Independent 8365 / Scorpion

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We enjoyed this themed puzzle from Scorpion today.

 

 

We didn’t find it too difficult but that may have been because we solved the gateway clue and 11 ac very quickly. It was amazing how many themed words he was able to fit into the grid.

There’s just one that we don’t feel confident about, so any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers Scorpion!

Across
8   Turned joint round inside to circulate 18
RIOJA J (joint – as in the drug) + O (round) inside AIR (to circulate) all reversed or ‘turned’
9   Facing work, American writer grabs seat
OPPOSITE OP (work) + POE (American writer) around or ‘grabbing’ SIT (seat)
10   Tax-payer behind goes half-concealed to court
ASSESSEE ASS (behind) + goES without the first two letters or ‘half-concealed’ + SEE (court)
11   18 silence Irish extremists
SHIRAZ SH (silence) + IR (Irish) + AZ (first and last letters or ‘extremists’ in the alphabet)
12   Useless half of Cava taken home
VAIN caVA (half of Cava) + IN (home)
13   Domestic academic, actually 18
CHARDONNAY CHAR (domestic) + DON (academic) + NAY (actually)
16   Source of 18 providing Tarzan’s transport
VINE A play on the fact that Tarzan used vines to move about in the forest
17   See 24 ac
18   Colour of Triumph Spitfires’s end
WINE WIN (triumph) + E (last letter or ‘end’ of Spitfire) – the gateway clue
20   18 Pastries one carries
PIESPORTER PIES (pastries) + PORTER (one who carries)
23   Food given legal test periodically
EATS Hidden in the clue – lEgAl TeSt, taking every other letter or ‘periodically’
24/17ac   18 from Switzerland, having one over the eight, upset French chef
CHENIN BLANC CH (Switzerland) + NINE (one over the eight) reversed or ‘upset’ + BLANC (French chef as in Raymond Blanc). Joyce’s favourite clue because she likes RB – Bert gave her a day’s cookery course at his hotel as a birthday present when she was 60!
26   Lines appearing near house 18
SEMILLON LL (lines) + ON (appearing) after SEMI (house). The clue doesn’t indicate the order of the various parts – just that they should be ‘near’ each other! Given that it was one of the themed clues, we didn’t struggle with this one.
27   18 Taxi heard in middle of quiet town
KABINETT Sounds like CAB (taxi) + IN + ETT (middle letters within quiET Town). We were very tempted by trying to insert Cabernet despite not being able to parse it so this one was our last one in.
28/25   18 ground I trip on repeatedly
PINOT NOIR Anagram of I TRIP ON ON ‘repeatedly’ indicates that you need ‘on’ twice (anagrind is ‘ground’)
Down
1   Extremely anxious, feline’s found during day 18
FRASCATI AS (first and last letters of AnxiouS or ‘extremely’) + CAT (feline) inside or ‘found during’ FRI (day)
2   Showing sobriety, one man’s unoccupied with head later
SOLEMNNESS SOLE (one) + MaN (middle letter removed or ‘unoccupied’) + NESS (head)
3   18 curtailed fire below where 18’s sold
BARSAC SACk (fire) with last letter removed or ‘curtailed’ below BAR (where wine is sold)
4   18 banks giving statement
ROSE Please can someone help us here? All we can think, is that it is a homophone of ROWS (banks) + SAY (giving statement?) – however, if we’re on the right track, it feels as though the clue ought to read ‘banks give statement’. On the other hand if you read the words together as in ‘rows say’ it could be heard perhaps as ‘banks giving statement’.
5   Intermittent police drink in office’s periphery, when retired
EPISODIC CID (police) + SIP (drink) in OE (first and last letters of OfficE or ‘periphery’) reversed or ‘retired’
6   18 road connects major one
ASTI ST (road) inside or ‘connecting’ AI (major road)
7   Patty’s worked up by A levels
STRATA TART’S (patty’s ) reversed or ‘worked up’ by A
14   Cunning grasping father’s divorced
APART ART (cunning) around or ‘grasping’ PA (father)
15   There’s green energy also, where 28/25 is produced
NEW ZEALAND NEW (green) + ZEAL (energy) + AND (also)
17   Cheese shop originally stocking particular confectionery
BROWNIES BRIE (cheese) + S (initial letter of shop or ‘originally’)  around or ‘stocking’ OWN (particular)
19   Web users clear about bounder, most prominent of spammers
NETROOTS NETT (clear) around or ‘about’ ROO (bounder) + S (first letter or ‘most prominent’ of spammers). A new word for us but it was very clear from the wordplay although we did check it before writing up the blog.
21   Aroused one man, wearing reflective leather
IN HEAT I + HE (man) inside or wearing TAN (leather) reversed or ‘reflective’
22   Former rock band spring up in charts again
REMAPS REM (former rock band) + SPA (spring) reversed or ‘up’
25   See 28ac
26   Gorge 23 bananas
SATE Anagram of EATS (23ac) (anagrind is ‘bananas’)

 

13 comments on “Independent 8365 / Scorpion”

  1. Thanks for the blog of this nicely themed puzzle.

    I thought ROSE might refer to Rosie Banks (author or character in Jeeves – haven’t heard of either myself) but I’m not sure. The “Rows say” idea works pretty well too.

  2. Thanks, both.

    Lovely puzzle from Scorpion. I have been known to partake of a glass or two of the fruit of the vine, so it was fun to see how many themed clues the setter managed to fit in. I failed on KABINETT – never heard of that one and couldn’t see it from the wordplay.

    For ROSE, I just took ‘giving statement’ as the homophone indicator and ROWS as the homophone. But I agree, the wine is pronounced differently. Is that within the ‘rules’?

    Are BROWNIES really confectionery? I thought they were cakes.

    CHENIN BLANC was my favourite of the themed clues this morning.

  3. Thanks for the blog, Bertandjoyce.

    I enjoyed this puzzle, and the WINE theme made some of the clues easier to solve. I particularly liked 13a & 28a, and my favourites were 11a SHIRAZ, 7d STRATA & 5d EPISODIC.

    New words for me were KABINETT, NETROOTS, PIESPORTER, BARSAC.

    I couldn’t parse 4d (last in), but your parsing seems to make sense.

  4. Nice puzzle, excellent blog.

    I was going to whinge that patties aren’t tarts but I’ve learnt they can be.

    I don’t see a particular link between pinot noir and New Zealand though.

    It is possible that banks giving statement is a clue to to the homophone of rows which, as it is unaccented as entered, is perfectly fair.

  6. I failed on KABINETT, although in retrospect I probably should have got it from the wordplay, and I also had to check that NETROOT is a proper word. I don’t think 4dn works and I entered it with a shrug. Having said that, I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.

  7. Not going to whine about 4d, just downright deceptive as really good clues should be.

    Netroots new to me, never heard of ’em, I was alerted straight away by “taxi heard” to get Kabinett.

    Nice and easy for a Tuesday, thanks B&J

  10. Thanks B&J and Scorpion. Good fun. 4d is tricky: my take was that “giving” was there for the surface, so it was “banks … statement” (homophone) = rows = ROSE. Same as sidey@4, really. The other one that held me up was 19d.

    Just off to raise a glass!

  12. MikeC@10 and sidey@4 – we’re happier with Ian SW3’s explanation as it allows for the correct way that the word is pronounced but it wasn’t our favourite clue …… or for that matter, our favourite wine!

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