + E[a]S[t]E[r]. For non-pet-owners, Iams is a somewhat pricey brand of pet food, which in my experience tends to be too rich for many feline stomachs, so the clue is quite apposite. Allegedly. |
| Down | |
| 1 | ESCAPEE – CASE* + PEE. |
| 2 | YASHMAK – (SH + MA) in Peter KAY<. |
| 3 | JELLIED EEL – J + (LEE + LEE + LID)*. |
| 4 | ADEN – [de]AD EN[d]. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | JOEL – J + LEO<. This one beat me, although it seems fair enough in retrospect. |
| 7 | ASHTRAY – H in ASTRAY. |
| 8 | LEASHED – ALE* + SHED. |
| 14 | EX SILENTIO – SEX* + (TO LIE IN)*. |
| 15 | ART NOUVEAU – (TO RUN)* in (AVE + Au). |
| 17 | MENTHOL – ME[a]NT + HOL[e], I think, and plausibly &lit. |
| 18 | MANAGUA – Ag in MANUA[l]. |
| 19 | QUARREL – QUARR[y] + EL. |
| 20 | JEZEBEL – JEZ + (B[owen] in EEL). |
| 25 | HADJ – HA[-ha] + DJ. |
| 27 | CASK – C + ASK. |
May 27th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
The second consecutive appearance in an Indie Saturday for ELO and this time in what looks like a pangram. Easier than expected from the deadly Scorpion, but the precise clueing made it a pleasure. Particularly liked MENTHOL, YASHMAK, and JEZEBEL.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I noticed this was another pangram, too, and that it contained a large amount of “ash”…
Any reason?
May 27th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Seek and you shall find
May 27th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Cause of ash appears along top and bottom rows.
May 27th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Whoops. Source of ash, I meant.
May 27th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
So it does, or at least it would do if I had checked 5dn before writing it in…
May 27th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
If I remember correctly, I had FLASHBOARD for 5dn.
May 27th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
How uterly brilliant. Bit distressed though that I shall now have to start reading the front page …
May 27th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Thanks Simon. I failed on JOEL and AMAZE but was pleased to nearly finish a Saturday offering. How clever was that? And no, I didn’t spot it – but then again I haven’t heard many BBC newsreaders attempting to pronounce it either.
May 27th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Just to remove any possible misunderstanding, when I said ‘how clever was that?’ above, I meant how clever the puzzle was, not how clever I was to get within two answers of solving it.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
The former is how I read it, at least
Reassuring to know that we struggled on the same two, either way.
May 28th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Thanks Simon,especially for explaining ‘amaze’.
Spotted the pangram but didn’t spot the nina(thank you Pandean),even though I spent a few minutes looking for one!
Discounted top and bottom rows as having too many ‘j’s.
Excellent job from Scorpion.
May 28th, 2010 at 8:48 am
What an absolutely brilliant puzzle! I spotted the nina as soon as I’d got the first four down clues, though I wasn’t sure at first – there aren’t too many words that end with a J (see 25 dn). And a pangram too for good measure. Great stuff.
And being Saturday the dead tree version folded nicely – not like the rest of the week! Has anyone else complained?