No Nina or theme that I can see despite the perimeter of grids like this often being used for such purposes. But then I often miss them. For instance I was blissfully unaware of last week’s ‘font’ theme.
There are some lovely surfaces to most of the clues in this puzzle.
However I have tackled harder puzzles by Scorpion.
Help needed with 2 down – who are those guys?
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | BARBRA STREISAND BARB (Sting) RA (artist) (ENDS SITAR)* AInd:upsetting Def: songstress. The original Funny Girl |
| 9 | REAL (LEA[the]R)* AInd: plastic. First answer entered – for some reason I saw the wordplay immediately, but the clue has a very smooth surface: Genuine leather, except for the plastic (4) |
| 10 | DIM DD |
| 11 | JOCKEY C[lubs] inside JOKEY (comic) |
| 12 | CRAWL RAW (green) inside CL from C[herwel]L (banks of Cherwell) Def: fawn. |
| 14 | YUMMIEST [turke]Y [t]UMMIES T I think: ‘have time to rest finally’ instructs us to move the T for time from TUMMIES to rest at the end. |
| 16 | WADDING DD IN inside WAG Def: ‘Cotton wool?’ |
| 17 | SNIGGER S[choolboy (GINGER)* AInd: nuts. |
| 18 | FEARSOME SO (standing order) inside ARM (branch) all inside FEE (charge) Def. dreadful |
| 20 | RUPEE R U (‘are you’ in txtspk) PEE (Jimmy – as in Jimmy Riddle, rhyming slang) |
| 21 | ORWELL (LOWER)* AInd: ordered, then [schoo]L. Ref. Eric Blair / George Orwell. Initially I tried to get an anagram from Blair+L. |
| 23 | PAT Reversed first letters T[opless] A[t] P[ark] |
| 24 | JAVA J[udge] A[ttack] V[ery] A[busively] Def. language of PC. |
| 25 | UP THE GARDEN PATH CD First of the long answers entered from what I felt was an easy CD. |
| Down | |
| 1 | PAPER CHASE PERCH (pole) inside A and A (Americans) all inside ESP reversed. Last one in. Misled by ‘Pole’ – I thought it would be just N or S, and that Americans were more likely ‘US’ |
| 2 | ABEL Def. Victim. Are James G, William M and John K all fratricide victims or something? I can’t see any connection. Full clue: Famous victim, like James G, William M, John K? (4) |
| 3 | MAGDALEN COLLEGE MAG (Journal), (ALLEGED CLONE)* AInd: dissected. |
| 4 | STUMPY U MP (Unionist member) inside STY (swine living in this) |
| 5 | BENJAMIN BRITTEN JAM (crowd) inside BENIN (in W Africa) BRIT (music award) TEN (number) |
| 6 | PSYCHING UP (SPY)* AInd: sneakily, G[erman] inside CHIN-UP |
| 7 | KNEE Well hidden reversed inside GrEEN-Keepers. Def. part of pin. Pin as in leg. |
| 13 | ANDERLECHT RED< LECH (Walesa) inside ANT (worker). Def. ‘ Where European strikers go?’ as in football forwards. |
| 15 | STEVE OVETT EVE (first woman) inside STOVE (range) TT (times) Lord Coe’s erstwhile rival |
| 19 | EXPERT XP (Windows type) inside TREE< |
| 22 | ROPE DD Hitchcock film; Guy rope. |
| 24 | JAPE [con]J[ure] APE (mirror) |
Hi beermagnet. They were other presidents assassinated in office: James Garfield, William McKinley and of course John Kennedy.
Great blog, beermagnet
I too found this v easy by Scorpion’s normal standards. Very enjoyable. 2D also refers to ABE Lincoln of course – I did get the idea all right. Favourite clue JOCKEY, also esp liked PAT.
Liked the Windows reference in EXPERT
Enjoyed this one, and found it easier than I remember other Scorpions being.
Although I can’t quite put my finger on it, there is something going on in there. In fact I wondered if your title was a reference to it.
In two columns of unchecked squares are the words SIGMA and MIU. This made me think of US college fraternities, and prompted a search for a third, but no progress beyond that.