Omnibus presents us with a challenge today.
I’m not a regular Guardian weekday blogger, so I did a bit of research into previous Omnibus puzzles and found they generated many comments covering a wide spectrum of views. There also seems to be a feeling that Omnibus is a group of setters rather than a single person.
I found this a difficult puzzle to crack, although once I came to write the blog, the wordplay seemed clearer than I had thought when solving the puzzle.
There is a clear theme indicated by the answer to the clue at 24/27 across. There are ten COLLECTIVE NOUNS in the grid. I had to look beyond dictionaries to track down all the NOUNS and the groups they described.
I reckon the ten are:
| Clue | Collective Noun | Describing |
| 12a | MURDER | crows |
| 26a | PACE | asses or donkeys |
| 2d | WISP | flock of snipe |
| 3d | MUSTER | peacocks |
| 4d | CLAMOUR | rooks |
| 6d | PARLIAMENT | owls |
| 15d | GAM | whales |
| 17d | POD | birds, fish, animals |
| 21d | SKEINS | wild geese in flight |
| 26d | PACK | wolves |
Some of the NOUNS like POD and PACK can apply to a wide range of creatures.
Thematic crosswords often place constraints on the words that a setter can place in a grid. Today I thought that STRIDDEN, SPRUCING and UNCIVIL were words that wouldn’t normally crop up in everyday conversation. These words were constrained by the crossing letters, although SPRUCING and UNCIVIL could have been Saracens and insipid.
I liked the surface of the clue for HABITUAL and the anagram for COLLECTIVE NOUNS.
I hadn’t really been aware of the meanings of DEEP STATE and The Blob before doing a bit of digging into the background of each phrase.
TIMBERLINE was a new word for me. I have always referred to the tree line.
The clue for PARLIAMENT could be read in more than two ways, as shown in the detailed table below where I have attributed two meanings to Chambers.
Although I found it hard, the puzzle opened up a bit of interesting reading.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 8 | It’s normal for holiday at Legoland at the outset to involve a little something for everyone (8)
HABITUAL (customary; usual; normal) HAL (first letters of [at the outset] each of Holiday, At and Legoland) containing (to involve) (A + BIT [little something] + U [classification indicating that a film is suitable for everybody to see]) H (A BIT U) AL |
| 9 | See 10
[DEEP] STATE |
| 10/9 | Spooner’s expensive rendezvous with The Blob? (4,5)
DEEP STATE (The Blob and DEEP STATE are both terms/phrases used to refer to a hidden network of unelected government workers, military leaders, or powerful groups who run a country from behind the scenes. They are said to do what they want, no matter who is elected to lead.) Reverend Spooner would pronounce DEEP STATE as STEEP (expensive) + DATE (meeting; rendezvous) DEEP [STATE] |
| 11 | I tremble in feverish place where the fuel runs out? (10)
TIMBERLINE (the upper limit of trees on a mountainside indicating the point where wood for fuel runs out) Anagram of (feverish) I TREMBLE IN TIMBERLINE* |
| 12 | Relish killing (6)
MURDER (relish, as in the phrase ‘I could MURDER an ice-cream in this heatwave’ [‘I would relish an ice-cream’]) MURDER (killing) double definition MURDER |
| 14 | Open to the elements, caps missing, air processor burned (8)
UNGLAZED (in pottery, an item not covered in a glassy coating; an item open to the elements) (lUNG [an organ of the body that acts as an air processor] + bLAZED [burned]) with each word excluding the first letter (caps missing) UNG LAZED I note that most commenters have interpreted UNGLAZED as referring to the lack of glass in the windows of a building, thereby leaving it open to the elements. I agree that is a more likely interpretation than my focus on the protection of pottery! |
| 16 | Unravel slam point (7)
DECRYPT (decode; unravel a code) DECRY (criticise as worthless; slam) + PT (point) DECRY PT |
| 18 | Mammoth setter’s crew stripped user (7)
IMMENSE (enormous; mammoth) I’M (I [the setter] AM; setter is; setter’s) + MEN (crew) + SE (letters remaining in uSEr when the outer letters U and R are removed [stripped]) IM MEN SE |
| 21 | Walked free in road house (8)
STRIDDEN (the past participle of the verb STRIDE [walk with long decisive or purposeful steps], so walked) RID (free) contained in (ST [street; road] + DEN [home; house]) ST (RID) DEN |
| 23 | Sew up ruptured uterus (6)
SUTURE (stitch up or sew up a wound) Anagram of (ruptured) UTERUS SUTURE* |
| 24/27 | Ten solutions may provide tonic with novel clues (10,5)
COLLECTIVE NOUNS (a reference to the fact that the completed crossword grid contains ten COLLECTIVE NOUNS) Anagram of (may provide) TONIC and NOVEL CLUES COLLECTIVE [NOUNS]* |
| 26 | Begging your permission, tread carefully (4)
PACE (with, or by the leave of; begging your permission to express disagreement politely) PACE (tread carefully with measured steps) double definition PACE |
| 27 | See 24
[COLLECTIVE] NOUNS |
| 28 | Local, having no cash, in the clear (8)
INNOCENT (not guilty; in the clear) INN (public house; local [drinking place]) + (O [zero; having no] + CENT [monetary unit] – having no cash) INN O CENT |
| Down | |
| 1 | Brand accepts plan backing guarantee (4,4)
MAKE SURE (put beyond doubt or risk; guarantee) MAKE (brand) containing (accepts) RUSE (plan) reversed (backing) MAK (E SUR<) E |
| 2 | Start to watch broadband supplier’s strand (4)
WISP (thin strand) W (first letter of [start to] Watch) + ISP (internet service provider; broadband provider) W ISP |
| 3 | Subsection of secret summons turned around rally (6)
MUSTER (assembly; rally) MUSTER (reversed [turned round] hidden word (subsection of] in secRET SUMmons) MUSTER< |
| 4 | One who keeps quiet before the Guardian’s outcry (7)
CLAMOUR (outcry) CLAM (very reticent person; one who keeps quiet) + OUR (belonging to the Guardian; Guardian’s) CLAM OUR |
| 5 | A female or male tennis icon? (4)
ASHE (reference Arthur ASHE [1943 – 1993], American tennis player who won threeGrand Slam Singles titles and two Grand Slam Doubles titles; male tennis icon) A + SHE (a female) A SHE |
| 6 | Chamber’s diet for those chosen (10)
PARLIAMENT (chambers) PARLIAMENT (a DIET is a national, federal, or provincial assembly, council, or PARLIAMENT) double definition You can also read the clue as a reference to Chambers Dictionary, which defines DIET as written above. PARLIAMENT |
| 7 | Late meeting of party in bishop’s office (6)
SEANCE (a session or meeting of psychical researchers or spiritualists for the purpose of trying to contact the spirits of the dead [late people] or promote supernatural manifestations; late meeting) ANC (African National Congress, a political party in South Africa) contained in (in) SEE (the office of a bishop) SE (ANC) E |
| 13 | Thwart fickle rule in gear shift? (10)
DERAILLEUR (a variable bicycle gear depending on a mechanism by means of which the chain can be transferred from one sprocket wheel to another of different size; gear shift) DERAIL (impede; thwart) + an anagram of (fickle) RULE DERAIL LEUR* |
| 15 | Sport cut short leg (3)
GAM (a human leg) GAMe (sport) excluding the final letter (cut short) E GAM |
| 17 | Hope to God every third letter appears in books made to order (3)
POD (a reference to Print On Demand, which is a means of printing a book to order) POD (every third letter of hoPe tO goD) POD |
| 19 | Smartening up University College in April and May (8)
SPRUCING (smartening up) UC (University College) contained in (in) SPRING (the season including April and May) SPR (UC) ING |
| 20 | Offensive in the armed forces? (7)
UNCIVIL (discourteous; offensive) UN– [not] + CIVIL (not military) interpreted as a double negative [not not military = military = in the armed forces] UN CIVIL |
| 22 | Some leaderless after god proving hard to please (6)
THORNY (troublesome; difficult; hard to please) THOR (Norse God of thunder) + aNY (some) excluding the first letter (leaderless) A THOR NY |
| 23 | Ask Einstein to include networks (6)
SKEINS (webs; networks) SKEINS (hidden word in [to include] aSK EINStein) SKEINS |
| 25 | Whack the top guy and stay mum (4)
COSH (hit with a blunt weapon; whack) CO (Commanding Officer; top guy) + SH (be quiet; stay mum) CO SH |
| 26 | Wild Bunch get ready to hit the road (4)
PACK (bunch of wild animals; wild bunch) PACK (place items in a suitcase before travel; get ready to hit the road) double definition PACK |
Oof. I like the theme idea but I found this really hard. Definitely not on the setter’s (or perhaps setters’) wavelength today.
Thanks for the blog, I had lots of bung-and-shrugs that still needed parsing and a few still incomplete but it ended up in the no-longer-fun basket.
This really made me appreciate the high quality of the other Guardian setters
Cheers D&O
Ps: I assumed UNGLAZED referred to a building without windows
Agree with blogger and both above commenters
Too many stretches and not enough ticks
Omnibus always seems to me to be showing off; prioritising cleverness over good cluing
Didn’t help that I wrote in Borg [B(oy) or G(irl) for the tennis icon]
But still a good mental workout for the morning
Thanks blogger and setter
Agree with all the above. Couldn’t make it, albeit there are a few entries that I enjoyed, like DECRYPT and MAKE SURE. Thanks Omnibus and Duncan
I liked the puzzle. Omnibus generates a range of comments but I didn’t think this was too hard or conceited in any way. I think it’s an improvement. I liked the thematic touch although I left the indicator clue until last. Liked MURDER because it came to mind immediately, and PARLIAMENT. Thanks duncan and Omnibus.
Life too short.
bodycheetah @3
I assume that what you mean is a window without glass; anyway, that is the meaning I took for the clue.
Thorny/hard to please, den/house in whose world or dictionary? Pace is a preposition in that sense. Is it too much effort to write a clue that gives it as a preposition instead of a ballpark muddle?
So typically poor.
I agree with bodycheetah @2
Not much fun to be had here.
I found this hard and had to resort to some guessing and checking. It was nice to see that old crossword favourite ASHE (good clue). PACK got a tick for a great surface referencing the Peckinpah film.
Re DERAILLEUR: apparently back in the sixties Ginger Baker announced to his bandmates in Cream that his new bike had “Disraeli gears”, and that became the title of their next album.
Thanks to Omnibus, and to duncanshiell for an excellent blog.
I felt a bit wispy under the cosh but mustered enough strength to decrypt this thorny clutch of clues.
Thanks to Omnibus and Duncan
About halfway through I decided (like khayyam@1) to leave this in the No Longer Fun basket and go and do Goliath instead (who definitely doesn’t belong there).
I took UNGLAZED to refer to a window, and didn’t know the Print On Demand abbreviation. Quite liked MURDER, SEANCE and TIMBERLINE.
Thanks to duncanshiell for a very good blog.
gladys @14 just beat me to it in recommending Goliath. (We haven’t had a Philistine for seven weeks.)
https://www.ft.com/content/b6cc2873-e8fe-459e-8a12-cb18b12243d4
17d: TO doesn’t have a third letter!
Enjoyed the blog more than the crossword. Not a good sign, really.
I also took UNGLAZED as a reference to windows.
17d: It’s every third letter of the whole phrase, not of each word.
I’d have thought pod, gam, murder and pack should’ve alerted the aging ginf brain, but no … dim! Quite enjoyed it anyway, ta both.
Years ago pressure from fifteensquared comments persuaded Rufus to drop a particular grid he favoured but no one else liked. Isn’t it time for a similar fate for omnibus?
I gave up, but thanks to duncanshield for the explanations.
I didn’t enjoy this, not least because I loathe collective nouns. They serve no useful purpose that I can see other than to encourage pedantry and those who wish to feel (unjustifiably) superior to others. And who determines them anyway?! (Rant over).
I agree with James @9 about the dodgy definitions. But I appreciated the well laid-out blog – thanks, Duncan.
PeterO @8 it panes me to say it but you are correct 🙂
Tedious stuff, though I liked the anagram for COLLECTIVE NOUNS. 26a doesn’t seem to me to be a dd, as the two readings of PACE are actually different words with different pronunciations, not alternative definitions of the same word.
Quite tough with an unfriendly grid not making life any easier. Agree with others that UNGLAZED is implying a lack of windows. Thanks to D for the excellent blog.
Thanks for the blog , well I enjoyed it but I do like a nuclear theme .
UNGLAZED was clever , DEEP STATE a neat Spoonerism , DECRYPT and UNCIVIL concise and tricky .
Not keen on MAKE SURE , with make in the answer and going round , not wrong but a bit clumsy .
We also have a deCRYPT of crossword sovers , copyright MrEssexboy , I do miss his comments and PDM .
A nice idea but not executed particuarly well
For a Wed puzzle it maybe could have included some subtle instructions
Alas I suspect Ominbus is a case of pass the parcel
I got stuck on STRIDDEN and its crosser UNCIVIL , but otherwise didn’t find this too hard. But I’m a fan of collective nouns, so PARLIAMENT and MURDER tipped me off. Thanks duncanshiell and that mysterious blob, Omnibus.
I always hesitate to offer negative reviews (don’t I?) on the basis that the setter has done something that I w/couldn’t do with the intention of offering an entertainment and distraction from the woes of life. And such negativity is very much ad hominem and so to be avoided. But there seems to be a consensus that Omnibus is a collective noun for setters, an omnibus which must surely be mustered by the editor and perhaps presented with a completed grid for which they must provide clues. That this process should result in such poor reviews is surely a reflection on the process itself.
Apart from that UNGLAZED is just about as bad a clue as I can recall, with a (very) watery definition and the requirement to be visited by two separate divine inspirations for (l)UNG (for which a cryptic definition) and (b)LAZED both requiring subtractions and, to me, a subtraction represents the nadir of devices available to setters. THORNY uses a similar schema which requires us to equate ‘some’ with ‘any’ – I’d be glad to be offered an example of their equivalence: anybody? somebody?
Can you write a comment without some/any quibbles ?
Clearly I am in a minority today , it is usually the other way round and I am complaining . The clues must suit me , I like subtractions , I also got the long anagram without any letters or definition which is inordinately pleasing for me .
I also like this type of nuclear theme which does not involve any/some jumping around and does not affect the relevant clues .
Chris @21: I agree wholeheartedly. Most alleged collective nouns seem to be entirely arbitrary and found in the wild only in pub quizzes, or as crossword regulars for their ease of misdirection (parliament, murder). There is no sensible reason for unique collective nouns for particular species of birds to exist, let alone birds specifically in flight. Who has ever said out loud “Look up there, a skein of geese”?
I second (third?) those unhappy with Omnibus as a setter or setters. It feels like an experiment that has run its course and should be retired while the adverb “gracefully” can still be applied.
I don’t know if I’m alone in this but I have never heard of “the Blob” as a synonym of the Deep State. Perhaps I don’t swim in sufficiently conspiracy-minded pools.
I don’t criticise either. And I finished it. Albeit with a few unparsed. But it wasn’t much fun, and curiously unsatisfying. Two mornings a week I am treated to a fresh croissant from the bakery in town with my breakfast coffee. Some mornings they are wonderful – light and crispy with a lovely buttery taste. Other days they are dry and tasteless. I feel that way about today’s puzzle. Thanks for the blog though. It cleared up a number of, some actually quite obvious, parsings.
I liked it. Challenging, but on the whole rewarding. For what it’s worth, I think PARLIAMENT is a triple definition- “chambers”, “diet” and “those chosen”. Thanks Omnibus for the mental workout, and duncanshiell for the excellent blog
I didn’t really enjoy this. Ticks for HABITUAL, SEANCE and PACK but I was frustrated by my total inability to parse PARLIAMENT or UNGLAZED, and STRIDDEN is a word I have never seen before and fervently hope never to see again. Thanks indeed to duncanshiell for the excellent blog.
Chris @21 and Jacob @31 I agree too. Perhaps some collective nouns have traditional sources, but most feel like somebody has invented them for some reason. Much like cockney rhyming slag I suspect, some of that feels like it’s just for the benefit of visitors.
Many collective nouns, such as ‘murder of crows’ are first recorded in the ‘book of St Albans’, first published in 1486, so they are hardly a recent invention. When they were first invented, hunting and gathering was a significant part of everyday life, and descriptions of groups of animals was an essential part of that activity.
I thought the anagram at 24/27 was a generous introduction and hint to the main theme of some of today’s puzzle. And this helped with several clues therefore. But I got rather bogged down towards the end in the SW corner with the likes of DERAILLEUR, DECRYPT, STRIDDEN and loi UNCIVIL.
Though I did enjoy this quite a bit more than some of the previous Omnibus cryptics…
I’m another in the minority camp of liking this puzzle. I’m always a sucker for a theme like this.
(This is the second Omnibus in a row with linked solutions, which to me would seem to lessen the likelihood of it being a compilation of setters – if that’s the correct collective noun.)
…and one of my favourite collective nouns to be discovered here today with SKEINS (of geese flying in the sky)..
Jacob @31 – I do say – look, a skein (or gaggle) of geese. I also have a sweatshirt which has a slogan that says “easily distracted by birds” bought by an irritated family member. But you may enjoy David Crystal on collective nouns here.
Thank you for the blog, Duncan, and Omnibus for the puzzle.
I slowed things down a lot by mistyping SKEINS and thinking that what turned out to be COLLECTIVE ended I-I and that I was seeking some kind of illuminati alternative as referred to in 10.
Matthew @4 We had ASHE in the FT last week with an identical clue, and I actually commented that Borg would have made a reasonable fit.
On 22D I initially had a part of leaDERship after Pan (god) for pander – to please. I was getting desperate by that point as I still hadn’t sorted out my SKEIN issue.
I found this hard, but it was partly self-imposed so I’m not sure how hard.
With the key solution going in next to last, I was nowhere near seeing the theme.
Thanks Omnibus and Duncan.
I think I’m just lucky that I never feel a need to criticise others’ ingenuity, so for me, a great puzzle with a gettable theme from the lovely anagram – what’s not to like. Parsed UNGLAZED as bodycheetah @3.
Roz @26: I also miss essexboy’s pithy comments.
Ta Omnibus & duncanshiell.
Just about OK – but a bit too tricky for my liking.
James #9 – 26ac. was probably my favourite clue. Surely, suggesting PACE has to be flagged as a preposition is the antithesis of clever crossword clueing.
On the other hand… I don’t like MURDER as a direct synonym of RELISH because it is only has this meaning with the specific modal “could”. Also, mildly dislike COLLECTIVE NOUNS – just because to parse it strictly you have to get and then count 10 other clues – but it was a (fairly) straightforward anagram easily soluble with a few crossers and then helped on other clues. I have to tip my hat to the misdirection, though. I spent time trying to work out what the solution it had to do with either 10ac. or the number 10!
Brilliant blog, thanks Duncan.
I don’t get uncivil 🙁
There are military personnel and there are civilians. So if you are in the military, you are UNCIVIL, which also means rude or offensive.
Mixed bag for me, and very slow.
TIMBERLINE was quite familiar to me, maybe it’s American. UNGLAZED suggested doughnuts — maybe that’s American too. I’d never have parsed it, or UNCRYPTED either.
nho Print on Demand.
I’ve never seen STRIDDEN anywhere, though apparently it really is the past participle of stride. But it’s hard to think of using that verb in the perfect tense, when would you do ?it? “He hasn’t stridden in like that before”?
Nobody commenting on PARLIAMENT’s definition has mentioned the Diet of Worms, so I’ll do it.
Did anybody else try INCH in 24ac when they had _ _ C_?
Arthur Ashe was the first African American man to win at Wimbledon, though not the first African American — that was Althea Gibson a generation earlier.
Eileen, I tried to print the Goliath puzzle in the FT, but all ctrl-P wanted to show me was a blank page. Is there a trick to it?
Thanks, Omnibus (whoever you are) and duncanshiell with a sigh of relief.
Loved this one, and truly appreciated the meticulous and detailed blog!
Thanks both!
AlanC@43 , a bit of Setter’s Name Syndrome I think , Anto used to get this . I can think of several setters who would get lots of praise for this .
An interesting experiment would have the Guardian not showing setter’s names each day , just a weekly list on Saturday . See how people react to the puzzle itself .
thanks, duncanshiell. don’t envy you for this task.
Shanne@41 Thank you for the David Crystal article, which I really enjoyed and I think essexboy would have, too. It’s easy to get into a mindset with setters. Although tricky, I felt this was better than some previous Omnibus offerings.
Like the majority, I found this joyless. At least if it was a bit easier it would have sucked the pleasure out of life for less time. What is the collective noun for dementors? As far as I’m aware, owls are solitary birds so I don’t know why they have a collective noun, but I’m not blaming it on the setter(s).
I didn’t like this one. It took me ages, and there were some dodgy definitions. Also, 1d Make Sure. Really?
I’m also in the minority camp here, as I love collective nouns. I was wondering about the possibility of the theme after entering SKEINS (FOI), confirmed by solving the long anagram quite early on. I enjoyed the hunt for the rest after that. I didn’t suspect PACE as a themer, so I Googled SEANCE which sounded like a possibility for number 10 to me but obviously found no evidence for it as a collective noun. Pity: a seance of spiritualists sounds rather good.
Failed to finish the last few. DEEP STATE as a meaning of The Blob was unknown. I was looking for something to do with the old Steve McQueen film, which has a local connection here is Pennsylvania. Missed UNCIVIL and MAKE SURE as well, but both seem fine after reading the blog.
Favourite was DERAILLEUR for the pleasingly meaningless surface.
Most enjoyable.
Thanks, Omni and duncan.
I ended up revealing the last third as it just wasn’t much fun and didn’t seem like it was going to be solvable for me. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
Really hard, but I enjoy a serious tussle and don’t really mind if I don’t finish provided I enjoyed the fight. Got everything in the end except for UNCIVIL. So like Roz and phitonelly, I’m definitely in the minority camp. Thanks to O & D.
Hi Valentine @48
My apologies for the delay – I’ve been out, away from my laptop.
If there is a trick, I don’t know it! I’ve just tried the link and it worked for me again. Scroll down to ‘Download crossword’, to print it, or down to the bottom of the page for the interactive version.
DaveF@43 The owl collective I think was suggested by Chaucer’s poem The Parliament of Fowls (Parlement of Foules).
Too hard to be enjoyable for me, and having seen the excellent blog I realise I would never have finished it.
Roll on Thursday.
Roz@50 , I like that idea ( at least as an experiment , as you suggest ) .
Neither finished nor enjoyed. I thought ‘The Blob’ referred to the seemingly intransigent higher echelons of the British Civil Service not the more American concept of the ‘Deep State’?
I didn’t bother to finish, leaving the SW blank. Last straw was never having heard of The Blob. Isn’t PACE in this sense unindicated Latin?
I won’t bother with Omnibus next time he/she/they appear.
Message to Guardian: please do not do that to me again
Surprised to see the extent of the skewering to poor Omnibus! It’s hard to disagree with Roz@50.
I was bested by the skein (lovely word!) of difficult words in the SW. DECRYPT my tick for the day for the brevity.
I also enjoyed Alphalpha@29’s description of the “divine inspiration” cluing. I’ll be thinking of that post next time a similar clue comes up.
Thank you to Omnibus and duncanshiell.
As an ex-teacher, the Blob for me was Education Secretary Michael Gove’s unappreciative description of all those trying to implement his often impossible demands.
Couldn’t finish it but I enjoyed what I could.
I missed WISP because I couldn’t see beyond EE as boradband supplier.
Really liked SEANCE once I remembered ANC is a party beloved of setters.
Thanks to Omnibus and duncanshiel.
The Blob was a term widely used by Michael Gove as Education Secretary from 2010 , it referred to the educational establishment being resistant to change , a sort of DEEP STATE of civil servants , universities , teachers and their unions who run things and ignore government policy . Both terms can have other meanings depending on the country .
I see Zoot@66 has beaten me but I will leave the extra detail .
[ Jay@61 , I play guess the setter one week each month just by folding my paper carefully , would be more fun with everyone joining in and reduce the bias in the comments . ]
Valentine @59 – did you see mine @58??
Tnanks for an excellent blog, Duncan, I wouldn’t have parsed some of those in a week.
I never get on the wavelength of Omnibus, I wonder if that’s because of the rumoured collaboration. But I couldn’t set a crossword, so thanks to them.
Not sure what the fuss is about. I found this an enjoyable crossword, particularly after getting COLLECTIVE NOUNS. Am familiar with “The Blob” but had forgotten about Michael Gove (a blissful state); I assumed I’d heard it from Liz Truss or Trump or their supporters. I’d never heard of DERAILLEUR though & had to construct it from the wordplay.
I suspect there is an element of facetiousness in the elaborate array of collective nouns for birds.
Thanks for all the comments on the blog. Given the number of people saying that UNGLAZED at 14 across is referring to the lack of glass in the windows of a building, allowing the wind and rain to penetrate, I have updated the detailed table in the blog. I agree that the comments describe a better interpretation of the entry.
I found this puzzle hard, but there are six cryptic crosswords a week in The Guardian, plus a few Jumbos, giving well over 300 puzzles a year, so it is likely there will always be puzzles that some solvers don’t like. I enjoy the variety of clues produced by different setters in the range of publications covered by fifteensquared.
Found this difficult as others have commented, and disliked some a lot (MAKE SURE, UNGLAZED). But the blog is great and the comments also – especially DuncT @39 with his compilation of setters. Clearly the correct collective noun.
I never remember to check who the setter is until well into the crossword. Then, when bamboozled, I might look at it and say – ah, it’s an Imogen or something similar (i am never on Imogen’s wavelength!). But I agree with Roz that a Saturday list would be fun.
Roz @50: I know you play that game and I may try it once in a while. Anto especially got battered and I was always an early champion because he bucked the rules, and now I hardly hear a quibble about his fabulous puzzles. I can be as critical but I’ll stick with the enjoyable feeling of completing these puzzles and not letting the usual suspects try to drag me and everyone else down.
Gave up, realising I wasn’t enjoying myself. Looking at the blog (for which, thanks as ever), I’m glad I did.
Late to comment because I had to return to this and slog away. I did learn something from PACE as I had always thought it simply meant ‘according to’ without any sense of being in disagreement. A dnf from me as I had entered PICK initially and was pulled up short by the check button. I wondered if we were going to get a tip off about the possible multiple setters in IMMENSE but of course it just ground dully on. That would have made me laugh and actually like the puzzle. A thumbs down from me I’m afraid.
Solved, parsed (eventually), not enjoyed. Even after 50 years I can’t adequately explain why some puzzles work for me and others don’t. This one didn’t. Never mind, the hits greatly outnumber the misses.
Loved the Goliath puzzle in the FT. Finished this one, but did not enjoy it.
Jacob@31. I don’t know much about birds and their behaviour but the local Canada geese definitely seem to be up to something. When a group of them flew over yesterday evening, I said to my wife “Odd, that’s the second skein I’ve seen today. They’re definitely up to something.” So, I’m with Shanne@41
Dave F@53: I guess an azkaban, or a despair, would do. Here, I’ve just invented two more useless collective nouns 🙂
Alot of whingeing from people because it was challenging.? …surely that is missing the point of a cryptic crossword. If we could always finish easily, where wiuld be the point in that. Sometimes you wont be able to finish without help – that means you will have learnt something new, or seen a word in a different way…thank you to Omnibus and all the excellent guardian setters.
Muffin@63 – I don’t see why PACE needs to be indicated as Latin. It’s used in English sentences just as ‘bona fide’ or ‘fait accompli’ might be.
Not a fan of this one although some good points. I felt it relied on obscurity too much. Never seen pace used in this way and couldn’t fine any such references so didn’t put it in.
Nothing wrong with sprucing or uncivil, but I agree stridden was a bit of an unusual word
Muffin@63 and TitusCarus@83. I find that solvers are implicitly assumed to have a bit of Latin, and sometimes French, without any indication of the foreignness. It can be tricky for someone who did not go to school in the UK, and so has only a bit of the former and none of the latter. Alas.
So I would say that unindicated Latinisms are the norm, and French ones not uncommon. Unindicated Americanisms are, of course, beyond the pale.
The suggestion about blind solving and setter name bias is interesting. I had not been party to previous Omnibus discussions here and so didn’t go in with any particular expectations other than a fairly standard puzzle. I take the point that the setter’s name does sometimes invoke certain expectations, but I think this is a feature and not a bug — much more interesting than anonymous puzzles.
I’m absolutely not having MURDER = RELISH. “I could murder a steak” means “I could devour a steak”. They just don’t mean the same thing at all. In general I found this a rather strained puzzle.
SW a completely closed book. I spent a good part of the afternoon with it, in a doctor’s waiting room, and it refused to budge. Knew there would be a theme, but couldn’t see it. Thanks duncanshiell for clarifying all
Happy for Roz today!
Thanks for the lovely clear blog.
The puzzle was a bit beyond me in places.
Found it , 25/8/21 also a Wednesday , a collective nouns theme by Brummie , I missed the theme according to my diary , it was a ghost theme and included my quark . I wonder if it got a lot of praise on here ??
AlanC@75 , I liked Anto from the start but I know from comments on here that he also set the Quiptic and maybe a bit of a stretch sometimes and maybe that affected the views of some .
Thanks Mig@88 , back in the Dark Ages the two hard puzzles nearly always on a Saturday and Wednesday and that always suited me .
Well, I enjoyed this rather more than previous Omnibus puzzles.
On my snack-based hardness scale between cheese puffs and pork scratchings, I’d put this at dry-roasted peanuts, but rising to sourdough toast crusts for the SW corner.
Thanks one and all.
PS, I’m surprised that the theme didn’t trigger the happy, while-away-the-weary-minute pastime of inventing collective nouns for different stripes of human beings e.g. vegans, joggers, police, St. John’s Ambulance volunteers, etc.
Roz @90 – I like Anto when he’s in the cryptic slot, when I really enjoy his quirky cluing as a solver. However, he’s a regular in the Quiptic slot and I’m not the only blogger who doesn’t find him a good fit there.
Etu @92 – I linked to David Crystal discussing just that
6 went in easily as I was reminded of the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire held in 1521, which caused much mirth in my O level history class.
Thanks Shanne@93 , I never see the Quiptic but comments appear in the normal blogs about Quiptics from Anto . I also like his cryptic puzzles but I suppose the Quiptic needs a different style .
Roz@90, Found the Brummie puzzle with the collective-noun theme (28,533, 2021-08-25). Seems to have gone over well on the blog
Puzzle
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28533
Blog
https://fifteensquared.net/2021/08/25/guardian-cryptic-28533-by-brummie/
Well done Mig@96 , those using primitive technology can know find it . Another case of SNS .
Thanks for doing the blog. I liked this, challenging enough to fill 2 bus journeys and some!
Roz@97 Okay, I’ll bite. Some Need Signposts? Sorry, Not Sorry?
Mig@99 , see me @50 , exactly halfway .
Got it! Pay attention Mig! 🙂
I was with Mig @88, getting absolutely nowhere in the SW. In desperation I pressed the Reveal button for the first time ever (not that I haven’t ‘cheated’ in every other way possible, over the few weeks I’ve been doing these) to get 24 & 27, which gave me enough crossers to get through the rest. Overall there were quite a few still unparsed, or only partly so, until I came here—my thanks to duncanshiell! I’m not good at spotting themes, unless they’re dragged under my nose by numerous cross-referenced clues, and have (so far at least) little appreciation of the setters’ distinct styles or “wavelengths”.