Guardian 28,364 – Nutmeg

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I got through about half of this one very quickly, then slowed down somewhat for the rest. An enjoyable and high-quality puzzle as we’ve come to expect from Nutmeg, so thanks to her.

 
Across
1. POUNDED Cockney hunted down on policeman’s first beat (7)
P[oliceman] + [h]OUNDED
5. BAGS OF Many trousers briefly removed (4,2)
BAGS (old slang for trousers, as in “Oxford bags”) + OF[f] (removed)
9. IN CHAINS Entering taverns after tea, I’ll be bound (2,6)
CHA (tea) + I in INNS
10. SMILER Singular athlete, one accustomed to beam (6)
S + MILER
12. QUARTERDECKS Spaces aboard for officers‘ suits? (12)
Double definition: place for officers on a ship, and a suit is a QUARTER of a DECK of cards
15. PRONOUNCED Marked word such as we initially check with editor (10)
PRONOUN (“we” is an example) + C[heck] + ED[itor]
17. LYE Yankee cracking clue oddly rejected solution (3)
Y[ankee] in cLuE less its odd letters
19. ORC Aquatic mammal seabird caught (3)
Homophone of “auk”; ORC is a variant of Orca, the killer whale
20. LUMBERYARD Where deal may be had by mad ruler on the move? (10)
(BY MAD RULER)*, with “deal” being the wood
22. SUPERCHARGED Emotive outcome of corruption at police HQ? (12)
If corruption is found at HQ, the SUPER[intendent] might be CHARGED
26. LEPTON Particle quietly splitting gave the game away (6)
P (quietly) in LET ON
27. FOOTFALL Number of customers in time to pay for trip (8)
FOOT (pay for, as in “foot the bill”) + FALL (to trip)
28. STRODE Plodded into the Home Counties and moved on apace (6)
TROD (plodded) in SE (the Home Counties are roughly the South-east of England)
29. TADPOLE Immature swimmer bit staff (7)
TAD (a bit) POLE (staff)
Down
1. PRIG Puritan outfit under pressure (4)
P[ressure] + RIG (outfit)
2. UNCO Remarkable Scots centre missed by world heritage guardians (4)
UNesCO less its centre – the Scots word UNCO, meaning remarkable, strange, etc, crops up in crosswords from time to time, often as part of a longer word
3. DRAW UPON Make use of frame one trimmed (4,4)
DRAW UP (to frame, as e.g. a law) + ON[e]
4. DONOR Duke, working men’s benefactor (5)
D[uke] + ON (working) + OR (other ranks, men)
6. ARMADA First man from south to join a king’s fleet (6)
A R (king) + reverse of ADAM
7. SALT CELLAR Preserve place for wine dispenser at table (4,6)
SALT (to preserve) + CELLAR (place for wine)
8. FARMSTEADS Where crops may be grown after dams burst close to Paris? (10)
(AFTER DAMS)* + [pari]S
11. REVERB Tenor’s last note upset acoustic device (6)
Later letter of tenoR + reverse of BREVE (musical note, twice as long as a semibreve; it’s a historical curiosity that the longest note used in modern notation has a name that means “short”)
13. EPSOM SALTS Sailors attending course find something to keep them going (5,5)
EPSOM (race course) + SALTS (sailors) – Epsom Salts are a laxative
14. TOUCHPAPER Possible source of firing put poacher off (10)
(PUT POACHER)*
16. NAUGHT Nothing titillating? Not quite (6)
Not quite NAUGHTy
18. ARRESTED Gunners turning up refreshed, ran in (8)
Reverse of RA (Royal Artillery, gunners) + RESTED (refreshed)
21. ARNOLD Poet‘s ‘void land south of river’ (6)
ARNO (Italian river, crossed by the Ponte Vecchio in Florence) + L[an]D. The poet is Matthew Arnold, son of Dr Thomas Arnold of Rugby School
23. ROOST Sleep with sailor in bunk? (5)
OS (Ordinary Seaman) in ROT (nonsense, bunk)
24. MAYO Served up duck with potato dressing (4)
Reverse of O (zero, a duck in cricket) + YAM (the sweet potato in US usage, or another kind of edible tuber)
25. SLOE Last of pickers still to grade fruit (4)
Last letters of pickerS stilL tO gradE

90 comments on “Guardian 28,364 – Nutmeg”

  2. Super puzzle and great blog.
    Thanks for AUK/ORC I was wondering if seabird could have been Raptor with the C so you cleared that up
    Good even by Nutmeg’s standards
    Thanks again.

  3. BAGS OF saltiness here – sailors, taverns, QUARTERDECKS, ARMADA (and maybe a hint of NAUGHT-ilus?). Also aquatic creatures from TADPOLEs to ORC(a)s. And then there was ARRESTED and IN CHAINS (and imPOUNDED?) It felt like I was on the brink of discovering a really clever theme but hadn’t quite cracked it.

    Not complaining – I had ticks for lots of clues, especially SUPERCHARGED and LYE (perhaps a nod to fellow-solvers across the pond). I too wondered if EPSOM SALTS could be used as a laxative; but isn’t the reference to the soothing of sore feet? Maybe we’ve all spent a bit too much time in Paul’s company!

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  4. That was excellent! I especially enjoyed UNCO and REVERB, but the whole was lovely. Many thanks to Nutmeg and to Andrew (also for the early blog).

  6. [essexboy @5
    Mary had a little watch
    She swallowed it one day
    Now she’s taking Epsom salts
    To pass the time away.]

  7. Youngsters here used to say unco for sort of physically dorky … don’t think I’ve heard this Scots version before. And, damme, all these years I’ve been spelling the salt thing sellar as distinct from the wine cellar. But anyway, yes, a very nice Nutmeg as always, ta to her and to Andrew. Oh and I didn’t twig that a quarter deck = one suit, d’oh.

  8. Found this challenging and a dnf, looking up the particle and for the final few, using the check button. Not my day. But a great puzzle. Always though UNCO was short foe unco-ordinated, similar usage here to that in Oz as per GinF’s comment. I laughed at EPSOM SALTS. Other favs included TADPOLE and QUARTERDECKS. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  9. Nutmeg consistently delivers superb puzzles. I especially liked QUARTERDECKS, EPSOM SALTS, SUPERCHARGED, TOUCHPAPER and UNCO. LEPTON was new but fairly clued. I thought there might be a nautical theme as well but whatever, this was excellent. Ta Andrew & Nutmeg.

  11. Andrew, I think the definition for FOOTFALL includes ‘in time’.

    eb @3: more NAUGHT-iness than Naught-ilus but I like your suggested themettes. That’s three doses of EPSOM SALTS in the last month: not that long ago we were questioning what our setters were smoking as they all seemed to be using drug references. One can only assume they are now combining their efforts in a post-Festive clear out.

    Some lovely anagrams today – LUMBERYARD, FARMSTEADS and TOUCHPAPER – and the clue for QUARTERDECKS was a delightful spot by Nutmeg. I also enjoyed SUPERCHARGED and that lovely Scots word, UNCO, whilst the misleading definition of SMILER made me … grin. SLOE is an example of a short word, beautifully clued – succinct and well hidden.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

  13. revbob @12 I think Andrew’s parsing is correct: I entering INNS after CHA – a good example of Nutmeg’s meticulous cluing.

    Another excellent puzzle from Nutmeg. I had too many ticks to list them all but I’ll just mention ARNOLD – nice to see a more unusual river.

    I parsed FOOTFALL as PostMark did, after wondering what ‘in time’ was doing.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg for an enjoyable puzzle and Andrew for a blog to match.

  14. So many delightful clues to choose from. I particularly enjoyed 11, 12, 22 & 23. Thanks Nutmeg! And thanks Andrew.

  15. O ye wha are sae guid yersel,
    Sae pious and sae holy,
    Ye’ve nought to do but mark and tell
    Your neighbours fauts and folly!

    Address To The Unco Guid, Or The Rigidly Righteous

  16. It’s always a pleasure to solve Nutmeg’s puzzles, and this was no exception.

    Nice to see my home town clued again, even if it makes me go. So many good clues. I particularly enjoyed IN CHAINS, LUMBERYARD, SUPERCHARGED, FOOTFALL (as PM @11) and ROOST.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  18. Partially Nutmegged here but mostly got there in the end. Annoyed with myself for missing the old AUK/ORC chestnut but I am a coffee short of a morning having overslept after a fabulous evening of conference calls and sweet …. all else. Lockdown truly is the gift that keeps on giving but at least I have work, a roof over my head, food to eat and crosswords to solve. For these things, I count myself lucky.

    PostMark @11; They certainly are giving us a good run for our money.

    FOI was 1d, LOI 21d as a DNK on both accounts.

    Lovely surfaces which managed to drag a couple of smile out of this rather grumpy old thing this morning so for that alone it is many thanks to Nutmeg and to Andrew.

  19. A great puzzle, as everyone else has said! TADPOLE, BAGS OF and EPSOM SALTS in particular made me smile. Many thanks to N & A.

  20. A fun challenge, difficult but doable.
    Favourites: QUARTERDECKS, REVERB, EPSOM SALTS, TADPOLE, ROOST.
    Could not parse SLOE.
    New: UNCO, LEPTON, ORC = aquatic mammal (I know of Tolkien’s orcs, and I have heard of orca for ‘killer whale’).
    Thanks, B+S.

  21. I always thought UNCO meant very or excessively, as in the unco guid or excessively pious, but then I’m not a Scot so maybe it does mean remarkable.
    Didn’t know LEPTON, but Nutmeg’s impeccable cluing and knowing that particles tend to be something-ons
    got me there.
    Favourites LUMBERYARD and the lovely QUARTER DECKS.

  23. gladys @21: you’re not wrong. Very/excessively = remarkably. UNCO can be adjective, adverb or noun.

    [MB @18: I knew if someone was going to plumb the nether regions, it would be you or Penfold and he’s already given us a comic ode today.]

  24. Have never come across UNCO before, though it had to be the answer. Fiddled around for ages before I was sort of satisfied that ROOST fitted the bill for 23d. Similar experience to Andrew this morning, fast start, stalled latterly by one or two of Nutmeg’s usual tricks and surprises.

  27. Nutmeg easily ground today: half the answers yielded on first reading. Took ages to think of the right SALTS, though. Didn’t know they were laxative.

    Here lies me and my three daughters
    Brought here by taking Seidlitz waters.
    If we’d ‘a stuck to Epsom salts
    We wouldn’t be lying in these here vaults.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  28. [PostMark @23: I was wondering if I’d flush out anything, but I knew you’d bend eventually… Coat on. It’s snowing.]

  29. Excellent stuff. Stuck a few times but made it in the end with the crossing LEPTON and ARNOLD my last two in. Loved the good old MgSO4 – EPSOM SALTS – thanks to Penfold, Auriga and MaidenBartok above for the related comments.

    Thanks also to Nutmeg and Andrew

  30. Got all tied up at 27a wanting to enter FALL for time, as others say “in time” is part of the answer…
    A most enjoyable puzzle, and interesting comments. Thank you Nutmeg and Andrew.

  31. Cookie @30: I’m not sure if your ellipsis means you’re not convinced? I think FOOTFALL is customer visits over a period of given time which is why the definition element should be all of “Number of customers in time”.

  32. PostMark, yes, I am sure “in time” is part of the answer; the definition was new to me, not in my COED. Liked your comment @11!

  35. Lovely puzzle. I groaned at LUMBERYARD – less a good deal, more a bit of an old chestnut.
    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

  36. [Haggis @35: you should have been here yesterday! You were being namechecked plenty by commenters at the tail end of the blog. 😀 ]

  37. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
    Not much to add – lovely puzzle. Favourite was QUARTERDECKS. I hadn’t heard of ORC for “orca”.
    Did anyone else try UYC at 17a? Odd letters of “clue” reversed or “rejected”. Of course, there’s no such word.

  38. I normally enjoy Nutmeg and most of this puzzle was up to her usual standards, although I wasn’t mad about 21 down. The ‘ld’ part was fairly clued but there’s a lot of four letter rivers in the world to wade through before you can identify an equally unspecified poet.

    Otherwise, thanks to Andrew and Nutmeg

  39. I’m with Eileen on the river front — it’s nice to see a non-British river beside the Nile. (I can’t think of an American river that would ever be a word component — ours tend to have long Native American names like Susquehanna, or Connecticut for that matter.)

    Never heard of this meaning of FOOTFALL. I put it in but scratched my head.

    Very nice puzzle. Thank you, Nutmeg and Andrew for an entertaining blog.

  40. With a late start, out looking for that rare combination in these parts of snow and sun, I wasn’t sure I was going to finish this at a sensible time. But Nutmeg always gives you a chance, and slow and steady paid off. The only unparseable was ORC, simply because I couldn’t get away from C = caught. Doh.

    I did like the EPSOM SALTS and SUPERCHARGED. Despite being able to drop my aitches with the best of them, POUNDED was a long time coming.

  41. Quarterdecks is a very interesting one!
    Footfall: Yea. If you don’t consider ‘in time’ as a part of the definition, a part of the clue hangs loose. Thanks Postmark!
    I cracked orc but didn’t quite know how I got there! The word ‘caught’ was asking me to look for the name of a seabird sounding like orc. Didn’t get to auk!!!
    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew!

  42. [I still come up in a rash when Matthew Arnold is mentioned – O level English Literature* and “epic similes” in “Sohrab and Rustum”.
    *My least favoruite school subject; although I love reading, I don’t think I enjoyed a single book we studied over 4 years of the subject!]

  44. Nice one. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

    Minor quibbles: ‘solution’ is a very vague clue for LYE, and a yam is definitely not a potato if you’re not American, but neither stopped me from solving these clues easily. [Incidentally, the word ‘potato’ is ultimately from Taino, a pre-Colombian Caribbean language, and referred to the sweet potato – it was then adopted for the unrelated non sweet species].

    I was sure I’d seen magnesium sulfate in a puzzle recently – on checking, I found it was the Everyman in the Observer a couple of weeks ago. It does appear from time to time, usually clued by horse racing sailors!

  45. I went down so many blind alleys. PARRIED for POUNDED, ABOUT for ROOST, PRIM for PRIG. Being brought up by EPSOM racecourse, and having seen a similar clue recently didn’t help me get to EPSOM SALTS any quicker. Trailed in as an also-ran today.

  47. Gervase @44 (and Petert @45 – and we even discussed it on GD so you have no excuse! 😀 ): It was in the Independent one week earlier too. Although recently clued as you suggest,

    “Purgative from sailors in Surrey?” in the Indy &
    “Where you can bet sailors will give you a purgative” in the Everyman,

    a quick search also throws up some nice alternatives:

    “Purgative stops meals being digested” (Chifonie Guardian 27,819)
    “Purgatives sorted out males with spots” (Indy on Sunday Peter 1,443)
    “Some splats can result if solution is drunk” (Indy Eccles 10,251) and the splendid
    “They help some do business course — learner filling in exams” (Tramp Guardian 27,032)

  48. Another one to keep the spirits up. Lots of good stuff, particular favourites being EPSOM SALTS (what a nice change for sailors not to be TARS, ABs or OSs) and the gorgeous SUPERCHARGED.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  49. Defining PRIG as “Puritan” in a crossword is OK, but it seemed to us a little – shall we say? – Cavalier.

  50. Petert@46 After Little Willie I have to bring Tom Lehrer’s Irish Ballad

    About a maid I’ll sing a song,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    About a maid I’ll sing a song
    Who didn’t have her family long.
    Not only did she do them wrong,
    She did ev’ryone of them in, them in,
    She did ev’ryone of them in.

    One morning in a fit of pique,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    One morning in a fit of pique,
    She drowned her father in the creek.
    The water tasted bad for a week,
    And we had to make do with gin, with gin,
    We had to make do with gin.

    Her mother she could never stand,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    Her mother she cold never stand,
    And so a cyanide soup she planned.
    The mother died with a spoon in her hand,
    And her face in a hideous grin, a grin,
    Her face in a hideous grin.

    She set her sister’s hair on fire,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    She set her sister’s hair on fire,
    And as the smoke and flame rose high’are,
    Danced around the funeral pyre,
    Playin’ a violin, -olin,
    Playin’ a violin.

    She weighted her brother down with stones,
    Rickety-tickety-tin,
    She weighted her brother down with stones,
    And sent him off to davy jones.
    All they ever found were some bones,
    And occasional pieces of skin, of skin,
    Occasional pieces of skin.

    One day when she had nothing to do,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    One day when she had nothing to do,
    She cut her baby brother in two,
    And served him up as an irish stew,
    And invited the neighbors in, -bors in,
    Invited the neighbors in.

    And when at last the police came by,
    Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
    And when at last the police came by,
    Her little pranks she did not deny,
    To do so she would have had to lie,
    And lying, she knew, was a sin, a sin,
    Lying, she knew, was a sin.

    My tragic tale, I won’t prolong,
    Rickety-tickety-tin,
    My tragic tale I won’t prolong,
    And if you do not enjoy the song,
    You’ve yourselves to blame if it’s too long,
    You should never have let me begin, begin,
    You should never have let me begin.

  52. For millions of English speakers ORC and AUK are not homophones! Please consider all the people from Scotland, Ireland, the English Southwest and Northwest, and North America who pronounce the R in ORC!

  53. I had a similar experience to Andrew, with a reasonably pacey start, but grinding to a halt with a splash or two of white in the bottom half. (It’s those seabirds again!) Once I got the obvious anagram of ‘put poacher’ I was away again – it had only been tiredness holding me up, but it was worth it to see Test match cricket again.

    Was pleased with myself for remembering the ARNO river and the LEPTON particle. Nutmeg’s surfaces can be so smooth it is difficult to get any sort of hold on the cryptic elements. FOOTFALL was typical in this regard, and clue of the day for me, though the ‘corruption at police HQ’ ran it a close second.

    It’s strange to have to wait until comment #52 before anyone complains about the homophone!

  54. Linguist @52: The more careful setters use a formula like ‘some say’ to get over the problem of words that are not homophonic in rhotic accents. Homophones can be a trap for RP setters; ‘moor’, ‘more’ and ‘maw’ are pronounced the same these days by many speakers in most parts of England, whereas in Scotland they are all distinct.

  55. Linguist @52:…… and it isn’t just southern English speakers who merge the pronunciation of words. For many North Americans ‘marry’, ‘merry’ and ‘Mary’ are pronounced identically.

  57. Linguist @52, I’m from Norn Iron, as the natives say, so I do sympathize. I have to think in RP mode for most homonyms, and a lot of the rev. Spooner offerings as well.

  58. Thanks Andrew for explaining QUARTERDECKS, a new word for me I think and which I had to get from a wordfinder, having tried various combinations of spades, clubs etc and S…S, love the very clever 2nd definition. lots more cunning misdirection and some obscure to borderline definitions (I feel your pain Kingsley@49 and that of anyone else who had never encountered a truncated orca) so this took me a long time but was nonetheless deeply enjoyable – prizewinner (it appears in my favourite joke) my first one in LYE – and in the news after an attempted hacker poisoning of a reservoir in Florida recently. Thanks Nutmeg.

  59. Greaves @55, since we seem to be in song mode today:
    Mary Mac’s father’s making Mary Mac marry me,
    My father’s making me marry Mary Mac,
    I’m going to marry Mary for my Mary to take care of me,
    We’ll all be feeling merry when i marry Mary Mac.

  60. [Gazzh @58: I hope you’re going to tell us the joke? It doesn’t, by chance, take us back to the Black Country accent discussion of recently does it? That’s the only one I know that might fit.]

  61. I didn’t know this meaning of FOOTFALL, or the Scots word UNCO.

    I’m annoyed with myself for not realizing that “caught” was a homophone indicator in 19ac. Like Trailman, I was stuck on “caught” = C (which I think it does in some sort of sporting context), but I couldn’t see how seabird meant OR.

    By the way, ORC and AUK are not homophones for me, but I’m firmly in the camp that says that requiring homophones to be homophones for all English speakers is too strict. If they’re homophones for a large population of speakers, that’s good enough for me.

    I particularly liked the misleading definition of LUMBERYARD and the wordplay in QUARTERDECKS (which took me a long time to understand).

  62. I’m finishing earlier and earlier as time drags. I can offer the following from my favourite bothy ballad:
    “Though unco sweir I took them off
    The lassie for to please”
    I can supply the rest in the unlikely event that anyone is interested.

  63. [PostMark@60: It does, and I decided not to repeat it as I imagine that anyone who might actually get the joke has probably heard it many times before, which seems to be borne out by your post! I do semi-recollect an Aynuk and Ayli joke that I read in my Nan’s black country magazine as a kid never understood, along the lines of Q: What’s up with your kettle Aynuk? A: It doe bile! All assistance appreciated.]

  64. Since we’re all getting rather poetic, a nice bit of Burns with “unco” in it:
    What will I do gin my Hoggie die,
    My joy, my pride, my Hoggie?
    My only beast, I had nae mae,
    And vow but I was vogie.

    The lee-lang night we watch’d the fauld,
    Me and my faithfu’ doggie;
    We heard nocht but the roaring linn,
    Amang the braes sae scroggie.

    But the howlet cry’d frae the castle wa’.
    The blitter frae the boggie,
    The tod reply’d upon the hill–
    I trembled for my Hoggie.

    When day did daw, and cocks did craw,
    The morning it was foggie;
    An unco tyke lap o’er the dyke,
    And maist has killed my Hoggie.

  65. [Gazzh @63: I think you were wise. Not only might it attract the displeasure of those who might interpret it as politically incorrect, it also requires a degree of intimacy with the geography of Stourbridge.

    What kind of whale might yow catch in the cut? A bicycle whale. Boom boom!]

  66. It has been pointed out to me that there are theme words included in all but 2 of the across answers, which noone appears to have noticed unprompted.

  67. Muck @66: it’s getting a bit late in the UK – I’m about to turn in but it would be a shame if you didn’t get much response to your comment. What an intriguing spot. Chapeau indeed. To you or to whoever pointed it out. I hope some of our North American contingent pop in and follow your observation. I have browsed comments throughout the day and you’re right, no-one seems to have seen it and I certainly didn’t. Chapeau to Nutmeg too.

  71. Great crossword – the only one I couldn’t get was 2d. I lived in Scotland for many years and never heard the word unco before. Maybe its an old word not really used much

  72. Muck @66 – if I hadn’t already given up the fight, I could take this as evidence that everyone was so quick to move on to talk about anything other than the crossword that due respect was not given to its craft.

  74. Muck @66 – thank you for that! I already thought that this was a good crossword, very nicely clued, but that makes me appreciate the skill of the setter even more. I will look forward to any from Nutmeg in the future.
    And thank you also to all the contributors with the witty poetry – a fun start to the day. I always do the crosswords at least one day behind publication so that I get the most out of coming here for comments, and it was a particularly enjoyable visit today.
    Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg

  76. VW @72: I keep hoping you might find a single positive word to say about puzzles, setters, this site, other contributors…. 65 comments before Muck’s and, if you take out the several verses contributed by posters largely inspired by UNCO, the vast majority of comments are related to the puzzle. And a reasonably wide range of posters are represented here. None of whom mentioned the theme on this occasion; are you going to suggest it’s because not one of them is as interested in the purist experience as you? Assuming you spotted the theme, you could have enlightened us and then we might have spent time discussing it.

  77. Thank you Muck@66 (and your mate) for that advice and essexboy@70 for alerting me to what the theme actually was – very cleverly done and I wouldn’t have spotted it in a million years!
    alan hopkins@71 – never heard of it either although I have never lived in Scotland so hardly likely – I bunged it in from UNESCO minus the central bit once I had the U and C, and crossed my fingers. I find myself doing this quite often with trickier crosswords – and here (as usual with Nutmeg) it was clued fairly i so I got away with it. Sometimes (eg Enigmatist) there are obscurities in both definition and wordplay, and then I generally fail.

  83. Might the R in ORC, “earth radius”, belong to the theme, or the LY in LYE, “light year”, even though they are not imperial measures?

  84. Memories of those red school exercise books with all the tables of measurements on the back. 12a contains both QUART and QUARTER, but is a BAG an imperial quantity or am I missing something? I can see all the rest.

    [Why was a rod, pole or perch five and three quarter yards, and what was actually measured in rods?]

  85. PostMark @76 – my alias arises from the fact that I am usually either slow to start or slow to finish puzzles and any comments I make could give the impression that I have been asleep whilst others toiled. I was only finished with this puzzle this morning. Knowing that Nutmeg always put in a bit of extra effort, the theme was spottable, although I was probably helped by thinking rods and poles for 29a. As someone who grew up in Halesowen, I would have been delighted to join the Lye-related discussions. Your not my brother Mark are you?

  86. Van Winkle @85: that is spooky – I was born in Halesowen! And I have a brother but he lives on the Isle of Skye so you’re not he.

  87. Gladys @84, there seem to be several types of “BAG” measurements (eg, for wheat, coal, cement, apples…), perhaps that is why Nutmeg clued BAGS?

  88. Gladys @84
    Rods, chains and furlongs are parts of miles, 320, 8 and 80. Rods are used in surveying and an acre is an area 40 rods by 4 rods. Also a cricket pitch is 4 rods. A rod is 5.5 feet
    Originally it was the length of the left feet of 16 men leaving church.

  90. Oops. So it is. 5.5 yards makes more sense when you think about it: a fraction of some better known measures.

    [I did some reading and found that a lot of the older measures, some pre-dating the yard, used to vary from place to place. Eventually the length of the imperial yard was standardised and all the other lengths in use officially defined in terms of it, resulting in oddities like the 5.5 yard rod.

    Apparently square rods are still used to measure allotments. Anyway, it’s all in Wikipedia so I won’t digress any more.]

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