Guardian 25,042 / Rufus
Posted by Gaufrid on June 21st, 2010
A very easy start to the week and one completed rather quickly whilst watching the sun rise on the summer solstice.
A typical Rufus with the odd good cd (3dn) and some less so (eg 5dn, 18dn & 23dn) because they were barely cryptic. I rather liked 9ac and 13ac, in addition to 3dn, but otherwise this was routine fare and not quite enough of a challenge for my taste. However, as usual with Rufus, the surfaces were generally good, apart from perhaps 18dn, but the repeated use of the same wordplay in 15dn and 19dn should have been avoided.
Across
7 PIKESTAFF PIKE (fish) STAFF (rod) – a reference to the saying ‘as plain as a pikestaff’.
8 RAPID P (quiet) in RAID (attack)
9 PARAMEDIC *(AID CAMPER) &lit
10 RANGE dd
12 NEWARK NEW (novel) ARK (craft) – not the city in 2dn but the market town in Nottinghamshire whose full name is Newark-on-Trent.
13 ELEVATOR *(TO A LEVER) – ‘resort’ needs to be read as ‘re-sort’.
14 LAYETTE cd – a baby’s complete set of clothing, etc.
17 ANISEED 1′S (one’s) in A NEED (a lack of)
20 LEAD UP TO LEAD (senior counsel) UP TO (competent enough)
22 ABOARD BOAR (pig) in AD (time)
24 ADAGE A D (number) AGE (time) – ‘saw’ as in a saying or proverb.
25 SEMIBREVE SEMI (house) B (key) EVER (always) reversed
26 STRUT dd
27 ARCHANGEL ARCH (chief) ANGEL (financial backer)
Down
1 MIRAGE I’M reversed RAGE (anger)
2 DELAWARE DE LA (of the French) WARE (merchandise) – ‘ware’ is more usually used in the plural these days.
3 STREAK cd
4 OFFICER *(FORCE IF) &lit
5 BANANA cd
6 DIAGNOSE *(AGONISED)
11 HEWN *(WHEN)
15 ANECDOTE O (love) in *(A DECENT)
16 TAPE dd
18 SPORRANS cd
19 VOYEURS O (love) in *(SURVEY) – a repeat of the wordplay in 15dn, not desirable.
21 DUGOUT dd
22 ALIGHT A LIGHT (blonde)
23 REVIEW cd
June 21st, 2010 at 8:58 am
Thanks Guafrid. I agree with your criticisms of this rather tepid effort from the ususally reliable Rufus.
Apart from 21dn nothing struck me as being noteworthy.
22′
June 21st, 2010 at 8:59 am
Sorry for the spelling Gaufrid.
June 21st, 2010 at 9:24 am
Thank you Gaufrid. I agree: we don’t usually find much to chunter about in a Rufus, but there were a few odd or clunky clues here. I thought 5dn and 23dn were strange unless I’m missing something; I also wasn’t madly in love with 20ac. There were good bits of invention elsewhere, but overall a bit of a mixed bag from a setter I normally really enjoy.
Didn’t realise ‘depend’ could mean ‘hang’, but Collins confirms it (though as rare).
Eimi, if you’re eavesdropping on this side, I’d love to have a crack at your puzzle, but the online version is still showing Phi’s from Friday.
June 21st, 2010 at 9:40 am
Hi K’s D
I emailed Eimi a couple of hours ago regarding the error so hopefully it will be corrected before too long. The intended Saturday and Sunday on-line puzzles must have been similarly affected.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:08 am
I enjoyed this more than I usually do a Rufus. The cd’s, apart from 18, were simple but not too groanworthy – perhaps their simplicity redeemed them: the problem with cd’s is often that the compiler (and not just this one) seems to be forcing a light witticism that might have passed at the dinner table but should never have been given the permanence of print. I quite liked ‘banana’ and ‘layette’ was even rather good. ‘Diagnose’ was a good anagram, and ‘Take vain steps’ = ‘strut’ was very good; (this is a dd not a cd I think, Gaufrid: ….steps/support).
June 21st, 2010 at 10:12 am
Like Ian, 22′.
I am not a fan of CDs, but I thought 18d was rather good. It wasn’t obvious (it was one of the later ones I got) and the hanging sense of “depend” added to it.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:16 am
Hi Martin H
.
You are right about 26ac, dd is what I have noted on my copy. The error must be due to finger trouble whilst typing and poor proof reading
June 21st, 2010 at 10:19 am
Hang on! I’ve just gone to correct the post only to find that 26ac is already shown as a dd. So no finger error on my part!
June 21st, 2010 at 10:26 am
Thanks Gaufrid
I got the top half pretty quickly though looking for an anagram with ‘take’ in 3d misdirected me away from the point till ‘all was revealed’.
The lower half was harder for me. 25a and 26a and 18d held me up a bit.
I am unclear why 5d is so bad. ‘A hand of bananas’ isn’t all that obvious, I’d have thought – at least no more than many clue ideas elsewhere – though I agree the available 3 ‘a’s did make it easier than it might otherwise have been.
Re ‘depend on’, I suppose the ‘on’ as opposed to ‘from’ misdirects away from the hanging idea. Unfortunately, I kept looking for a word with ‘ians’ as the second half!
The ‘hanging’ idea itself was quite straightforward for me but I must learn to remember that relatively few people are burdened with the etymological baggage of a ‘classical’ education!
In general I found the puzzle more testing and enjoyable than others have so far said.9a,25a (once seen) and 11d were probably my favourites though I daresay 11d was more obvious to more experienced solvers who have probably seen almost everything before.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:33 am
Sorry Gaufrid – eye error on my part.
Slightly off-topic: Is anyone else annoyed by the ads in the top right corner of the on-line page which zoom across to cover part of the grid? One can usually cover the ad with a train ticket and some blu-tack, but this sort of subterfuge is going a bit far.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:34 am
Sorry. Having said all that re ‘hanging’ I suddenly realise that if ‘depend’ is simply substituted for ‘hang’, the ‘on’ is perfectly OK.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:39 am
Tupu, thanks for explaining 5dn, which now makes sense. I had never heard of the phrase ‘a hand of bananas’, so I withdraw my criticism! Yes, the ‘hanging’ idea is also fairly obvious if you’re a French speaker – and of course it’s given us words like ‘pendant’ and ‘pending’.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:18 am
um… last time I was in the vicinity, newark was in new jersey, not delaware. do I win £5?
June 21st, 2010 at 11:19 am
no. there’s one in delaware too.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:35 am
Hi duncandisorderly
Not to mention Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Hi Kathryn’s Dad
Thanks. Yes you are right of course re French. We also get pendulum from Latin (late I imagine)and of course ‘suspend’, suspenders, suspense, pending, all with lit. or metaphoric hanging ideas.
For what it’s worth – no more than 2p -the ‘sus’ prefix in such words turns out on inspection to be a lot more complex than I have realised. As I assumed, it relates to ‘sub’ = (broadly) ‘under’ but comes from a closely related form ‘subs’ from which the ‘b’ has been dropped! ‘Sub’ also seems to relate to ‘up’ in English! Words do seem to have a family life of their own.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
Noah would have been spoilt for choice in the USA, Gaufrid. Thanks for your note about the Indy – still no crossword on-line, though. Grrr.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:51 am
And thanks tupu for more interesting etymology.
June 21st, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Hi K’s D
I had a reply from Eimi a short while ago saying that “Hopefully the correct file should be on line soon.”
June 21st, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Martin H… Re ads. Try installing Firefox as you browser and then install Adblock Plus, You’ll never be bothered again
June 21st, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hi All
You might be interested in reading this article by the Crossword Editor in today’s Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/21/open-door-crossword-editor
June 21st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I’ll try that cholecyst, thanks.
m
June 21st, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Hi Eileen,
Thanks for that link. I’ve never been sure exactly what Hugh Stephenson actually does. But even if it’s absolutely nothing, I’d be grateful to him for taking such perceptive & selfless action. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say.
I personally prefer a bit more of a challenge than today’s offering, but I completely agree with the timely point made by Hugh that a mix of difficulty levels is both deliberate and desirable.
A perfectly good puzzle overall, though I thought the ALIGHT clue is getting to be a bit of a cliche, and LAYETTE seemed somewhat recherche at this level (or maybe I just don’t move in circles where it’s common parlance!)
June 21st, 2010 at 6:10 pm
ps – I now realise I could have found Hugh’s article from the main Guardian xword page. But quite frankly I’m usually in such a hurry to print the puzzle & settle down with my cuppa that they could announce the start of WW3 there and I probably wouldn’t notice.