A themed offering from Goliath in the FT this morning.
The preamble to this puzzle states “4 solutions from 5 are not further defined”. These 4 solutions are highlighted in the grid below, and the 5 relates to 5dn (also highlighted).
The four undefined answers were PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY & THYME, which are all mentioned in the song “Scarborough Fair”.
The rest of this puzzle was quite straightforward. After my first pass, I had already solved about 2/3 of the puzzle, including 5dn, which gave a few crosswers for the second pass.
I gave ticks to several clues (17ac, 19ac, 25ac, 28ac, 7dn and 14dn), but I did have a problem with the homophone in 26ac, which could have been clued a little better to remove my doubts, and I don’t know if I have the right answer for 3dn, as I have not come across “scooped” meaning “tired”, although it does sound possible.
Thanks, Goliath
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEASURES UP | Compiler, when given a guaranteed supper, not half cuts the mustard (8,2) |
| ME (“compiler”) when given A SURE (“guaranteed”) + SUP(per) [not half] | ||
| 7 | PUPA | Young dog with a growing insect (4) |
| PUP (“young dog”) with A | ||
| 9 | SAGE | For one, since coming back (4) |
| <=(E.G. (“for once”) + AS (“since”) [coming back] | ||
| 10 | SKATEBOARD | Urban transport puts girl with pig in empty stand (10) |
| KATE (“girl”) with BOAR (“pig”) in [empty] S(tan)D | ||
| 11 | VICTIM | Injured party with enthusiasm seen around Court 1 (6) |
| VIM (“enthusiasm”) seen around CT. (Court) + 1 | ||
| 12 | BITTERLY | Beer largely cleared out with resentment (8) |
| BITTER (“beer”) + L(argel)Y [cleared out] | ||
| 13 | ENQUIRER | One seeking answers finally made an offer to gather papers (8) |
| [finally] (mad)E (a)N (offe)R to gather QUIRE (“papers”) | ||
| 15 | ONYX | Working factors in chalcedony (4) |
| ON (“working”) + X + Y (“factors” in science) | ||
| 17 | BETA | ß-blocker essential treatment: advise commencement (4) |
| First letters [commencement] of B(locker) E(ssential) T(reatment) A(dvise) | ||
| 19 | UNLIKELY | Last item on menu by back oven – see that’s far-fetched (8) |
| [last item on] (men)U by [back] <=KILN + ELY (“see” as in diocese) | ||
| 22 | HIGH-TECH | Bared thighs on the church walls, modern and sophisticated (4-4) |
| [bared] (t)HIGH(s) on T(h)E C(hurc)H [walls] | ||
| 23 | ENTITY | Body and sense of self I’d ignored (6) |
| (id)ENTITY (“sense of self” with ID ignored) | ||
| 25 | PROMULGATE | Declare expert smuggler is hiding gun (10) |
| PRO (“expert”) + MULE (“smuggler”) is hiding GAT (“gun”) | ||
| 26 | YORE | They say you’re history (4) |
| Homophone [they say] of YOUR An old drum I keep beating, but I’d have preferred “some say” to “they say” as YORE and YOUR sound nothing alike to me as a Scotsman. | ||
| 27 | AMID | Among and in the morning papers (4) |
| AM (ante meridian, so “in the morning”) + I.D. (“papers”) | ||
| 28 | MORTADELLA | On the way back, called at Rome, partly to get a sausage (10) |
| Hidden backwards [on the way back, partly] in “cALLED AT ROMe” | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ELATION | Joy starting off telling stories (7) |
| [starting off] (r)ELATION (“telling stories”) | ||
| 3 | SPENT | Pooped and scooped? (5) |
| Doubel definition?
Not sure about this one – “pooped” and “spent” are synonyms of “tired”, but “scooped” isn’t, unless it’s a regional thing I’m unaware of. I have heard of “scooped” meaning “drunk”, but not “tired”. |
||
| 4 | ROSEMARY | Same or different, coming in really gutted (8) |
| *(same or) [anag:different] coming in R(eall)Y [gutted] | ||
| 5 | SCARBOROUGH FAIR | Mark starts to belt out rocky and light song (11,4) |
| SCAR (“mark”) + [starts to] B(elt) O(ut) + ROUGH (“rocky”) and FAIR (“light”) | ||
| 6 | PRESTO | Quickly put a bit of ricotta in the sauce (6) |
| [a bit of] R(icotta) in PESTO (“sauce”) | ||
| 7 | PHONE BOOK | Large volume of soup, with bone fragments all right (5,4) |
| PHO (Vietnamese “soup”) with *(bone) [anag:fragments] + OK (“all right”) | ||
| 8 | PARSLEY | Skinhead at the centre of discussion (7) |
| S(kin) [head] at the centre of PARLEY (“discussion”) | ||
| 14 | UNASHAMED | Brazen nude dancing round a dummy (9) |
| *(nude) [anag:dancing] around A + SHAM (“dummy”) | ||
| 16 | ALOE VERA | Sweetheart seen in a lover’s embrace alongside a plant (4,4) |
| (Sw)E(et)[heart] seen in A LOVER alongside A | ||
| 18 | EPIGRAM | Quip’s remarkable ending on farm animals (7) |
| (remarkabl)E [ending] on PIG + RAM (“farm animals”) | ||
| 20 | LATERAL | Silly mod leaving 28 sideways (7) |
| *(rtaella) [anag:silly] where RTAELLA is (mo)RTA(d)ELLA (answer to “28” across with MOD leaving) | ||
| 21 | BEDLAM | Blamed administration for chaos (6) |
| *(bedlam) [anag:administration]
Don’t think I’ve come across administration as an anagrid before, but “administer” is listed as one in Chambers Crossword Dictionary. |
||
| 24 | THYME | Your old magazine cover (5) |
| THY (“your old”) + M(agazin)E [cover] | ||
*anagram
In 3D it is not scooped meaning tired, it is a typical Goliath trick of S + COOPED = S + PENT.
Re 3D, I ended up entering “SWEPT” which could be defined as “scooped” as in “I scooped/swept up the leaves”, but like you, I could not tie it to a definition of “pooped”. It will be interesting to see the solution tomorrow.
… and I stand corrected as Hovis was typing at the same time as I was.
Took a little time because my online version didn’t have the rubric, so the penny dropped only when ROSEMARY became inevitable. But ‘Parsley, Sage…’ was the 1st album I ever bought so it all fell swiftly into place after that.
Except for SPENT, which was very much last in although I did twig the parsing before I came here.
Agreee about YOUR/YORE and indeed ‘yaw’ which are homophones down here but really annoy my Scots partner.
Still a fine puzzle, thanks to Goliath and loonapick once more.
Superb puzzle, I thought.
According to the Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, Scarborough Fair was a herring fishery that followed the cod fishery of Yarmouth Fair. Mrs G and I reckon the song is rather cryptically describing the harvest of the sea in terms of the harvest of the land.
Thanks, loonapick, for the blog and Goliath for another delightful puzzle [and the ear worm ;-)] The herbs emerged for me in the right order.
Left with 3d still to get, I wrongly plumped for SWEPT.
Thanks to Goliath and loonapick. What a surprise! With this setter and special instructions I was expecting a long struggle. I did not parse SPENT and MORTADELLA was new to me, but I got THYME, then SAGE, so that the rest followed. Lots of fun.
Great puzzle from Goliath. Started slowly but the pace quickened when I got the theme. Favorites included MEASURES UP, HIGH-TECH, and PHONE BOOK. Was a bit surprised with 16 having “lover” in the clue as well as the answer. Thanks to Hovis @1 for parsing SPENT — that’s a trick worth remembering. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.
Thanks Goliath & loonapick.
In 26 across the homophone indicator could have been chosen to meet your objection: they say means other people say, not you.
Thanks Goliath and loonapick
Nice puzzle on the easier end of this setter’s spectrum I thought – especially when the penny dropped with the themed 5d with ROSEMARY, SAGE and PARSLEY immediately following – THYME had gone in earlier.
Liked the convoluted word play of HIGH-TECH and his familiar device with SPENT.
Finished with UNLIKELY and PHONE BOOK (where it was nice to see PHO make an entry into crossword land – it remains one of my favourite Asian dishes).