Guardian 28,509 – Soup

98 comments on “Guardian 28,509 – Soup”

1. I parsed LOGISTICS as: LOG (take note) + I + STIC(k) + S(quare). Thanks both

2. Thanks Wiggers, that makes much more sense than my version.

3. 22A. The Indian term for FENUGREEK is ‘methi’ – which can be ‘extracted’ from (so)METHI(ng).

4. Good fun. The anagrams all went in quite quickly but I wasn’t sure about several of the others – looking too hard for something more cryptic perhaps!
   I think the piece of wood in 3d is a stick, which has been cut.
   Thanks Soup and Andrew

5. What a mixture! I liked DODGES, FRUMP, NANNIED. ELIMINATE was beautifully hidden. But others were tough; I felt he was trying too hard with LOGISTICS (agree with Wiggers’s parsing). And many thanks to Spooner’s Catflap for the parsing of FENUGREEK which eluded me… I’m not used to looking for hidden words in Urdu which I then have to translate! On the whole, enjoyable, so thanks to Soup and to Andrew, especially for explaining who Mina was, and spotting the kids in 19D

6. Hi and welcome to a new setter.

   I found this easier to solve than to parse. There were 4 clus that I guessed/solved and parsed later, including 22ac & 18d which seemed like cds.

   Liked NANNIED, UPEND, and its “friend” SUSPEND.

   New: DODDER = “a widely distributed parasitic climbing plant of the convolvulus family, with leafless threadlike stems that are attached to the host plant by means of suckers.”

   I parsed 3d in the same way as Wiggers – and thanks for explaining FENUGREEK = methi

7. Re 18D it’s the last letters BEHIND actorS dramatiC landscapE drawN largE foR plaY

8. Although Fenugreek escapes me entirely so am eagerly awaiting theories…

9. [Apologies SC@3 no comments had loaded on my screen when I posted thanks for sorting that one out ]

   Also thanks Soup and Andrew

10. hello Blah @8

    Spooner’s catflap has explained Fenugreek @3

11. A few I couldn’t parse, and I spent a little time wondering if ‘WEBBID’ was a term for webbing until the meaning of ‘plot’ came to me.

    Thanks Andrew, and thanks and welcome Soup

12. Thanks Soup and Andrew
    New record – question marks against 12 answers. The explanations for most here are satisfactory, but I still can’t see SKATE = roll.
    Favourite NANNIED.

13. I too was puzzled by FENUGREEK and SCENERY so thanks Spooner’s catflap and Blah for explaining these.

    I enjoyed today’s crossword; I think GLOVE was my favourite. I didn’t know the Dodder, though I guessed it must be that, so thanks Andrew.

    And thank you and welcome Soup.

14. muffin @12 – think roller skates, not ice skates.

    Wiggers’ parsing for LOGISTICS must be the intended one, but I had something similar to Andrew, which also works: Take note (C), surrounded by (‘all about’) [‘I’ contained in (‘cut’) LOG (bit of wood) + S (square), plus TIS (‘tis = it’s)].

    Many thanks Andrew and Soup. I thought this was great fun, and now I understand FENUGREEK it’s even better. I remember the Araucaria tribute got a bit of a mauling, which wasn’t really Soup’s fault at all (the problem was the completed grid he got from Enigmatist, not the quality of the clues that Soup wrote).

    Thanks also for the link to Electrolux sucks, which led me down the rabbit hole of brand blunders (bonjour Kräpp, Mukk and Pschitt) and this delightful one I hadn’t come across before. 🙂

15. Muffin – I too was puzzled about skate=roll until Mrs Canthusus reminded me of Roller Skates. And while I’m here – thanks Blah for SCENERY which I’d read as an extended/slightly double definition. Good spot!

16. Can’t believe everyone seems to know PRONK! Was i the only one who had to look it up?! Just in case:
    INTRANSITIVE VERB
    (of a springbok or other antelope) leap in the air with an arched back and stiff legs, typically as a form of display or when threatened.

17. Took me a while to get used to the somewhat verbose style but from then on it was plain sailing but with the emphasis on plain
    SUSPEND and UPEND were cute

18. Thanks essexboy and canthusus for the SKATE explanations.

    [essexboy @14 – I used to drive a Toyota MR2. In France the model was just called a Toyota MR!]

19. This was fun. Most of those I questioned have now had some flesh put on the bones by posters eg skate and fenugreek and are better clues than I’d realised. Not sure about the Spoonerism at 4dn, doesn’t it become coat-oake? Thanks Soup for a lovely debut and Andrew for the excellent stand in blog. (Happy holidays Eileen.)

20. Chrisseville @16
    You are not alone. I had to look up PRONK.

21. A very enjoyable puzzle, this. My favourites were 14, 15, 7 and 26, and I also think the spicy clue was great now Spooner’s catflap has explained it. Thanks Andrew and Soup. I’ll be looking forward to the next serving.

22. I like EIGHTY too. Didn’t notice the score=20 initially

23. Thanks to wiggers@1 and Spooner’s catflap@3 for those two explanations. I found the top half of the puzzle very easy, but I had to think a bit more once I “moved south”.

24. Very nice first-outing from Soup! Given the setter, I was expecting something apian-themed but it was not-to-bee…

    Or not to bee, that is the question.

    FOI was Dik-dik I’m afraid and stumbled over FENUGREEK but otherwise this was a steady solve and a lot of fun.

    [essexboy @14: I’m reminded that that the Commodore PET computer was rebranded in France – ‘pet’ in French is ‘fart.’ I’m told that the ‘Vic’ suffered a similar fate because ‘vic’ is a much ruder word in France but I think this may be apocryphal. I hope not 🙂 ]

    Thanks Soup and Virtual-Eileen!

25. Very enjoyable. My favourite was ELIMINATE – a very clever hidden and a great surface. Thanks for the explanations of FENUGREEK and SCENERY which I bunged in without parsing.

    I wonder what Sil thinks about SUSPEND? (See his comment @77 on yesterday’s Brummie.) The letters of UPEND remain in the same order, with a couple of S’s added.

    Many thanks Soup and Andrew.

26. Probably should have been Monday’s offering (not a criticism). Lots of write-ins and a few knottier clues, as well as several I couldn’t parse, so thanks to Andrew.
    Looking forward to more Soup.

27. I was lucky with DODDERY as I was once walking with my gardener brother over the cliffs near the Minack theatre and the heather was covered with an infestation of the stuff. Wouldn’t have known it otherwise. [ Equally lucky to remember the joke about the difference between a Swiss admiral and a reliable vacuum cleaner, which sucks all day and never fails. ]

28. An enjoyable minestrone of a compilation by Soup today. i do hope the setter wasn’t up at five this morning as he was back in February and his mother would be much more gratified by the tone of this morning’s comments.

    Thanks to Spooner’s catflap for spotting ‘methi’ which I didn’t. Shame, as a methi gosht is my curry of choice. And now my clue of choice too. Everything else solved and parsed. I particularly liked EIGHTY and SCENERY: the first for the definition and the second for the construction. Interesting but not significant to see DODGE and FORD mirroring each other across the grid and DODDER brings back memories of a favourite childhood book, The Little Grey Men by BB.

    Thanks Soup and Andrew

29. …on the other hand, I can’t remember being in the soup trying to parse so many other clues. FENUGREEK (which I’ve always spelt with just two Es) was particularly elusively clever, so a big thank you to Spooner’s catflap, and of course Blah, Soup and Andrew for explaining them.

30. Great crossword. Thanks to various explaining FENUGREEK and SCENERY. Also, thanks to Andrew for explaining what’s the story with morning glory in 28a.

31. Thanks Andrew et al for the several that had to be bifd and were unparsed.

    I was all set to gripe about the uncryptic nature of a few clues but now see that they are really very good. FENUGREEK, SCENERY, DODDERY, NOMINATED, etc.

    essexboy @14: Thanks for the brand blunders. There’s also the Vauxhall Nova which is not going in Spanish.

    Welcome Soup, many thanks.

32. Failed to parse (of course), FENUGREEK, SUSPEND and SCENERY. Difficulty all over the place in this one: some very easy clues, and then we are expected to know about herbs in Urdu! And although the relationship is botanically correct, you would be looking at a morning glory a long time before you thought of the very different parasitic dodder: https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2019/08/30/dodder/

33. As far as brand blunders go, the Franco-American company I used to work for produced one of the first minicomputers, called the Mini 6. They changed the name for the German market.

34. muffin @ 12 – don’t know if it was a record for me but I was just behind you with question marks for 11

    JerryG @ 19 – yes I wondered that about the spoonerism.

    Thanks Soup (I think) and Andrew (needed your help a lot today)

35. Lovely solo debut for Soup.

    Lots of multi-layered clues with thanks to Andrew, SC @3 and Blah @7 for revealing some of the parsings.

    I thought ELIMINATE was really well-hidden, and I also like SUSPEND, EIGHTY and FENUGREEK, once methi became apparent.

    Thanks Soup and Andrew.

36. I needed the blog today for the parsing of SUSPEND (ok — I see that now, but I’m much in Sil’s camp; see yesterday’s Sil@77) and LOGISTICS (hmmm — a bit iffy; how does s = square?). And the comments revealed the delightful ‘methi’ in FENUGREEK and the magic in the otherwise dull painted backdrop behind actors on stage. Well I never!
    The Spoonerism is fine, I think… as long as you’re happy that ‘coat’ = ‘skin’.
    A wide range in the clues from very simple (what a Hoover does) to the very knotty LOGISTICS and in conclusion most enjoyable.

37. Hmmmm. If antelope were to ‘pronk’ according to the Soup’s semantics in 19d they’d have their hooves sticking up in the air!

38. Thanks for the blog , another new setter after Fed and very welcome.
    I did like OUTDO and EIGHTY, SCENERY is rather clever.
    A Staffordshire OATCAKE is not a biscuit and is far superior to any other.
    Chrisseville @ 16 , young lambs also pronk, it is also known as stotting which I would like to see in a crossword.

39. For some silly reason, I always get a little nervous when an apparently new setter appears. On the setter’s behalf, that is. That their first one might not quite measure up to the peculiar demands of this particular readership/solvership. I agree with Canthusus@ that this was a bit of a mixed bag debut. However, ticks for DODDERY, BLASPHEME, and TWANGIEST, though I can’t imagine using that last one very often in my day to day conversations…

40. Ronald @39 TWANGIEST – what about when your trying to explain how to tell Duane Eddy from other guitarists?

41. Agree with favourable comments about EIGHTY, FENUGREEK, ELIMINATE and SUSPEND. I learned a lot of new stuff today. Very entertaining

    Ta Andrew and Soup

42. 40@Penfold “There’s thirteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers in Nashville,,,,,,,”

43. re brand names – the Fiat Dedra didn’t sell too well on Merseyside…..

44. This was ideal for a Monday. So what with Paul in the Monday slot and Soup in the normal place for challenges….must be something to do with the silly season. Thanks all for unravelling the pronk.

45. Penfold@40 and Copmus@42…perhaps we could instigate an annual competition for the TWANGIEST geetar player on the planet.
    And on the numerical theme, should also have added EIGHTY to the list of clues that got a big tick from me too, very neat indeed…

46. (Crossposting from the Guardian page…)
    Well, it’s after noon, so I think I can post now. Hello, and thanks for the welcome.

    I was intending this to be on the easier end of things – barrelling in with an absolute sod would endear me to nobody. Perhaps it’s more Monday than Wednesday; I’ll aim for Tuesday in future, then.

    Fifteen Squared has sorted out the intended parsing for a few which people thought weren’t cryptic – they were, but the answer can be deduced from the surface, too. I don’t think that ‘It’s clever when it’s been explained to you’ is ideal – it’s like someone having to tell you how a punchline works. Noted.

    We’ll see how my next goes down – I’ve not set it yet, so I’ll take these on board.

    The original FENUGREEK clue was ‘Spice for an Indian – it’s quite something!’ but ‘quite’ wasn’t deemed enough of a containment indicator. Shame – I really liked that one.

    Oh, and referencing the Araucaria tribute, my original submission for 12a was:
    Curse upon opening puzzle – ‘Bloody monkeys! Eugh, execrable!’ and lash out (9)
    but I was gently asked to write something different…!

    There’s no reason why anyone would know it, but the final thing references a number of academics and support staff at the Department of Plant Sciences at Cambridge, where I work – HASELOFF (sort of!), WEBB, SMITH, GLOVER, DODD for academics, and DIK, DEL, ANGIE, ANNIE, HELEN (in there if you look hard enough) and KAT for support staff. Well, I’ve got to have *something* to hang words on!

    Thanks Andrew for the blog and all others for chipping in. Till next time.

47. Bravo Soup, more like this please.

48. Welcome, Soup, I hope you enjoy your new family. We’re a quirky lot, as you probably already know.

    Roz@38 “Stotty” is (I think I remember) a Northumberland word to describe certain tunes which have a jerky jumpy quality.

    I liked everybody’s favorites. Thank you, Soup and Andrew. Eileen, I hope you’re having a wonderful time.

49. Is Wednesday the new Monday? That was all good fun and a speedy solve, with (as others have pointed out ) more time spent parsing.

    So thanks all for explaining FENUGREEK and SCENERY.

    My favourite was OUTDO

    Thanks to Soup and Andrew

50. Appreciate Soup’s own insights (and in-joke – is it a theme if nobody else can see it? – nice to know these things are done).

    Also appreciated seeing an unsolicited dik-dik – the name of a surprisingly wholesome Twitter account that posts nothing but, well, you can probably guess.

51. Valentine @ 48 that makes a lot of sense, probably the same root. The lambs jump on all four legs together like they are bouncing on a trampoline.

52. Excellent puzzle. Thanks Andrew and Soup. And thanks to essexboy @14 for the link to brand blunders, hilarious reading!

53. Thanks Andrew for yet another blog – I expect you’ll be needing a holiday yourself soon at this rate. Also thanks to Blah @7 for unravelling 18d, and to SC @3 for spotting ‘methi’ (as someone who regularly cooks Indian food at home, I’m kicking myself for missing this one).

    And of course thanks, Hamish/Soup @46, for an enjoyable mental workout, and for taking the time to chip in here. One thing I appreciated today was that you’ve clearly made an effort to come up with readable, meaningful surfaces – this matters to some of us. I actually prefer your original clue for FENUGREEK – it works for me, with quite meaning ‘a little’. I probably still wouldn’t have spotted it, but that’s my fault for being not clever enough rather than your fault for being too clever.

    Ben+T @50 – “is it a theme if nobody else can see it?” – I would say yes. I would also add that I prefer themes when they’re not overt, so it’s not just a case of sussing the keyword clue and then writing in, say, all the names of trees you can think of (wonder why that example came to mind!). Much better if the clues stand alone individually and the theme becomes apparent later, giving you that satisfying penny-drop moment. Or, as here, if the theme remains obscure. I also find Soup’s reasoning behind the theme interesting – I do sometimes wonder what setters have used as their starting point when filling in a grid, especially in a case like today where there are no long answers to build it around. (This is mainly of interest to me as someone who dabbles in setting cryptic crosswords myself, in my own amateurish way.)

54. [Ben T @50 & widdersbel @53: “is it a theme if nobody else can see it?” If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is there to hear, does it make a sound? Oh – we seem to be back to trees again…]

55. Not too difficult to fill the grid, but much harder to parse everything and I failed on about five, most of which have been mentioned above. FENUGREEK is one I would never have parsed in a month of Sundays.

    Thanks to Soup for dropping in and explaining the ‘ghost’ theme. Look forward to more in the future. Thanks also to Andrew and to everyone else above who helped sort this all out.

56. MrPostMark @54 as you know the answer is yes. Sound vibrations do not care about humans or any other animals.

57. Thanks Soup for an excellent crossword (and blog post) and to Andrew for explaining what I could not parse — LOGISTICS, TWANGIEST, WEBBED (skinny joiner?), and NOMINATED. I had many favourites including HASSLE, AMUSES (loved the surface), EIGHTY (my COD) and OUTDO. Not to be contrary but this did not feel like a Monday to me — mid-week was just about right.

58. [Roz @56: Yes, I do know. And I knew you were typing that. I felt the tremors from your Chrome book thing. Not saying I’m sensitive… 😀 ]

59. [ As for themes ? Is it a theme if the setter thinks it is ? I wonder how many themes are not spotted at all ?
    In the past the themes were far more overt, often referring to one clue , as on Monday [

60. Oh, I’d usually do overt themes, if I did a theme at all – I just wanted a vanilla puzzle for my first one. Don’t want to get pigeonholed 🙂

61. Great puzzle! Like Michelle @6 I found this reasonably easy to fill in but very hard to parse. Thanks to everyone here for the clarifications – FENGREEK and SCENERY in particular. I still don’t fully follow the explanation for DIK-DIK…

62. Soup @60: just went for the savoury starter then?

63. I agree with you regarding the Staffordshire OATCAKE Roz@38. I was introduced to them in 1971 by a colleague in Birmingham with whom I often breakfasted after night shifts. His wife was from Burslem, and she made her own from her grandmother’s recipe. In a fry-up they can be wrapped around fried eggs to make an utterly wonderful sandwich !

64. Thanks to Soup and Andrew (and blah, I missed that one–the surface was too natural for me to see the hidden letters). Like many I found it easier to solve than parse, and “methi” is new to me (but when the F and G were in it wasn’t hard to figure out the spice).

    Small complaint about 29ac–when the homophone indicator is between the parts, it’s ambiguous which is the answer, and in this case filling in the first two crosslights doesn’t distinguish. So there’s no way to get 29ac without getting 20d first.

65. Quite hard work but in a good way. Some clues that are just delightful – EIGHTY, AMUSES, OUTDO. Some that are clever and prompt a bit of research – I wasn’t familiar with pronking (yes, all right, pserve_p2 @ 37, strictly if the twins were pronking they’d form a kid-kid, but this is a case where a bit of libertarian clueing is in a good cause). I wasn’t familiar with methi for FENUGREEK but now I am. And while I understand Soup’s rueful comment @ 46 that ‘it’s clever when it’s explained’ isn’t ideal, the fact that, like Andrew, I completely missed the behinds in SCENERY underlines what a superbly constructed clue it was.
    Thanks to our hitherto underemployed setter and our overworked blogger.

66. [ T.R @ 63 , Burslem is actually the true home of the oatcake and many say better than the other five towns. Cheese and bacon is traditional but anything works }

67. I quite enjoyed this, though the lower left contained three that I put in without understanding. All now explained–thanks. New to me was methi for FENUGREEK. I chuckled at OUTDO–it reminds me that when I was in the LGBT group in law school, our annual do was called the Outlaw Dance. [It had a reputation for being one of the better queer events on campus, largely because law students can afford good booze.]

    Lots of other smiles along the way. Thanks to Soup, and I look forward to the next one.

68. Really enjoyable. Thanks to S and B.

    The hoover double meaning reminded me of the joke about an unused vacuum cleaner that’s just gathering dust.

    I took roll as skate to mean skateboarding, but that’s just because skateboarding is about 12 times cooler than roller-skating. Also feels a bit roll-ier.

    And I had an amusing typo with 17A and “anuses”.

    Good stuff!

69. At last! Soup has shown himself to be a fine setter through his puzzles for the Genius and other outlets. I can’t understand why it’s taken so long for him to be given a place on the regular Guardian team. His debut more than lives up to expectations – it’s a souperb puzzle – and let’s hope we now see regular Guardian puzzles from him.

70. How nice to hear from the setter. Thank you Soup, and any chance of an explanation for the name? Im newly returned to solving so this is the first I’ve heard of you but with that cryptic solo debut, I’m sure I’m not alone in expecting great things in the future – no pressure 😉

71. Sure – my Latin teacher was a proper old-fashioned one who gave all the boys nicknames. My grandfather came from the Symington’s Soup dynasty of Market Harborough, so I was The Soup.

    Here’s what I do now: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4fgII_Z2x9c – and I also edit http://www.1across.co.uk.

72. [MarkN @68
    I spent most of the day in the Botanic Gardens in Southport. I kept seeing a girl – about 14, I would guess – who looked completely natural on roller skates. She even drank water from a glass while skating, without making it look remotely difficult!]

73. I really enjoyed this, and was able to finish it quite readily despite not seeing the wordplay in FENUGREEK. Talking of which, I’d be interested to hear what people think of the gettableness of “methi”, especially to overseas folks. It seems to require a bit more nativeness (or Urdu-ness) than British English vocabulary and idioms, which can be absorbed by reading books or watching enough movies, sitcoms and comedy panel shows, all available everywhere by streaming. Maybe it’s no different than being familiar with British Monopoly.

74. Thanks Soup – Absolutely fascinating I love the concept of a bumblebee lab. Oddly enough I’ve recently acquired a large-ish plot after many years of flats with small balconies or a tiny back yard and once I’ve finished renovating the 300 year old stone house I’m planning to grow plenty of fruit and veg and keep bees. I’ve already put aside a small area of hedgerow to be left untouched, and have planted budleias for butterflies as my tiny contribution to conservation. I shall follow the work of the plant sciences department with interest, perhaps I should keep not only honey bees but another species too?

    1 across looks interesting it’s many years since I solved an auracaria , I may well subscribe!

75. Methi is familiar to those of us who regularly cook curries. Like widdersbel, I didn’t spot it, though!

76. Yep – I didn’t spot methi, but knew it immediately when it was pointed out to me. Indian ingredients seem like a rich seam of potential. Which I welcome, because they all make me think of lovely food…

77. Blah@74: Hard to keep another species of bee, but leaving scrubby areas is good for ground-nesting bees (and some bee hotels are surprisingly good too). Honeybees are interesting – there’s quite a backlash against them at the moment, because they take forage away from wild bees. I keep three hives myself, because I like the process and I like honey and mead, but I wouldn’t keep any more. Honeybee hive numbers have doubled since the second world war – they are most definitely not in decline!

    Re the ‘methi’ debate: my criterion for including words in my puzzles is (with only a handful of exceptions!) ‘do I know it?’. If I don’t know it, it doesn’t go in. My pack of fenugreek has (‘methi’) written underneath it – I’ve thought it ‘quite something’ for a while 🙂

78. Good to have a new setter and to see their slightly different take on things. I missed the subtleties of FENUGREEK, SCENERY and EIGHTY, so thanks all. Of course, I plumped for the wrong homophone, putting CHASTE in 29, so SUSPEND was LOI (the suspense was killing me).
    Soup could also have gone for the skatier skate in 2d with “Fish slider”.
    Good fun. Thanks, Soup and Andrew.
    Presumably, it’s Nutmeg next? (from soup to… )

79. muffin @ 72: Anyone skating is cool in my opinion. And good roller-skating is a joy to watch. But boarders are definitely cooler. It’s why there’s a huge videogame franchise based on Tony Hawk (legendary skateboarder), and I couldn’t tell you who the best roller-skater in the world is.

    (It’s also why snowboarders are cooler than skiers. Skiers look like they’re going somewhere, snowboarders look like they’re having fun going nowhere. That’s so much cooler.)

80. I very rarely comment (though I lurk) but I did enjoy this puzzle, as well as the comments, and the input from Hamish/Soup. Thank you, and thanks also to Andrew.

81. Ronald@45: Please don’t call it a “geetar” – I don’t know what it is about this rendering that offers to be dismissive of the most beautiful of instruments (for me anyhoo)(there – see how annoying that is?) but “geetar” grates. Speaking of whom: surely Hank Marvin for TWANGIEST?

    The branding fauxs pas reminded me of a confectionery offered (not long ago) in a local sweetshop which was made up to look like a chocolate-covered banana (yes) and was called “Skum banan”. Delicious.

    Please Soup can we have Samoa? And thanks Andrew too.

82. Dr.WhatsOn@73: I would say that familiarity with Indian foods and ingredients like methi is likely to be found in anyone who enjoys cooking and eating curries (I don’t), and familiarity with a vast range of exotic foodstuffs is assumed of anyone who reads the Guardian food columns. It’s a rare recipe that doesn’t send me ferreting through Google to find out what (to quote a couple of recent examples) burrata and chermoula are.

83. Gladys@82 – they’re the real names of the Ugly Sisters, aren’t they?

84. A mozzarella-like soft cheese and a North African cumin-flavoured marinade, respectively. But no Guardian recipe would ever demean itself to tell you that.

85. After teaching myself, I’m now teaching MrMimi so have only just done this. Spent the morning sweating and stewing over the Araucaria tribute referred to – KILLER – so was expecting a similar ordeal. But nay! Hurray! I’m childlike so laughed like a drain at 24A, the FOI, and also at the brand boobs and ‘gathering dust’ joke above. We also have links with Minack, both the theatre and Tangye, so another frisson there. I wonder how long before Soup sets a self-referential puzzle. (Good luck with MULLIGATAWNY)
    Thank you all.

86. Alphalpha@81, didn’t intend to be at all dismissive of the guitar with that version. My favourite instrument being the electric guitar and all those legendary rock solos by the virtuosi down the years. But I promise not to use it on here again if it offends…(listening to Black Sabbath’s 13 Album at this very moment, with Tony Iommi going through the gears…). I had thought of Hank Marvin earlier too…

87. MimiBycwd@85 word play only suggestion backwards infantryman in brown study? I’ll leave a misdirected definition to the pros for that one

88. MimiBwcyd @85: (crikey, I have enough trouble remembering how many ‘c’s in scchua. Your pseudonym is a challenge to transcribe.) Probably too late now but you mention Tangye. I’ve scanned back through the blog but can’t see another mention. I’ve commended his books here before but I don’t think there was a response. Nice to encounter another who’s come across the series.

89. Well that was interesting ! Had to come here for some of the parsings, although the penny had dropped earlier about FENUGREEK/METHI after staring at the clue for five minutes or so. Proud of that one, I blame it on buying spices packaged by Rajah or East End where the packets always show the Asian names too. Thanks to Soup, and to Andrew for the blog

90. Hamish/Soup@77 Honeybees in the US are having a hard time, victims of Colony Collapse Disorder, possibly caused by pesticides. It’s a serious problem here.

91. [Valantine@90 Same in NZ due to competition from introduced wasps & more recently varroa mite. Just heard of an interesting trial using caffeine which gave bees a “buzz” & helped them remember target flowers (in that case strawberry).]

    I initially thought this was an average puzzle and wasn’t going to comment, but after giving up on today’s and reading this blog instead I now realise it’s excellent. Thanks Andrew for stepping in (Eileen must be hard-core if a holiday involves a break from crosswords) and welcome Soup for starters.

92. Delighted to see Soup as setter. He set one of those personalised crosswords for a special birthday for me. He spotted instantly that my parents’ names with one letter changed made an anagram of loggerheads. The aptness still amuses me a few years later!
    (State of George and Hilda’s disagreement after I leave?)

93. I pronked for joy at 19d which prompted an immediate 20year flashback to school when my biology teacher was too embarrassed to pronounce the name of this particular antelope in front of a class of rowdy year 8s.

94. Ronald@86: All is forgiving. Here’s a laugh for you – my favourite ever.

95. Oh, and final comment (Matt W @64 and others) – I agree that when a homophone indicator is between fodder and definition that it can often be ambiguous, which is why I really tried to make it unambiguous: ‘Followed calling with virtue’ splits out after the first word; for the grammar to work for it to be CHASTE it’d have to be ‘Calling followed with virtue’. I really try to stickle for this.

96. Couldn’t parse 22ac FENUGREEK but I was sure it couldn’t be a double definition. Thanks Spooner’s Catflap @3.

    24ac There’s someone here that thinks we shouldn’t use the second meaning of SUCKS.

    28ac: Vaguely remember stuffing dodder in school Biology, but never knew it was in the mooring glory family. Got it from def and the Y.

    29ac Homophones of equal length with the indicator between them are always tricky. I had CHASTE in for a while, till I needed the D. (I see matt w @64 has explained this already). I further see now that Soup has come on to explain why that is the wrong way to read it but for me it was: Followed [when you are] calling = with virtue.

    3dn LOGISTICS. I thought the “piece of wood” was the LOG, too. S = square? It’s not in Collins online, but I expect someone will tell me it’s in Chambers.

    Biffed 6dn, having failed to think of ‘reflected’ (even after the fact).

    I thought of SCENERY for 18dn straight away but because of the way the puzzle presents on android, it seemed to long. It was only later when I twigged it was last letters that I realized it was right after all.

    In 19dn, I realized that “twins”suggested a repetition but I don’t see why pronking is a reversal.

    Biffed 20dn as well after failing to twig that 10 referred to the other answer (der!).

    In 23dn, I think the length of the chain “zero in tennis =0=O=Oh” suggests it’s not the best clue, although I did get it.

97. Very late but hearty thanks to Andrew and gang for explaining various parts of this and my only quibble is the lack of homophone indicator for OH = LOVE as per Tony Collman above: I found it challenging but ultimately very fair and enjoyed it a lot so thanks Soup.
    By the way Tony in case it remains a mystery – Pronking (great word) = leaping straight up, as mentioned above somewhere, so in a down clue it makes sense to me that KID becomes DIK on entry in the grid.

98. Gazzh,

    “in a down clue it makes sense to me that KID becomes DIK on entry in the grid.”

    Good thinking. Apologies to Hamish.

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