Very tough, as we’ve come to expect from Scorpion. I actually managed to fill the grid pretty quickly – about 30 mins – but, as you’ll see from the blog, there was a lot I didn’t understand so a number of answers were filled in as guesses, or from the definition and/or crossing letters.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | IPA in TAN – the TAN bit is easy enough but “ale”=IPA might trip up some people. Somehow I knew TAIPAN was an Australian snake so this was one of the easier clues for me. |
| 10 | hidden reversed in “SuzUKI AHead” – “of” is often a good bet as hidden word indicator. “Three lines” is the definition and surface reading is very misleading. |
| 11 | DANSEUSE – I think this is right but I don’t understand all of the wordplay. “Dean’s skating” could be (DEANS)* but I can’t explain “partner, semi-retired”. Not sure about the definition either; if this is an &lit clue then DANSEUSE (a female ballet dancer) doesn’t really work as a definition for “Dean’s skating partner” (ie Torvill). Unless I’ve got this all completely wrong… |
| 12 | HALL,(EG IN COUNCI[-l])* – HALLUCINOGENIC. |
| 15 | DIETER – a desperate guess really and could be wrong. Full clue is “Local bypassing Essen in Germany?”. DIETER is German name, which could be “local” but that’s as far as I can get with it. |
| 18 | PIN,STRIP,(DUTIES)* – PINSTRIPED SUIT. This is excellent. The surface reading is completely misleading and the definition, “a habit with bowler” is hard to spot. |
| 20 | TIP in MULE,D |
| 22 | NONET – I think this is right as NONET can mean a composition for nine players (instrumentalists or singers) and there are nine players in a baseball team. |
| 24 | E,(TIN)* in L,L – “Hippy preparing this” seems a bit overblown as a definition. |
| 25 | NU,THATCH – NU for “new” is quite, well, new. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SH in CA CA,RD – I can’t explain DR, but it must be connected with “about drawer” somehow. |
| 2 | DELI[-a] |
| 3 | WED in SEN – SEN is “State Enrolled Nurse”. |
| 5 | (I FELON)*,MARS – probably quite hard for thos that don’t own a TV; easy for everyone else. |
| 6 | BARSAC – I only got this because I knew the word, which was lucky as I don’t understand all of the clue. “Boozer” is BAR but I can’t explain where SAC comes from. |
| 8 | (SINCE)* in BOUT – nice easy one, just for a change. |
| 13 | (LITANIES)*,T[im]E – “outside in time” was the tricky bit here. You have to read it as “the outside of time” – ie, T,E. |
| 14 | eGgEd in (TURNING)* – GINGER NUT. Nice clue, and I can sympathise with the surface reading. |
| 18 | PRUNES – another stab in the dark. Full clue is “Do they start to produce ‘the trots’ outside finishing off plate?”. |
| 19 | [per]IOD,IN,E – “I prolonged” is the definition as I is the chemical symbol for IODINE. |
| 21 | PELE – another guess from the definition and crossing letters. “Copy article in French…shaving a” could be [a]PE,LE but that doesn’t explain “Vogue”. |
| 23 | NOAH – anagram of AN[imal],HO[me]. |
11: I’ve just realised that partner = (spo)use – so ‘retired’ means ‘absent’
15: Essen = the verb ‘to eat’ in German. Also features as part of Mittagessen.
18: start to produce = P, trots = runs, ‘finishing off plate’ = plate’s
final E.
1 down. The abbreviation for drawer is dr, so about drawer is rd.
Re 6d, my guess was sac = sack = bed, but nothing to base it on. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one flummoxed by some of it.
This was hard, but I got there, I think. Re Conrad’s point at 2, that occurred to me but the “about” is being used twice, i.e. as CA and as a reversal indicator so there may be another reason. 18 PRUNES is also an &lit (and a good one). NOAH was good too and I did not appreciate its full richness till explained above.
ta(ipa)n:australian snake tan=brown ipa=india pale ale
vogue: french mag
barsac:bar=boozer sac sounds like sack (poured out=said)