Last time I blogged an Omnibus puzzle (speculated to be a compilation from multiple setters) I found some of the clues a bit clunky, but this one seems a lot smoother. Thanks to Omnibus.
I’m currently on holiday in the Highlands (looking out at Ullapool harbour as I write this) and about to head for the hills while the weather holds, so won’t be able to reply to comments or fix errors till this evening.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8 | GOAL AREA | Indian resort put on a real spread for poacher’s hunting ground? (4,4) GOA + (A REAL)* – to poach is (I learn) “to lurk around the opposing team’s penalty are in the hope of scoring an opportunist goal” |
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| 9 | HEATH | Scrub part of moustache at hairdresser (5) Hidden I moustacHE AT Hairdresser |
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| 10 | BALD | Left in spa, smooth as a baby’s bottom (4) L in BAD (German “bath”, as used in the name of spa towns) |
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| 11 | FUNCTIONAL | Following rubdown with oil – everything not quite working (10) F + UNCTION (ceremonial application of oil) + AL[l] |
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| 12 | CLEAVE | Quit following Cameron’s first split (6) C[ameron] + LEAVE (quit) |
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| 14 | NEWSROOM | Owners developed mantra for those who produce history’s first draft (8) OWNERS* + OM (meditator’s mantra) |
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| 16 | AWESOME | How lovely! Cute! At last, it follows that setter’s wonderful (7) AW (how lovely!) + [cut]E + SO (it follows) + ME (the setter) |
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| 18 | INSTILS | Promotes risk of unprotected sex in one library in Edinburgh (7) STI (sexually-transmitted infection, a risk of unprotected sex) in 1 NLS (National Library of Scotland) |
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| 21 | BEHEMOTH | It’s monstrous if that man is preceding one drawn to light (8) BE HE (if that man is) + MOTH (one drawn to light) |
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| 23 | RESIZE | Make bigger or smaller resolution? Checks out on the radio (6) RES[olution] + IZE (homophone of “eyes”, checks out) |
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| 24 | TOOTHCOMBS | The first hot combos bent picks (10) T[he] + (HOT COMBOS)* |
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| 26 | LYRE | Harp on after lady loses heart (4) L[ad]Y + RE (on, about) |
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| 27 | STONE | Symbol of intention to marry sent back by the-love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name (5) Reverse hidden in ..darE-NOT-Speak.. |
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| 28 | EARLIEST | First-rate novel includes things that are untrue (8) Lift-and separate: LIES in RATE* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | BONAR LAW | Andrew, once at Number 10, managed comeback after box office passed bill (5,3) B[ox] O[ffice] + reverse of RAN (managed) + LAW (a bill that has been passed). Andrew Bonar Law was briefly PM in 1922-1923, though not as briefly as 19d |
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| 2 | GLAD | Happy to gallivant, swallowing drop of LSD (4) L[SD} in GAD |
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| 3 | TRIFLE | Zuppa inglese non è niente? (6) A trifle is ‘not nothing” (though perhaps nearly so) |
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| 4 | CANNING | Firing last of women in hiding … (7) [wome]N in CANING (a hiding). canning=firing in the sense of dismissing from a job |
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| 5 | THAT | … which leads to her arrest and transportation (4) First letters of To Her Arrest (and) Transportation |
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| 6 | FAVOURITES | Chosen ones regrettably sour at five (10) (SOUR AT FIVE)* |
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| 7 | CHEAPO | That which raises pitch overwhelms ambassador in budget (6) HE (His Excellency) in CAPO (device to raise the pitch of guitar strings) |
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| 13 | ABSTENTION | Refusal to choose teetotaller’s way out (10) Double definition |
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| 15 | WIN | Competition’s finale to follow Test team’s victory (3) [competitio]N + WI (West Indies, cricket side) |
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| 17 | MOO | Bellow’s return in part of Bloomsbury (3) Hidden in reverse of blOOMsbury |
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| 19 | LIZ TRUSS | Would-be Iron Lady rusts badly after Soviet limo reverses (3,5) Reverse of ZIL (Russian limousine) + RUSTS*, giving our short-serving PM who modelled herself on Mrs Thatcher |
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| 20 | CHAMBER | Put 9’s head (or tail) in bank vault (7) H (first or last letter of HeatH) in CAMBER (bank, slope) |
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| 22 | EGOIST | One as vain as 19? Last to arrive, first to depart (6) [rriv]E + GO 1ST |
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| 23 | ROSARY | Martyr – a sorry reflection – choked prayers (6) Another reverse hidden: martYR A SORry |
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| 25 | CHER | Dear revolutionary – and its leader (4) CHE (revolutionary) + R[evolutionary] |
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| 26 | LAIN | Set down in language without first thought (4) LATIN less T[hought] |
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I was looking for a bit more to nail down 3, but couldn’t see it.. am I missing an idiom, or something?
As well as the obvious BONAR LAW and LIZ TRUSS we have HEATH, CANNING, GLAD STONE, BALD WIN, CHAMBER LAIN…
I found this a bit of a mixed bag, which makes sense if it is indeed a collaborative effort. Was a bit held up by bunging in CHANCEL for 20dn, but otherwise it was pretty smooth. There seems to be a bit of a Conservative PM theme, with mentions of Thatcher, Truss, Cameron, Heath and Lord Canning (another very short-lived premiership). Many thanks to O & A. Aha, beaten to it by Lord Jim, who has spotted even more PMs, though not all Tories.)
Thanks Andrew. I agree with others this was a mixed bag, with some delightful clues, favourite, was Functional, and some less so. I think with Omnibus we get some clues that are based on jokes that exist in the setters head I.e. 19 (and 21)d. I have plenty of bad things to say about The Deluded Lady but neither of those references would be ones I recognise.
Lord Jim @2: Don’t forget the much-beloved(!) 5d-25d THAT-CHER
Thanks Omnibus and Andrew
Several unparsed – 16, 17, 23a, and 4d (never heard CANNING for firing).
Major eyebrow raise at TOOTHCOMB. Frequent mistake in hyphenation – it’s a fine-tooth comb, not a fine tooth-comb!
Good spot on all the PMs.
Only got 3 down by having crossers, TRIFLE fitted, click check. Move on, having internal rant about yet more use of non-English.
Thanks Lord Jim @2 for pointing out the theme.
I found that all a bit ‘clunky’, but I can’t set a crossword, so no criticism from me.
I’m not sure how I was supposed to solve 3d without translating via Google. More intelligent people than me, please advise.
Thanks Andrew for the heads-up on some of the parsing.
Thanks Omnibus.
‘Andrew, once’ possibly being ‘royal’ held me up until there was really no way to parse the rest of the clue.
After yesterday’s revelation about prime numbered crosswords could the theme be a nod to that?
Tricky in parts and quite enjoyable overall. I needed a fair bit of online help for the GK.
I enjoyed the foreign language words in this puzzle as they are all quite commonly used – BAD, CHER, ZUPPA INGLESE.
Favourites: AWESOME, TRIFLE, BALD, EARLIEST, EGOIST (check parse); LYRE (loi).
New for me: CAPO = a clamp fastened across all the strings of a fretted musical instrument to raise their tuning by a chosen amount; ZIL = Soviet−Russian vehicle (for 19d); CAMBER = bank; NLS = National Library of Scotland; CANNING = firing/sacking, dismiss from job; 1922 to 1923 UK PM Andrew BONAR LAW; TOOTHCOMBS.
I could parse my answer for 8ac but I did not understand why GOAL AREA = poacher’s hunting ground. I supposed this clue has something to do with football? Oh, I see:
A goal area poacher is a specialized soccer striker focused on scoring from close range within the penalty area, often requiring minimal touches to score.
Learnt something new today, not that I really understand what this means – it’s gobbledegook to me!
I could not parse 26d or 27ac thinking it might be an anagram of SENT O 😉
I finally picked up on the theme of UK PMs – a few I noticed were Heath, Truss, Bonar Law, Gladstone, Canning, Chamberlain and I’m sure there are more! (Yes, see comments above)
“Andrew once at Number 10” and “Would-be Iron Lady” are curiously not cryptic at all. Clunky in parts as Andrew says, but some nice bits. Thanks both.
Just a tweak on 3 DN – the Italian ‘non e niente’ is the equivalent of the English ‘it’s nothing’. Hence, a trifle.
Re 3 down: Nobody’s said it yet, and I didn’t know, but apparently ‘Zuppe Inglese’ is a kind of Italian trifle.
My heart sinks when I see the setter is Omnibus and today was no exception. Clunky and tedious, with only an occasional smile.
Zuppa inglese my favourite. [Andrew! “Lift and separate” (bra advert) is so 20,000-something. We’re 30,000 now, please update. It doesn’t upset everyone but it does upset enough of us. Other phrases are available (‘fission’, ‘divide to conquer’). Thank you!]
Re 3, it’s said that after the battle of Livorno the mayor sent the best cook in town on board to ask Nelson what he would like for a celebratory diner. Nelson, being a great fan of trifle, described how to make it, and the cook returned with the idea that this was what he wanted for a starter, so it became known as zuppa inglese – English soup …. apocryphal, maybe.
As pointed out by TonyM, Italian uses a double negative, like ne…..rien in French.
Zuppa inglese, the Italian trifle, literally means ‘English soup”. A zuppa is a thick soup without pasta or rice. It may contain bread. The verb ‘inzuppare’ means ‘to soak’. The basis of zuppa inglese is cake or biscuits soaked in liqueur.
Hadrian @15 – you get upset by ‘lift and separate’?
Giulina@17: that’s what I supposed. Same happens in Spanish (no es nada).
There’s an apocryphal story of a teacher explaining to the class that in English a double negative implies a positive, but a double positive is never a negative. To which one wag was heard to whisper “Yeah, right”.
26dn: I can’t equate LAIN and ‘set down’ in any context: LAIN is the past participle of ‘lie’ and the present or past tense of ‘lay’ = set down is LAID, which would have required a different clue. This is elementary stuff!
Thanks Andrew and Omnibus.
Hmm, some good material but scratchy elsewhere. What is ’19’ doing in 22d? Is it meaning to say Liz Truss is an egoist? Say what you want about her, but I’m not convinced that’s an especially noted characteristic of her, to the point it would be useful as a clue.
The non-English business I found a little much too, as well as the NHO NLS.
I like the FUNCTIONAL, CHEAPO, BEHEMOTH, TOOTHCOMBS and ROSARY though.
Some commenters are a bit hypercritical methinks. I enjoyed this crossword, although couldn’t parse 18ac. Favourite TRIFLE, and smiled at the would-be Iron Lady. Thanks Omnibus & Andrew.
BONAR LAW brings to mind Jules’ and Sandy’s venture into the legal world. “We’ve got a criminal practice that takes up most of our time.”
Crosswords are all about learning, so thanks Omnibus for filling out the inexcusable gaps in my knowledge about 1970s luxury car makers in the Soviet Union!
Bit of a mixed bag for me too (“first thought” for T? Humbug!), but AWESOME really tickled my fancy. A fun puzzle all in all, and I share Andrew’s view that it’s smoother than previous Omnibuses.
Thank you to the blogger and the setter(s?), and good luck all with the Genius today!
Edit: can anyone please shed light on the connection between Liz Truss/vanity/egoism?
A number where the parsing was strained or faulty (see Eileen @20). I liked RESIZE being checked out on the radio, the EARLIEST novel, and LIZ TRUSS’s Iron Lady (I hate to mention her).
Thanks Omnibus and Andrew (not BONAR LAW or the prince).
Calabar Bean @24, Liz Truss and egoism: At a stretch it could be due to her memoir, ‘Ten years to Save the West”.
There seems to be some aspect of vanity in thinking one can save a civilisation in a decade when one failed to last 50 days in your last job.
Or maybe 19 was a reference to the Iron Lady of the question.
“You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning”.
That seems a better fit. Best I can do.
Fun puzzle, though uneven in style – like previous Omnibus (‘by all’?) crosswords it definitely seems to have been compiled by committee. I enjoyed all the foreign bits. (FWIW zuppa inglese is thought to be the ancestor of tiramisù).
Eileen @20: You’re quite right, but the lay/lie distinction has weakened, sadly. ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’ wrote Bob Dylan, and he got the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Thanks to Everyone and Andrew
Protase @27
… and Henry Kissinger got the Peace Prize …
Protase @27 Indeed so. Some years ago I had a PhD student who was American and used ‘lay’ for ‘lie’. I recall saying to her that, while Bob Dylan could get away with ‘lay’, she was completing a thesis for a British university and it would be prudent to use ‘lie’ in the circumstances.
The theme was perversely helpful here. Having first completed the NW corner, I had BONAR LAW, BALD and GLAD, so I was off searching for WIN and STONE – both easily found as there were only two 3-letter and two 5-letter solutions. As a result. my parsing of these was a little – ahem – cursory, and I completely bypassed the obvious objections to LAIN due to its inevitable pairing with CHAMBER
I found this great fun, in that it looked completely incomprehensible on first look through, then gradually all fell out (I guess technically a different since “instils” was the only word I could think of but couldn’t parse it at all; perhaps NLS was a bit arcane to Southerners).
re. Liz Truss and egoism, there are two possibilities. One is her continuing staunch insistence that she made no mistakes in her less-than-lettuce premiership, and that given more time she would have succeeded. She did not fail, the country failed her. That IMO requires a large amount of ego where perhaps humility might better serve.
The second is her book “Ten Years to Save the West”. The UK edition is subtitled “Lessons from the Only Conservative in the Room”. The US edition is subtitled “Leading the Revolution Against Globalism, Socialism, and the Liberal Establishment”. The conceits that the most unsuccessful PM in living memory has a recipe to “save” the West; is the acme of conservatism; and is “leading” anything at all suggests a very high opinion of herself, which others might call egoism.
Interesting to look up these PMs. George Canning was the second shortest serving PM, the poor man died in office. And Bonar-Law was the fourth shortest , having resigned due to ill health. He died shortly afterwards. Gladstone is one of the longest serving.
Chardonneret @ 32 – odd that George Canning has a statue in Parliament square?
@31 jacob.
don’t forget the liz truss show!
HYD@33 – I think Canning’s reputation was based on his periods as foreign secretary rather than his brief spell as pm. What I remember from school history is that he fought a duel with his political rival, Lord Castlereagh. Don’t see too much of that nowadays.
Goldilocks for me, just a few checks [and I’ll be looking out for Zuppa inglese when we visit Bologna by train next month]. TTS&B
[Smut alert in case of moderation ; “Trouble with your Johnson? Try a Truss”.]
Muffin@6 “Tooth-comb” always makes me think “What is the other kind?”
I’d heard of “canning” as “firing,” but not as PM. Nor NLS or STI (we say STD in the US).
Tougher than usual for me, and I missed the theme, though I had heard of most of the PMs, and the lettuce as well.
Thanks to Omnibus and Andrew.
cryptor @5: yes of course, Thatcher. (Known to her friends as Old Thatch — there’s a pub in Stratford named after her.)
It’s funny but I’ve never really noticed before that our old crossword friend Cher could be part of a clue for MT: “We know that Cher is hiding Maggie (8)”. A bit too obvious maybe?
Zoot @23: yes, their legal firm, in true Polari style, was called Bona Law. Brilliant.
Thanks for the blog , I have criticised Omnibus in the past so credit where it is due .I thought this was a good set of neat clues with a lot of variety but I am glad I missed the theme . FUNCTIONAL and NEWSROOM very clever .
One quibble , in water-polo poachers are specifically banned from the GOAL AREA
, you can only enter holding the ball or be behind the ball .
When I lived in Denmark Hill my local pub was the George Canning. As DuncT says @35, he was a very succesful Foreign Secretary before his brief incumbency as PM.
No doubt I’m missing something obvious: how does “picks” define TOOTHCOMBS?
Miche @43
I am hoping that someone will explain what a “toothcomb” is! (See mine @6.)
In 23a, how do you know to take RES from “resolution”?
What does OLUTION have to do with things?
Miche@43, I know the “Afro pick”, is a tool for combing natural African-American hair, although the teeth aren’t particularly fine on the ones I’ve seen.
Liz Truss (“Instagram Liz”) is famously vain. Apart from her love of being photographed there is Nicola Sturgeon’s story about how, when they met, LT was interested only in learning how to get on the cover of Vogue magazine (NS has been on the cover twice I believe).
I’m pleased to be in the position, for once, of being able to write “I’m surprised that nobody seems to know…..”
Steffen@45, I was wondering the same thing myself. I parsed it with the definition being just “Make bigger”, with “or” as a link word and “smaller resolution” to indicate RES as an abbreviation for “resolution”.
Steffen @45 – RES is just short for resolution (high-res, low-res).
EleanorK @46 – Ah, yes, I’ve heard of an Afro pick. Didn’t make the pick=comb connection. Thanks.
Pedigree Chum (4,6)
Presumably unintentional, especially as they appear in 2 other PMs, but does WIN + STON(E) count as part of the theme too?
While a CAPO does raise the pitch of guitar strings, I think it’s more helpful to regard it as a device for transposition.
Much more my level after Thursday. And spotted the PMs theme although not all of the split ones – doh! Unlike some I liked the clueing and didn’t find it clunky. Thanks Omni, and Andrew.