Guardian 25,982 – Rufus

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Slightly more variation in clue styles here than the last one I blogged, but still generous helpings of double and cryptic definitions. Not really to my taste, but I’m sure Rufus fans will have found it enjoyable.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. CROSS OVER Cryptic definition -if you crossed over a river then you would be changing your bank
6. SHOE Double definition – the crowded home the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (she had so many children, she didn’t know what to do), and Oxford is a style of shoe
8. ALTER EGO (GET A ROLE)*
9. INMATE IN (at home) + MATE (wife)
10. UNLOCK Cryptic definition, where “free” has to be read as a verb
11. ENFORCED FORCE in END – I don’t this sort of clue where a major element of the wordplay (force) has exactly the same meaning as in the answer. See also 5d.
12. PASSED Homophone of “past” (which works whether you say your As southern or northern style..)
15. TERRAPIN PARR (young salmon) reversed in TEN
16. NATIONAL Cryptic definition, referring to the Grand National, which is run on the Aintree racecourse
19. ETCHER Cryptic definition
21. STRAINER Double definition – a riddle is a device usded by gardeners to sieve stones etc out of soil
22. ADULTS Cryptic definition
24. CELTIC Double definition – a type of cross, and Glasgow football team
25. LION’S DEN LIONS (pride) + DEN (retreat) – again the two cryptic elements are uncomfortably close to their meanings in the answer
26. STOW Homophone of Stowe, a public school in Buckinghamshire
27. RAIN BURST A “reverse cryptic” clue, unusual for Rufus I think – Iran is an anagram of rain, so it’s RAIN BURST
Down
1. COLON CO + LON[don]
2. ONEROUS ONE + SOUR*
3. SLEEK L in SEEK
4. VIOLENT (NOVEL IT)*
5. REINFORCE REIN + FORCE – not quite such a bad double use of FORCE here, but it’s rather surprising to see it used twice in the same puzzle, and even in intersecting answers
6. SAMARIA Cryptic definition – where the Good Samaritan came from
7. ON THE LINE Double definition
13. APARTMENT PART (some) in MEANT*
14. DINING CAR Cryptic definition
17. IN A STEW (A NEWT IS)*
18. LORELEI Just about a double definition, for the famous large rock on the Rhine, and the water spirit that shares its name
20. CRUISER Double definition – a type of ship or craft, and a cruiserweight boxer – a category I had not previously heard of
22. A-BOMB MOB* in AB
23. THEFT THE + F[oo]T – theft is a “taking offence”

24 comments on “Guardian 25,982 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Andrew and Rufus

    Some nicely surprising cluing in this fairly typical Rufus puzzle.

    I knew ‘cruiserweight’ but was less sure about ‘cruiser’ as an abbreviated form of it.

    Several ticks along the way – 6a!, 12a, 19a, 2d, 6d!.

  3. As usual for me with Rufus, vast sections fitted in easily, a few holes had to wait far longer. Often this is my own obtuseness. I knew ETCHER fitted but only after some time, when brave enough to enter it, did I twig why. SHOE was very very late too.

    The double FORCE was a surprise too. Still, STRAINER had a Pauline alternative surface, based on the rhyming slang.

  4. My favourite clues in this puzzle were 7d, 6a, 22a, 23d & 14d.

    New word for me was PARR = ‘young salmon’.

    I could not parse 20d.

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  5. I thought 6d was really weird for a Rufus. I thought the ‘good man’ was a reference to Jesus and Jacob’s well. Or the healing of the lepers? I mean, I know Rufus is fond of the old CDs…

    Glad I waited for your blog before rushing into print and making myself a laughing-stock.

    At one point this had a decidedly biblical look, what with SAMARIA, LION’S DEN and VIOLENT RAINBURST.

    I found it unusually tough for a Monday.

  6. Good puzzle with some difficult cds/dds

    Thanks Andrew; I think RAIN BURST must be an American expression as I can’t find it in One Look or British dictionaries. The more usual expression is cloud burst.

    SHOE was my last in and a good misleading clue. I also liked ETCHER and SAMARIA.

  7. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    Gentle but quite enjoyable with last couple in being SLEEK and UNLOCK.

    Liked 24a, with the subtlety of CELTIC being one of the sides based in Glasgow along with Rangers. Was also surprised at the reverse anagram.

    Thought UNLOCK – to free up admittance was subtly good – ? at end a help.

  8. I found this fairly easy, although as some of you have pointed out there were a couple of types of clue that you rarely see Rufus use. ETCHER was my LOI.

    I saw LORELEI as a cryptic definition rather than a DD. My GK was sufficient to solve it as soon as I read it, but if it hadn’t been the clue would have been unsolvable without resort to aids.

    Did Rufus invent RAIN BURST? I know cloudburst but I can’t find a reference to rain burst, either as one word or two, in my Chambers or any of the online dictionaries that ONELOOK accesses.

  9. Is 6d cryptic ? More general knowledge perhaps… similarly 18d: sort-of cd, sort-of dd.
    To my chagrin, I didn’t get 19a, but that was perfectly fair.

  11. I must say that I found this reasonably straightforward! The top half went in like a dream, and I was only really stuck on 19a and 20d. I initially had BRUISER for the latter…

    Wasn’t convinced I had 10a or 27a right, but couldn’t find any alternatives which fitted.

    Thanks to Rufus and to Andrew.

  12. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

    I like the reverse anagram in 26 – even though I initially entered RAIN STORM. Eventually I found that the second word had to be B-R-T leading to BURST. I am like others here having never heard of this combination of words.

    I am reminded of a favourite reversal: Nommag(10) 🙂

  14. Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

    I went wrong three times today – I tried ‘plane’ at 3, ‘rain break’ at 27 and most stupidly ‘in the ring’ at 7, so needless to say this took far longer to complete than most Mondays. Quite happy to accept that the fault was entirely mine.

    Is it just me, or is this by far Rufus’s favourite grid – he seems to use it again and again.

    Favourite by a mile was THEFT which was my last in.

  15. A warning to occasional gardeners re 21A, based on recent personal experience: extended use of a riddle definitely strains your back muscles

  16. Rowland @13

    This is quite a friendly grid. He used it in his last puzzle. The one before that was on the unfriendly side. The one before that was the same as this.
    The one before that was as unfriendly as they come. He deserves some credit for using it less often of late.

    Picaroon’s grid last week was very unfriendly, because his theme required it. Which also made it less of a difficulty. I think Rufus’s more friendly grids are usually balanced by slightly more testing clueing.

  17. Robi@10 – thanks for the link. I’m not sure how I missed your comment @6. Because ONELOOK accesses American online dictionaries as well as British ones and none of them recognises the term it must be a phrase that has only just started to enter American English.

  18. As a frequent blogger of crosswords by Rufus his 8ac I am very familiar with his puzzles and the pluses and minuses of them.
    However today was a bit of a disappointment.

    Where is the anagram indicator in 8ac? Is it the hardly acceptable Araucarian ‘as’?
    ‘Stop’ (1d) equals COLON?
    We thought 9ac was very superfluously-wordy.
    And 19ac, is it really cryptic?

    Last weekend we didn’t have the time to tackle Paul.
    Therefore we gave this Rufus puzzle a follow-up by cracking that one.
    And cracking it was.

    Thanks Andrew.
    BTW, you forgot to mention the I (one) in 15ac.

  21. @Sil #18

    STOP
    Collins: (and OED has it as archaic)
    8. (Communication Arts / Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) Brit a punctuation mark, esp a full stop

    so eg a COLON. BY guesswork that’s why a full stop is so called, being one particular stop.

    Not usually a Rufus fan but of its type I thought this one was quite meaty. Sure, lots of CDs and DDs – but some rather good ones.

  24. Hi Curious Art – L is a common crossword abbreviation for things like “novice” or “student”. It comes from “L-plates” (L=Learner), which are what people have to put on their cars before they’ve passed the driving test.

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