A typical Rufus with concise clues of mostly cryptic and double definitions and anagrams. Thanks Rufus. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
1 Guilelessness and love seen in a dog (7)
CANDOUR : { AND + O(the letter that looks like 0;love in tennis scores) } contained in(seen in) CUR(a dog, especially a worthless or unfriendly one).
5 Jewish father puts fresh bar on some pork (7)
ABRAHAM : Anagram of(fresh) BAR plus(on) [A HAM](a cut of pork).
Answer: The biblical founder of the Hebrew people.
10 Block and tackle (4)
STOP : Cryptic defn: To block;obstruct or to prevent from proceeding, eg. an opposing team player. The crypticness I guess comes from the clue’s whole phrase meaning something else.
11 Creatures ruining the marrows (10)
EARTHWORMS : Anagram of(ruining) THE MARROWS.
12 Newspaperman to be found in dire trouble (6)
EDITOR : TO contained in(be found in) anagram of(trouble) DIRE.
13 Too late for an American cropper to come a cropper? (4,4)
FALL OVER : Cryptic defn: Reference to the passing of the American fall;English autumn after which it is too late for a cropper;a farmer to plant crops.
14 Colour scheme that’s out of date (9)
APARTHEID : Cryptic defn: Reference to the discriminatory practice, now defunct, in South Africa, against non-whites.
16 Climbing gear? (5)
FIRST : Cryptic defn: Reference to the lowest forward gear ratio, enabling a motor vehicle to climb a slope, or to start the vehicle moving. Not equipment for climbing mountains.
17 Checks over container ship outside (5)
SCANS : CAN(a metal or plastic container) contained in(… outside) SS(abbrev. for a steam ship).
19 It’s not material for a religious song (9)
SPIRITUAL : Double defn: 2nd: A religious song of African-American origin.
23 Drunk male cuts drink (8)
MUSCATEL : Anagram of(Drunk) MALE CUTS.
Answer: A sweet wine made from muscat grapes.
24 Intently study for every purpose (6)
PERUSE : PER(for every;for each) + USE(purpose;function).
26 Adjustments for expenses? (10)
ALLOWANCES : Double defn: 1st: Concessions;adjustments made to account for certain conditions, eg. to a selling price; and 2nd: Regular payments for expenses.
27 American tug? (4)
YANK : Double defn: 1st: Short for Yankee, an often disparaging term for a native of the US.
28 It’s customary for injured escort to leave assault course exercise (2,5)
AS USUAL : Anagram of(exercise) “assault course” minus(… to leave) anagram of(injured) “escort“.
29 Rings again and cancels (7)
REPEALS : RE-PEALS;rings again.
Down
2 Caused trouble, getting Bill and Edward out of bed (5,2)
ACTED UP : AC(abbrev. for an account of moneys owed;a bill) plus(and) TED(a form of the name Edward) + UP(and about;out of bed).
3 Largely drank up a store of supplies (5)
DEPOT : Reversal of(up) TOPED(drank large quantities of alcoholic liquor, and habitually).
4 Turn up in a foreign land (7)
UNEARTH : UN(French for “a”) + EARTH(land;the ground).
6 Perform in panto horse perhaps? That creates interest (6)
BEHALF : Cryptic defn: Reference to being one half, the front or the back, of a pantomime horse.
Answer: As in “he was acting in my interest;behalf”.
7 Advocate appearing for a Venetian explorer gains essential point (9)
APOLOGIST : A +POLO(Marco, the Venetian explorer) + GIST(the essential point of an argument, speech, etc.).
8 Having no object in bothering Melissa (7)
AIMLESS : Anagram of(bothering) MELISSA.
9 Driving force (7,6)
TRAFFIC POLICE : Cryptic defn: The force that polices drivers and other road-users.
15 Rush over to meet (3,6)
RUN ACROSS : RUN(to rush;to hurry) + ACROSS(over, eg. a chasm).
Answer: To meet by chance.
18 Partners who dance up in close formation (7)
COUPLES : UP contained in(in) anagram of(formation) CLOSE.
20 A quick reply by one who is foiled? (7)
RIPOSTE : Cryptic defn: Reference to the art, practice, or sport of fencing with swords, eg. foils; and a quick counter stroke against one’s opponent, immediately after parrying a lunge – not to get too technical about it.
21 Footballers‘ magazine (7)
ARSENAL : Double defn: 1st: The London football team; and 2nd: A place for keeping military stores like arms and ammunition.
22 Capital power unit setting up in middle of road (6)
OTTAWA : Reversal of(setting up) WATT(a unit of measurement of power in physics) contained in(in) the 2 central letters of(middle of) “road “.
Answer: The capital city of Canada.
25 Reach the same sound conclusion (5)
RHYME : Cryptic defn: Of words, to have the property of ending in the same phonetic sound.
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Thanks, scchua.
[[That looks like YANKee Stadium, and Joltin’ Joe was a YANKee as well as half a COUPLE with Marilyn, who was, I believe, in Bus STOP.
The first pic might by James Cagney portraying George M. Cohan singing “I’m a YANKee Doodle Dandy.”
At a guess, number two might be from the Witches of Eastwick, but I don’t see the connection.]]
I enjoyed this fun puzzle by Rufus. I especially liked 2d, 28a, 5a, 7d & 25d with my favourites being BEHALF, YANK & FIRST (which was the last clue I solved).
Thanks for the blog, scchua. I still get confused as to whether some answers are cd’s or dd’s, e..g I thought of 10a as a dd because STOP can be defined as both ‘block’ and ‘tackle’.
I parsed 2d as ACT (bill, statute, law) + ED (Edward) + UP. Oh well, I got to the right answer anyway!
I saw 10a as a dd too, with BLOCK/STOP as nouns e.g. a door stop, but perhaps I’m reaching for more subtlety in the clue than was required?
Thank you, scchua.
Rufus’s puzzles aren’t really my cup of tea, but I thought the cd at 14a was excellent.
[[John Updike, who wrote The Witches of Eastwick, was also the author of COUPLES.]]
Thanks Rufus and scchua.
I particularly enjoyed AS USUAL, FALL OVER, BEHALF and CANDOUR.
I thought STOP was a dd as in ‘stop a hole’ [block] and ‘scrum half’s stop [tackle] or ‘tackle an intruder.’
Thanks to scchua for the blog.
I thought 22d was unusually intelligent for Rufus; I tried intially putting watt (somehow) in the middle of R- – – -D but got nowhere; Then I tried the middle of road, i.e. OA, around the outside and hey presto it worked!
[[The pictures meant nothing to me! ]]
I enjoyed this more than some Rufus puzzles, and I thought the clue for EARTHWORMS was excellent.
I too had thought of 10a as a dd, but the senses of “stop” in both “block” and “tackle” are too similar, I thought, whether as nouns or verbs.
[[Brilliantly correct, Ian SW3 and Miche. You found a couple more links – I would have settled for Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, a New York Yankees baseball player and once married to Marilyn.]]
All a bit opbviouws for me, evn the ones you guys have said are greta (why???) but can see why some liked it more than his others. The only one I kinda likned was FIRST, for some reasonn.
Cheers
Rowly.
Thanks Rufus and scchua
Quite enjoyed Rufus today – did take slightly longer and particularly liked the similar style of 10, 16 and 9d where he was able to use a well known phrase to cryptically mean something very different. Made a bit of a mess with 25 by first entering AGREE and thinking that was weak and taking a while to work out what he really meant.
Last in and cod was BEHALF.
I took FALL OVER to mean too late to harvest crops, not too late to plant them.
Hi
I had 29 as recalls and 17 as spots which needed things up.
D’oh. I am new to all this though.
Cheers
Hi Rodders @13. I’m reasonably new to all this too (about 9 months or so) and sometimes struggle to see how Rufus is often classed as ‘easy,’ must be a wavelength thing. Having said that, I got all today except for 16a FIRST and 25d RHYME, so a d’oh from me too for today, although found the rest straightforward.
Thanks Rufus and scchua.
I didn’t think this was a “typical Rufus” at all – I thought it was his most enjoyable and inventive for a long time. Plenty of smiles, all the way from first in (EARTHWORM) to last in (FIRST).
One or two “doh” rather than “aha” moments, e.g. 9a, but I enjoyed being reminded of my favourite rhyming slang, “septic” for an American.
Most enjoyable, I thought. APARTHEID was splendidly clued, I thought. Thank you for the blog.
I liked everything everyone else liked – 22d, 14a was excellent, 29 nice.
However, my HEARTWORMS for 11a ruined the puzzle, since it was a perfectly good answer, and almost an &lit. The “definition” was a bit lacking- “creatures”???
13a makes no sense to me as a “clue” to the “answer”. Sorry. Too weak on both sides – cryptic and definition.
This came after a very odd weekend, when I did the Saturday Prize pretty easily (with tools), then ran out of puzzles and got stumped by the Everyman! Then this Rufus, many clues once worked out were very fair and seemed easy, but the ones I had to come to the blog for, well, lacked a “certain something”.
FALL OVER was my anti-COD.
Left with enjoying CANDOUR and REPEALS.
Thanks for the blog, scchua, and the puzzle, Rufus!