Comments on: Guardian 25,719 – Rufus

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:03:17 +0000

Surely the time has come to offer up a challenge to our old friend Rufus.

How about a puzzle where every single clue is either a double or cryptic definition?

This one was more than half-way there, so thanks for trying!

And thanks, Andrew, and others, for finding MARTYR and explaining MEAN’s other definition.

Luckily I am several puzzles behind and now am facing what must be a Summer Bank Holiday Prize Puzzle by the setter at the other extreme of the Grauniad’s wonderful crew.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:13:49 +0000

Miche @11: Thanks for the link to #24542 and Stevenson’s better half. I missed it at the time (10 Nov 2008) because the 90th anniversary of the end of WW1 provided an excuse for a trip to France with members of my “wider” family.

I do recall seeing it in #22596, on a date in Aug 2002, proximate to a “significant” anniversary of my wedding. Here it is again near to an anniversary ten years more significant!

In recycling a favourite piece Rufus is in good company. At the start of The Adventure of the Cardboard Box Conan Doyle has Holmes reading Watson’s thoughts merely by observing him. The account, a full page and more, is reproduced verbatim in The Resident Patient.

By: John & Jo

John & Jo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:21:59 +0000

This was the first Guardian Cryptic we have *ever* completed (though we’ve only tried about a dozen) – very excited about that!

22 Across – “strikers” – we took to be a reference to baseball and to matches (i.e. you strike them then they go out).

By: Miche

Miche — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:47:33 +0000

AdamAppletree @25: Cryptic definition: a martyr is someone who died for a cause, so “had a good reason for being late.”

By: AdamAppletree

AdamAppletree — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:35:35 +0000

Hi, I don’t get 9ac MARTYR. can someone explain? Thanks!

By: Martin P

Martin P — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:04:54 +0000

23: what had you meant to do with it then?

Oddly 6a last in for me: 9a announced itself quite clearly.

By: Headteacher

Headteacher — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:58:32 +0000

Just got to this after a busy day doing not very much. Glad I hadn’t aimed to pass a pleasurable hour with the crossword. Very meagre fare even by Rufus’s “standards”.

By: snigger

snigger — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:28:50 +0000

Mean = aim and tight with money —-Pffffftttttttt !!!

that is all

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:13:14 +0000

Waiter for 9ac – which I thought was a better solution than martyr.

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:19:39 +0000

If space could have been found for it, surely “THE ENGLAND OPENERS AGAIN” would have been a better answer to 22! Now, please excuse me, I need to find a beer to cry into.