The usual rather mixed bag of clues from the mysterious Omnibus, with cross-references to 20 across providing a bit of a theme.
But there’s more, with a references to KIPLING’s Just-So Story The ELEPHANT’S Child, on the banks of the GREAT GREY-GREEN, GREASY LIMPOPO RIVER, with the FEVER TREES that grow there. The elephant’s child was RESCUEd from a crocodile, and in the process the UPSHOT was that his nose became a trunk. (Sorry for the SPOILERS for anyone who hasn’t read the story.)
| Across | ||||||||
| 7 | LIMPOPO | 20ac to nip out in car (7) POP (nip out, as in “I’m going to pop/nip out to the shops”) in LIMO |
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| 8 | KIPLING | Author’s copyright, say, written in artificial language lacking in use (7) IP (Intellectual Property, e.g. copyright) in KLINGON less ON (in use) |
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| 9 | SARI | Cloth sample in Mombasa rickshaw (4) Hidden in mombaSA Rickshaw |
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| 10 | HAMMERTOE | Digital discomfort caused as actor pressed remote (9) HAM (actor) + REMOTE; Chambers gives this as HAMMER-TOE, but the unhyphenated version seems to be a valid alternative |
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| 12 | GREAT | Worry after starts to get ready in August (5) First letters of Get Ready + EAT (to worry) |
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| 13 | TRADE-OFF | Rated clue quid pro quo? (5-3) TRADE OFF could be a clue to RATED |
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| 15 | WETS | Softies on the right left (4) I think this is just a cryptic definition: WETS was Mrs Thatcher’s description of those on the left wing of the right-leaning Conservative party |
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| 16 | TREES | 20ac found in 20ac in woods (5) R (river) in TEES (a river) |
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| 17 | NOVA | 20ac retired fading star (4) Reverse of AVON (river); this could equally well clue AVON. I was unhappy with “fading” as a description, but a nova is ‘a bright, apparently “new” star (hence the name) that slowly fades over weeks or months |
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| 18 | SNUGGEST | Cosiest room in pub with guest not fit for all (8) SNUG (room in a pub) + GUEST less U (fit for all, in film classifications) |
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| 20 | RIVER | Banker’s club lost its head (5) DRIVER (golf club) less its first letter |
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| 21 | ELEPHANTS | Those making trunk calls when footballer rejected by county (9) Reverse of PELE (footballer) + HANTS (Hampshire) |
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| 22 | GREY | Drab moving from black to white when on scale? (4) GREYscale images have colours varying from black to white |
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| 24 | BERSERK | Frantic when fool includes sex education (7) RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) in BERK (fool) |
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| 25 | RUPTURE | French street to get quiet routine back during break (7) P (quiet) + reverse of RUT (routine) in RUE (French street_ |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | NINA | Message hidden in alliterative passage? (4) Hidden in hiddeN IN Alliterative; as most solvers will know, a Nina is a hidden message in a crossword grid, the name originating from the American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who hid his daughter’s name in his drawings |
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| 2 | SPOILERS | Those who spread filth include source of plot revelations (8) P[lot] in SOILERS; “plot” could do double duty as part of the definition |
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| 3 | UPSHOT | Consequence of lob? (6) Double definition |
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| 4 | SIDEWAYS | How one is knocked as team trails? (8) SIDE (team) + WAYS (trails) |
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| 5 | BLITHE | Coward’s spirit thusly seen in barrel drunk by that man? (6) B (barrel, e.g. of oil) + LIT (drunk) + HE; the definition is a reference to Noel Coward’s play Blithe Spirit |
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| 6 | KNEE | Strike a blow to groin having struck backside previously? (4) The “backside” of strucK + NEE (previously, as in a maiden name) |
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| 11 | MOTH‑EATEN | Worn-out, he meant to work out (4-5) (HE MEANT TO)* |
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| 12 | GREEN | Driver’s aim is to be ecologically responsible (5) Double definition, the driver being a golfer |
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| 14 | FEVER | Passion for first under any circumstances (5) First letter of F + EVER |
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| 16 | THE SHARD | Thrashed out addition to the capital’s skyline (3,5) THRASHED |
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| 17 | NAVIGATE | Direct a neat dodge to collect interest on the street (8) VIG, short for vigorish, US slang for excessive interest, e,g, from a loan shark in (A NEAT)* – VIG was new to me: rather obscure for a daily puzzle? |
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| 19 | GREASY | Like café might be when smothered by 22 (6) AS (when) in GREY |
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| 20 | RESCUE | Sappers’ prompt relief (6) RES’ (Royal Engineers, Sappers) + CUE (prompt) |
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| 21 | EVEN | Before final curtain, First Lady will be flush (4) EVE (first lady) + [curtai]N; flush/even in the sense of level |
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| 23 | EARN | Take home note, following musical talent (4) EAR (musical talent) + N[ote] |
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I couldn’t find a reason for the extra R in BERSERK, thank you Andrew. Other than that, everything went smoothly enough. I did notice some KIPLING shenanigans going on, but not with the blogger’s clarity.
I liked RUPTURE, UPSHOT and SIDEWAYS and spotted a hidden NINA for once. (1D, not the NEEDY put back at the bottom).
Thanks Omnibus and Andrew.
Thanks Setter(s?) and blogger
Re 15a. Softies on the right left (4)
I think this is just a cryptic definition: WETS was Mrs Thatcher’s description of those on the left wing of the right-leaning Conservative party
I tried to make sense of Left to Stew (reverse of wets) as final part of clue but no luck. Otherwise the clue seems either incomplete or ‘left’ is redundant
Thanks Omnibus and Andrew
No chance of parsing KIPLING or NAVIGATE!
I don’t think the clue for WETS really works.
Favourite BLITHE for the misleading Coward.
Speaking as a golfer, it would be rather unusual (though not unprecedented) to use a driver for an approach to a green!
I ‘solved’ but could not parse 8ac, 15ac, 24ac apart from BERK = fool; the BLIT part of 5d; 6d; 17d apart from anagram of A NEAT.
New for me: HAMMERTOE.
I have not read enough Kipling to pick up on the theme – I suppose I read The Jungle Book as a child in Australia when I was growing up but that’s it.
muffin@3 – I think the clue for 12ac works if we think of the green as the ultimate aim of the golfer, rather than a (nearer) approach shot.
Wow, and not in a good way.
eg clue for GREAT: although it’s one of the clues that works cryptically, in actual English it wouldn’t pass a SATS test. And you’d think that a gateway clue like that for RIVER would have a little attention paid to it, but we are given ‘banker is club lost its head’.
Too many “Huh?” clues for me.
Michelle @4 – I don’t play golf, but surely the ultimate aim of the golfer is the hole, rather than the green?
Comment #7
I’m not overly fond of Omnibus puzzles. I miss the opportunity to get inside the setter’s head and enjoy their intellect and individuality – when I see Omnibus as the setter I mentally prepare myself for a rag-bag set of clues.
…but that’s just me!
I agree that WETS is hazy. I had the GK, but something’s not right…or left?
I forgot to mention my own hammer-toes, which my GP threatened to have removed when I was little. I don’t know if he meant it, but that was an easier clue for me than I imagine, as Michelle @4 supports, could be quite obscure for some. They’ve never caused me much digital discomfort.
muffin@3 It could be a par 3 hole, where you hope to drive onto the green. Or ‘driver’ could just be a cryptic way of saying ‘golfer’.
Mike @10
Yes, but the vast majority of par 3 holes aren’t long enough to require a driver – there would be complaints if a par 3 hole did need one!
Some courses do have par 4 holes where the big hitters do attempt to drive onto the green.
Was unable to work out WETS even after revealing the solution. Am generally no great fan of cryptic defs and this was no exception. Too riddling, and agree with others that the surface was inelegant.
Elsewhere, held myself up by entering AVON initially instead of NOVA. Most enjoyed KNEE and KIPLING, altho the former isn’t necessarily a blow to the groin.
I couldn’t parse 24 because I have never heard of RSE in terms of sex education. Surely I can’t be the only one.
Was hoping to see a Nina but nothing.
I have always assumed that the name Omnibus indicated a group of people setting – it certainly feels like it with the varying standards of the clues.
I hadn’t twigged the amount of Kipling stuff included so that was interesting.
I have seen enough American gangster films for VIG to be familiar. I try not to let my previous experience or the fifteensquared view influence how I look at a puzzle, but I did find this more so-so than Just so. I’ll be interested to see if Roz was able to guess the setter.
I rationalised WETS as “left” = “gone west”, i.e. WEST*
Maybe I’m overthinking it.
Does NINA make it into dictionaries in the crossword solver’s meaning? Just wondering.
VIG? Really? And I thought I watched enough US crime drama to have picked up most of the slang. 🤷
Are telephone trunk calls still a thing? Also just wondering.
Btw – as well as HAMMERTOE there is a digital injury known as mallet finger which came to mind first, as daughter has recently suffered one. I wonder if there’s a full toolbox of injuries?
Thanks for the blog, Andrew.
Last two in were KIPLING and SIDEWAYS, even though that very last one had to be inserted downwards. Very much a mixed bag on offer this morning, I thought. Was rather blindsided into not noticing the hidden word NINA at 1d, as the word Hidden within the clue seemed to indicate I had to look beyond that word. If you see what I’m trying to say…
muffin @11: I played in a competition with a lady golfer yesterday and she used a driver to all the par 3s, and have seen other ladies do the same on numerous occasions.
A mixed bag as already mentioned, I enjoyed TRADE-OFF, SNUGGEST, RUPTURE, BLITHE and THE SHARD. I couldn’t parse KIPLING or BERSERK and I thought ‘passage’ was the hidden indicator in NINA. The I in Rickshaw needs capitalised.
Ta Omnibus & Andrew.
I love the Just-So stories, and should have spotted the great-green greasy Limpopo River and the Elephant Child – spotted the rivers and thought they were quite heavy-handed.
RSE is a new-ish addition to the National Curriculum of England and Wales, which seems to get forgotten regularly, so I’m not surprised that parents aren’t aware of it. It’s an add-on to the 2013 Gove changes, which insisted on incredibly prescriptive academic requirements for English and maths (I had teachers crying when I showed them the stuff they were supposed to know to teach in English – fronted adverbial is in there), has a section on science and vaguely waves hands at a few more academic subjects* plus PE and totally ignored art, music and personal, social, relationship and sex education.
The RSE curriculum came in in 2019, and has been revised this month. There was an amazing PSHE qualification for year 10 & 11 (14-16 year olds), which I taught and used to call the sex and drugs course. It was phased out under the 2013 curriculum and no longer counted as a qualification from 2019 (yes, the irony). It covered healthy lifestyles, two units on careers – interviews, CVs, applying for jobs, personal finance, sex, drugs, diversity awareness, relationship (in work), personal safety, being a critical consumer.
* History has to be taught chronologically – so primary school pupils are taught from the earliest knowledge, Greek history, and up to 1066, with a local study that allows them to broaden their knowledge.
Thank you to Omnibus and Andrew.
BLITHE was good, but much of the rest was not, and WETS is pretty bad. The fact that there appears to be no single setter may be regarded by some as a challenge, but to me is just annoying. I did know VIG though, from The Sopranos and other shows about the Mafia (of course there’s no such thing, as Tony explains to Meadow).
No it’s not “just you” ARhymerOinks @8, and the phrase “rag-bag set of clues” is a apt description of the experience of dealing with Omnibus.
Being completely unable to get inside a setter’s head detracts from the fun for me, and makes for an unsatisfactory solve.
(My own thinking is that, perhaps, setting as a group is more fun for the setters…)
All my various quibbles and disagreements have already been raised, bar one: it wasn’t Noel Coward who created the term Blithe Spirit – he was quoting from Shelley’s Ode To A Skylark:
“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit,
Bird thou never wert…”
Andrew, thank you very much for the blog: I guessed a number of solutions, could only half-parse some and gave up completely with others.
Abandoned halfway through – strangely unenjoyable.
Unlike several other commentators, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Even WETS (whch was a write-in for me). Only picked up the main theme near the end when I finally solved LIMPOPO.
Thanks to Andrew muchly for the Blog, which helped me with a few tricky parsings. And thanks to all on the Omnibus.
Nee means born, not previously, although it kind of works.
I’m confused by the confusion over WETS. Seems like a good double definition to me. I guess banker makes a change from flower but both equally annoying.
I rather liked the “Softies on the right left” clue. It seems quite cleverly cryptic to my mind: “the right left” can surely be interpreted as “the Conservative left” or “the left-leaning faction of the Conservative party”; Thatcher’s term “wets” is widely remembered and has gone down in political history; and moreover “wet” appears in my Oxford Dict of English app as a noun meaning ‘a person lacking forcefulness of strength or character’.
But there was plenty not to like, unfortunately. What is “thusly” doing there?!? VIG? — really? The Crosswordspeak NINA but no Nina in the puzzle. “Like a café might be” as definition for GREASY? Er… isn’t it the SPOON that is GREASY in the idiomatic phrase? how lame is “trunk calls” in clueing ELEPHANT; “pressed” as an anagrind? KNEE=’strike a blow to the groin’ is as erroneous as THUMP=’strike a blow to the face’.
Nice blog, thanks Andrew.
Crossbar @16 I can remember when STD stood for Subscriber Trunk Dialling; now it stands for something else entirely ,,, With most landlines now converted to Digital Voice, calls are no longer routed through a local telephone exchange but through Broadband, so any last vestiges of the idea of trunk calls has pretty much vanished.
Crossbar @16 A trunk line was a line connecting exchanges, and trunk calls were just a term for calls that needed to be routed to another exchange. Probably trunk calls do still exist but now it’s all automated you never know if you are making one or not.
I thought WETS was one of the better clues although the bar wasn’t that high. I liked TRADE OFF and NINA was nicely hidden.
I didn’t know the R in RSE and had some disappointingly incorrect guesses; Real-world, Ribald, Rigorous …
Cheers A & …O
Spotted Omnibus was the setter and expected a mixed bags of brilliant and not so brilliant clues and that’s exactly what I got.
Liked KIPLING
Thanks Andrew and Omnibus
I am fond of the Kipling story, not so fond of some of the clues/answers in this puzzle. Whiffed on WETS, got the rest, but needed Andrew for some parsings.
Was reminded of the cartoon: Young man to young lady: “Do you like Kipling?” Her response: “I don’t know, I’ve never kippled!”
Like many others here, I often find Omnibus rather joyless and this was no exception. Fair? Pretty much. Fun? The jury remains out…
That being said, I have learned some new words and the existence of a Kipling story that was previously unknown to me.
Thanks Andrew for the blog, as always
I have spent a good deal of time with KIPLING’s other short fiction, which I would recommend – ‘Mary Postgate’, ‘The Gardener’, ‘Mrs Bathurst’, etc – but the Just So Stories have never entered my field of vision, so that aspect of the puzzle was completely lost on me, alas. Its presence, however, does show that there was one setter responsible for devising the core of the puzzle, so the involvement of any other setters must have been confined to non-thematic and / or crossing clues. The presence of ‘thusly’ (aaargh!) and ‘vig’ did suggest that there might be an American involvement, but how did this alleged bag of unused and miscellaneous clues come into being?
To continue Lizzie@24’s thoughts. Née means born, not previously, but it does imply previously. So for consistency, we need a dbe indicator, just as for nouns when a narrower term is used to clue a broader one.
I was sure 7a was PONTIAC, an anag of actonip. Astounded when I hit the check button!
Thanks for the blog , some good clues , HAMMERTOE was neat , RUPTURE and SNUGGEST were good constructions . I have only heard of VIG in the gambling sense .
NOVA is poor , works both ways and the definition does not work . All stars are eventually fading , the defining property of a NOVA is the unusual brightening .
Yes Peter@14 , the variation in clue quality always gives it away . I am now 5/5 and need Vlad or Philistine tomorrow .
What a lot of moaners we have on here. I was most relieved to read Hornbeam #23 as we both enjoyed the variety on clues on offer today, too. Neither of us have heard of RSE or VIG but that didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the day’s puzzle.
We come here for the parsings that we couldn’t explain and for the extras, such as Andrew provided today, that we would otherwise have missed.
Like many – I enjoyed this until I was staring at three incomplete words with all crossers where I simply couldn’t parse them.
WETS – still no idea about this one despite the blog and above comments. Had to reveal it.
BERSERK – I thought it was probably this but could not get RSE with the extra R.
NAVIGATE – never heard of VIG, but plopped in the answer anyway.
DNF because of the WETS reveal.
I had parsed 2d ‘Spoilers’ as a double definition: those who spread filth, spoil, and are therefore ‘spoilers’, with the whole of ‘source of plot revelations’ being the other definition.
I’m glad that some solvers enjoyed this, but I’m afraid I was another who was dissatisfied with the unevenness of the clues, some of which were certainly very good, but others much less so.
A collaborative puzzle need not turn out to be such a dog’s breakfast. Araucaria, Enigmatist, Paul and Shed occasionally set one together under the name of Biggles (all four had the first name John, so they were ‘we Johns’). These were very good, as I recall.
Thanks anyway to all of you, and to Andrew, of course
I enjoyed this. It helped that I was able to finish in reasonable time, albeit with a couple of checks along the way.
I agree now that we could have done without ‘thusly’, but I bunged the answer in as soon as I saw ‘Coward’s spirit’ and didn’t get round to parsing it.
Thanks to Omnibus, whoever you are, and Andrew.
Not my favourite setter either. Did like 8A KIPLING and took too long to get 6D KNEE.
Balfour@27 and ravenrider@28. I remember trunk calls well. I suspect the telephone connection would pass by most younger solvers though.
John and Di @37.
Well said, I enjoyed it too.
I wonder what’s in store tomorrow? Will Roz @36 get her wish or could we maybe have a Fed?
Didn’t get KIPLING mainly due to not knowing anything about Klingon or copyright but otherwise an ok solve with a few head-scratches due to some obscure cluing…
Like many others, I couldn’t see where the extra R in BERSERK was coming from or what “left” was doing in the clue for WETS.
I’m USAnian and know the word vigorish, but not vig. I suppose if it’s in Chambers we have to allow it. I haven’t checked my (out of date anyway) copy.
I think that the clues for both 7 across and 1 down are defective. “Nip out” may indeed mean “pop out” but it cannot mean “pop”, as the parsing requires.
And NINA is not hidden in “alliterative passage”; it is hidden in “hidden in alliterative passage”.
I seem to have enjoyed this more than most people, though I agree there are some weaknesses, including the obnoxious ‘thusly’. Didn’t know the Kipling story, so that didn’t help. While we’re on the subject of golf, there’s a course near me with a sign outside that says “Please drive slowly”, which I would have thought is terrible advice. Thanks Omnibus and Andrew.
A mixed bag of responses, never mind the clues. I can understand this, as I was underwhelmed after my own first run through which yielded only SARI, NINA and BLITHE, and some clunky clues. But having a little more time than usual KIPLING and LIMPOPO got me on my way and once I had sussed “Banker” the remainder went in smoothly with only WETS resisting. I enjoyed the cluing for TREES, UPSHOT, EARN and even GREASY, whilst SNUGGEST also meets the definition of “not fit for all”. Thanks to Andrew and it would be typical if tomorrow’s prize were to be another Omnibus
Vinny@46 , when I have a break at work I will often pop to the market , or nip out …
VIGorish is in Chambers93 but not just VIG .
By all, but certainly not for all, I’m afraid!
I failed to parse 17d although I am familiar with vig, a term borrowed from gambling (where it has a different meaning) by American loan sharks. It is often used incorrectly in books, movies, and TV shows about the mob, as the vig is an east coast term. In Chicago and west of there it is called the juice.
Anyway, I got hung up on GATE for street, as often seen in formerly Viking cities such as York, where the streets are called gates, the gates are called bars, and the bars are called pubs.
V good crossword. Didn’t know Nina was a hidden message though.