Comments on: Guardian 25,695 – Rufus

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:57:02 +0000

Putting “Renter” in pencil in 23 killed 15 for me. Awful grid. Why does Rufus keep using these horrid grids, when very often CDs and DDs only result in pencil, since one can’t be certain of the answer?

Never heard of the fungus or the poison, might be nice on a later in the week puzzle, but I thought the Grauniad tried to start easy on Sunday and work their way towards the Saturday prize?

I really hate pure CDs. I don’t like DDs. I already dropped the Everyman a while back, I don’t want to also not like Mondays. Low checking combined with CDs and DDs an unpretty puzzle makes.

And since when is a SALAMANDER a “monster”? I got the anagram easily, but the definition is simple poor. Grumpy grumpy.

But as always, thanks for offering, Rufus, I don’t have to like them all, and the blog, Andrew!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:10:46 +0000

Guardian grid 31 is your man, SvdH. The infectious disorder has now become MANAGE again, just as it was in FT 14045 Dante, 02.07.12, 1 across.

Paul x

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:41:26 +0000

Thanks, Rufus and Andrew.

My recollection of scrape accompanied “parlour bread” – otherwise bread cut so thinly that a scrape of butter was all one needed. This was served by the redoubtable sisters when one had important visitors.On a good day, damson jam might have put in an appearance! No doubt a bishop would have been worth a cake!

Giovanna x

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:10:58 +0000

Robi @21: “I, too, wasted a few brain cells in trying to parse ‘mange.’ Can’t see any correction/apology yet on the Grauniad site”

Well, Boys & Girls, if you would have done Dante’s Monday Prize Crossword in the FT (quite recently, 2 July) – like I did, because I had to blog that puzzle – the solution was rather a write-in as the clue was 100% the same.

Apart from that, an enjoyable crossword and (for us) slightly harder than usual. We didn’t get PICNIC, although in hindsight it is rather obvious. Where others liked READER, we found it a pretty poor clue.
But we’re all different, aren’t we? [it's quite a while since I've used that ]

And there’s that Pasqualian grid again (well, I associate it with the Don). If you can’t get 8d and 13ac, then the puzzle becomes 4 for the price of 1.
Luckily, we didn’t have problems with these, so no real complaints.

We liked CONSOMME, NEAP TIDE and LAUDABLE (among others).

Thanks Andrew for the blog and Rufus for an effort that once again seemed to be so effortless ….

By: tupu

tupu — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:32:33 +0000

Sidey@18

Sorry to have let you down @9

By: Trailman

Trailman — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:01:09 +0000

Thanks Andrew, you’re absolutely right, it’s a bit less Rufusish than usual and that means those like me who are not quite on his wavelength can get there. Indeed I found this fairly straightforward. Slow on the SE corner ‘cos of the misprint. Two ‘typical’ Rufus clues, ROMANS and PICNIC, last in.

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:32:15 +0000

Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

I thought that this was going to be easy at first but got stuck on a few. I, too, wasted a few brain cells in trying to parse ‘mange.’ Can’t see any correction/apology yet on the Grauniad site.

I liked CONSOMME and READER.

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:46:40 +0000

Thanks Rufus and Andrew
Good to have an easier start to the week after the tough work at the end of last week. Found this took a little more effort than usual though with new words NICKER (for pound that I hadn’t seen before) and the mushroom was also unknown.

Last in was PICNIC and favorite was probably READER.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:37:18 +0000

Thomas
As my last line in @13 shows i did see your interpretation,just didn’t like it much.
I would have liked ‘violent reaction against/for corporal punishment.’

By: sidey

sidey — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:28:01 +0000

Thank heavens for no ‘smooth surfaces’ in the blog.

Best thing about all of today’s puzzles.