Guardian 23998/Rufus

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Another very easy Monday puzzle from Rufus, although with a better mix of clue types than the last time I blogged one of his puzzles. Still, most of the answers are so obvious there isn’t much to write about, especially in the across clues.

Solving time 7:46

Across
11 CHIC,AGO – what an old chestnut. This clue’s probably older than I am!
13 PEK(O)E – a type of tea, usually called orange pekoe.
23 FUTURES – nice cryptic definition.
24 DE(L)FT – I think money is a bit too non-specific for L, but it’s a checked letter and not hard to get.
25 EYES FRONT – another nice CD – for an army parade ground command.

Down
1 TOUCH,PAPER – from the instruction on fireworks “Light the blue touchpaper and retire to a safe distance”.
2 S(TRICK)EN – a sen is 100th of a yen.
3 (p)RELATE
8 FETE (feet*) – but a bazaar isn’t a fête, surely!
15 PERVERSITY (Priest very)* – doesn’t just mean deviance…
17 IR(RIT(e))ATE
18 NEWSROOM (more snow)* – but inaccurate surface reading!
20 PEBBLE – great cryptic definition, I liked this a lot.
21 BIT OFF – double def with a charade in the middle, with good surface too.
22 HIDE – double definition. A hide is a mediæval land measure equivalent to approx. 120 acres. [Unintentionally missed out earlier]

5 comments on “Guardian 23998/Rufus”

  1. Wasn’t 1D a case of abusive capitalization? “… one’s guardian” for PAPER? I thought the rule was that something that was always capitalized shouldn’t be de-capitalized whereas the converse was OK? Or should we just let Sleeping Dogs…

  3. I must be having a slow day, but had problems with the bottom left corner. If 22 down is HIDE, that’s a pretty obscure measure, which I’d never heard of until consulting Chambers. Is PEBBLE just a stone that’s not valuable but is worn as in eroded? And please put me out of my misery – 14 down?

  4. 22dn = HIDE – I meant to mention that as the second def. was quite obscure, sorry.

    PEBBLE – yes, that’s how I read it.

    14dn – CASUAL + TIES

  5. 14dn – that’s a brilliant clue, which defeated me. I was totally convinced that this was just a cryptic definition.

    I also struggled with the bottom left but eventually considered ‘money’ = L and got DELFT and HIDE (measurement meaning unknown to me as well).

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