Comments on: Independent 7485/Scorpion

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:23:45 +0000

… and it’s just occurred to me that NUMAN is a homophone of NEWMAN – Cardinal John H, recently beatified, another facet of “religious” in the clue.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:19:36 +0000

Same reaction to seeing Scorpion as John, K’sD, et al, so very surprised and pleased to finish it by midnight without going to sleep in the middle (only started at around 11.30 pm). Only one I didn’t know was NUMAN, but it was obvious from the clue and checking letters.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:44:24 +0000

Scorpion – great puzzle. A few ‘hang-on’ ‘don’t pen that in for a moment’ clues, so honest to God not the best I’ve tackled of yours. But still passed the afternoon away with delight Sir. Thank-you.

Thanks for blog, in the end I figured out the clueing 100% so it was all good.No answers needed.

Scorpion thanks.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:26:35 +0000

PS: I would think that the clue needs a dash after ‘booze’.
We can imagine someone at the Customs declaring the contraband – quantified to 23.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:24:29 +0000

Declare bottles of booze about 23?

ALE is from ‘bottles of booze’.
‘about’ is inserticator.
LEG is from [clue] 23 – for which the answer is LEG.
So AL(LEG)E (declare).

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:37:33 +0000

Got through this fairly swiftly, but was beaten by ALLEGE. Can anyone explain how that works?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:56:08 +0000

Yes, I remembered YOOF from a recent Indy puzzle, but couldn’t place it. I’ve also solved EWELL recently but can’t for the life of me remember where … Everyman, maybe. Anyway, both words punching above their weight in CrypticLand of late.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:50:37 +0000

Being new to the Indy and never having done a Scorpion before I’m surprised by the comments about him usually being difficult. I was on target for a fastest ever time until I was interrupted by a call from my insurance agent. However, I got some answers without understanding the wordplay so thanks to John for elucidating, Arm, Ripe and Forester which I read as a feeble cryptic definition.

I’ve fallen foul of Pshaw before so I saw that coming but I don’t think I would have got Yoof were it not for the fact that it cropped up in an Anax a couple of weeks ago. Unipolar and Noncollegiate were also new to me although readily gettable from bipolar and collegiate

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:30:18 +0000

As KD noted 14 rather gave away what 13/23 were and after that it was a relatively easy solve, except for words like elegit which is not quite in common usage and I did puzzle for a while over warmth before coming to same conclusion as Colin. Didn’t we have yoof last tuesday as part of the double lettered words crossword?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:20:56 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John. I too found this much easier than usual from Scorpion, with EARTH giving me the theme on first run through, so I pencilled in ARM and LEG and those words were in many answers. I read 22dn as ‘lacking the’ = TH ie a ‘the’ that is lacking (a final letter). Also while not expert in pop terminology that ‘electro’ part of it certainly brought NUMAN to mind in my case. Favourite clues SMARMY and FORESTER.