14 comments on “Guardian 24441/Rover – placeholder”
Ilancaron: I’m a bit confused, the calendar seems to have me down for today, and you for tomorrow – however I had thought that it had had me down for Monday, before seeing that someone else had posted and that the calendar says yesterday was vacant.. I wonder if it’s slipped a day off or somesuch.
Having said that, I’d just come on to post a placeholder myself, as I’ll be a bit busy this afternoon, so feel free to blog if I haven’t.
ROVER in the doghouse – not an exciting puzzle
ACROSS
9 ROUBLE (or blue)*
10 SKIP (dd)
11 ROUNDABOUT (dd)
12 CHERRY (dd)
14 NUTCASES (scant use)*
15 POP PET
17 GRATER (homonym)
20 SCOTTISH people from Ayr for example don’t like to be called ‘Scotch’
22 THRIFT a sea anemone
23 boring people
24 LARK[in]
25 LAB OUR
26 gun related
DOWN
1 think bookworms
2 WHIP (dd)
3 with the fringe on top
4 (or direct)*
5 DUMB WAITER (best clue in this puzzle)
6 ?? LAUD for archbishop ??
13 RE PETITION
16 (fire dies)*
18 sort of dd
19 SHEETS (another dd)
21 CORA must be our girl
22 nother anagram
24 LINE, I think (yet another dd)
6dn Yes, (William) LAUD is the Archbishop and CLAUDE is the fellow.
24dn is indeed LINE, as in something stocked in a shop, or a line of work.
7ac was particularly weak, I thought.
23ac – not a good clue at all, presumably it refers to a non-voter who votes neither yay or nay
23ac: ABSTAINERS. I read this as people who have made a decision not to imbibe.
I considered this as an alternative surface as well, but either way I still think it’s a crummy clue!!
Do I take it that Muck thinks non drinkers are more boring than drinkers? He must have been a lot luckier with drunks than I have been. (…and I speak as one of them from time to time)
22ac: THRIFT is the plant otherwise known as the sea pink (Armeria maritima), rather than a sea anemone, which is an animal.
Otherwise, well blogged, Muck!
Very Rufusian puzzle, overladen (to my taste, anyway) with DDs and CDs.
Thanks Geoff. Sorry about 22ac – I did know THRIFT was a plant, but did the blog in a rush.
9 ac was an extremely weak clue in a very weak puzzle. Clues (generally) should make a kind of grammatical sense . However, ‘Money you could fritter or blue’ is a nonsense statement.
the nonsense surface of 9ac was enough to distract me from finding the obvious solution. That’s my excuse, at least. Several other solutions also seemed too obvious to be correct.
9ac ROUBLE. I rather liked this clue. Money is the definition. You can ‘fritter’ or ‘blue’ money, both meaning squander, and the rouble is so worthless you might easily do just that with it!
9ac again. I thought ‘fritter’ was too obvious an anagram indicator to mention. Chambers defines it as ‘to break into pieces’. I like this clue.
That’s the curious thing about Guardian puzzles at the easier end of the scale: the occasional appearance of a usage that no-one save the odd lexicographer could possibly be expected to be aware of.
A boring puzzle, with at least one unusual editing decision.
Ilancaron: I’m a bit confused, the calendar seems to have me down for today, and you for tomorrow – however I had thought that it had had me down for Monday, before seeing that someone else had posted and that the calendar says yesterday was vacant.. I wonder if it’s slipped a day off or somesuch.
Having said that, I’d just come on to post a placeholder myself, as I’ll be a bit busy this afternoon, so feel free to blog if I haven’t.
ROVER in the doghouse – not an exciting puzzle
ACROSS
9 ROUBLE (or blue)*
10 SKIP (dd)
11 ROUNDABOUT (dd)
12 CHERRY (dd)
14 NUTCASES (scant use)*
15 POP PET
17 GRATER (homonym)
20 SCOTTISH people from Ayr for example don’t like to be called ‘Scotch’
22 THRIFT a sea anemone
23 boring people
24 LARK[in]
25 LAB OUR
26 gun related
DOWN
1 think bookworms
2 WHIP (dd)
3 with the fringe on top
4 (or direct)*
5 DUMB WAITER (best clue in this puzzle)
6 ?? LAUD for archbishop ??
13 RE PETITION
16 (fire dies)*
18 sort of dd
19 SHEETS (another dd)
21 CORA must be our girl
22 nother anagram
24 LINE, I think (yet another dd)
6dn Yes, (William) LAUD is the Archbishop and CLAUDE is the fellow.
24dn is indeed LINE, as in something stocked in a shop, or a line of work.
7ac was particularly weak, I thought.
23ac – not a good clue at all, presumably it refers to a non-voter who votes neither yay or nay
23ac: ABSTAINERS. I read this as people who have made a decision not to imbibe.
I considered this as an alternative surface as well, but either way I still think it’s a crummy clue!!
Do I take it that Muck thinks non drinkers are more boring than drinkers? He must have been a lot luckier with drunks than I have been. (…and I speak as one of them from time to time)
22ac: THRIFT is the plant otherwise known as the sea pink (Armeria maritima), rather than a sea anemone, which is an animal.
Otherwise, well blogged, Muck!
Very Rufusian puzzle, overladen (to my taste, anyway) with DDs and CDs.
Thanks Geoff. Sorry about 22ac – I did know THRIFT was a plant, but did the blog in a rush.
9 ac was an extremely weak clue in a very weak puzzle. Clues (generally) should make a kind of grammatical sense . However, ‘Money you could fritter or blue’ is a nonsense statement.
the nonsense surface of 9ac was enough to distract me from finding the obvious solution. That’s my excuse, at least. Several other solutions also seemed too obvious to be correct.
9ac ROUBLE. I rather liked this clue. Money is the definition. You can ‘fritter’ or ‘blue’ money, both meaning squander, and the rouble is so worthless you might easily do just that with it!
9ac again. I thought ‘fritter’ was too obvious an anagram indicator to mention. Chambers defines it as ‘to break into pieces’. I like this clue.
That’s the curious thing about Guardian puzzles at the easier end of the scale: the occasional appearance of a usage that no-one save the odd lexicographer could possibly be expected to be aware of.
A boring puzzle, with at least one unusual editing decision.