Guardian 26,000 – Rufus

by

Very straightforward from Rufus today. I liked 12ac, 17ac, 8dn and especially 25dn.

Across
1 SERVICE cryptic def The start of proceedings on a tennis court.
5 CHABLIS =”Wine” (cash bill)*, minus L=Roman numeral for “fifty”
10 LIST double def =”Lean over”; =”table” [e.g. of contents]
11 ALPENSTOCK =”staff” (plane)* + STOCK=”store”
12 DRY RUN =”Rehearsal” TT=teetotal=DRY + RUN=”race”
13 OPENED UP double def =”Revealed”; =”was less reserved”
14 BACK-CLOTH =”Setting”, a backdrop (clock)* in BATH=”city”
16 HIDES =”keeps out of sight” HIDE=”cover” + S[outh]=”point”
17 GIANT =”Enormous” GI=”soldier” + ANT=”six-footer”
19 ANIMOSITY =”display of ill will” I’M + rev(SO) + IT, all inside ANY
23 CHESTNUT double def =”Wooden”; =”horse”
24 ENIGMA =”Puzzle” (in game)*
26 EASY STREET =”affluent living” EASY=”Simple” + STREET=”way”
27 OVAL =”curved shape” O=zero=”Love” + VAL[erie]=”girl”
28 ILLNESS =”COMPLAINT” I’LL=”I will” + NESS=”head”
29 FORFEIT =”Concede” FIT=”well”, around ORFE=”fish”
Down
2 ERITREA =”foreign country” (retire)* + A
3 VOTER cryptic def a VOTER will put a cross in the box by their preferred option
4 CHANNEL double def =”TV line”; =”between England and France”
6 HUNTER cryptic def “pursuits” in the sense of “chases”, rather than “hobbies”
7 BATTERIES double def =”They provide power”; “gun emplacements”
8 INCLUDE “take one in” (clued in)*
9 OPPORTUNITIES =”possibilities of advancement” (Points out ripe)*
15 KINGS LYNN =”in Norfolk” KINGS=”College” + LYNN=”girl”
18 ISHMAEL =the “outcast” son of Abraham in the Bible (his meal)*
20 MAESTRO cryptic def the “straight” reading implies a teacher of music
21 TIMPANI =”drums” (paint)* around I=”one” + M=Roman numeral for “one thousand”
22 UNITES =”Joins” UNITS=”military formations” around E[ast]
25 IN-OFF =”pockets the ball” [snooker] In cricket, IN=”batting”, and OFF=the “side” opposite the batsman’s legs.

15 comments on “Guardian 26,000 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and manehi

    I found the SW surprisingly tricky, but it fell into place when I got EASY STREET.

    I thought some of the clueing was rather weak – indeed I “checked” INCLUDE as I didn’t think it could possibly be that easy. I did like DRY RUN, though.

  2. THanks manehi and Rufus

    Pretty straightforward as said. I did not much like 6d and 20d which seemed scarcely cryptic, but generally the cluing was typically smooth as one expects from Rufus. I particularly liked 11a and 14a.

  3. I particularly liked 12a, 17a, 26a, 19a, 29a, 10a and my favourite was 3d VOTER (last in).

    New words for me today were ALPENSTOCK, IN-OFF.

    Thanks for the blog, manehi.

  5. Struggled with top section for a while because misled into thinking that 11 and 12 answers would be anagrams. Thanks Rufus and manehi.

  6. Even easy for me. Sole struggle was an initial VICAR (different type of cross) for VOTER, until I realised that then, a possible ZINC notwithstanding,10a made no sense.

  7. A pleasant way of spending time when it’s hot. Not sure I really want to work up a sweat on a hard one when the temperature is like this.

    Maybe I spent too many years in software, but having list=table, common though it is, always makes me feel uneasy as, in that sphere, a list is quite specifically one dimensional and a table is quite specifically two dimensional (or more), and therefore not the same thing at all. So in the example in the blog, I always think of “table of contents” as just that, a table, I never think of it as a list.

  8. Largely pleasant solve, although I, too, thought MAESTRO and INCLUDE were pretty weak.

    Thanks manehi; I thought of romance as a possible answer for 1a at first, but I did like that clue and the one for DRY RUN.

  9. Usual Rufus fare.

    I did like 12A so some entertainment.

    Please can somebody explain to me how Rufus can offer the likes of 20d and only get mild criticisms of “a bit weak” whereas last weeks 20D from Gordius was described as “not at all cryptic” by Eileen. I believe that compared to today’s 20d it was a more than reasonable CD as I have argued previously.

    Thanks to manehi and Rufus.

  10. @BNTO

    The dweeb and related species like to hunt in packs. Gordius appears not to network with the setterariat so they pick on him – school playground style.

    It seems to me that both Rufus and Gordius represent, in different ways, a style of setting which was common around the mid 60s, and both of their puzzles can be fun to do as long as you accept them for what they are; ie they are intentionally that and not an attempt at Ximeneanism gone wrong.

  12. @BNTO

    As manehi points out we are meant to think first that 20d means music teacher. I thought immediately of MAESTRO. I didn’t even pause to consider that it couldn’t be that obvious, because this is Rufus and I expect some of his CDs to be weak. Only afterwards did I think that, yes, ‘master’ can mean male teacher, though I can’t recall hearing it used like that in a very long time.

    In last week’s Gordius for ‘Male that might be engaged’ I did think that surely BOYFRIEND was too obvious and maybe ‘that’ rather than ‘who’ was meant to mislead. Or maybe ‘engaged’ could mean hired. But ‘male’ precludes that. So neither DECORATOR nor STRIPAGRAM crossed my mind. I concluded, like Eileen, that the clue was not merely weak but not all cryptic. When you began by saying that you were amazed I thought you were trying to be ironic, sarcastic even.

    I don’t think your criticism of Eileen’s blog of the Gordius puzzle was valid. Even if it were you should not have used your post to criticise Rufus. And now you should not be using manehi’s blog to go on criticising Eileen.

  13. Rhotician @19

    No, no irony or sarcasm, just amazement.

    I still don’t see why ‘Male that might be engaged’ leads directly to “boyfriend”. Probably about 20th on the list for me! I suppose it hinges on one’s first interpretation of “engaged”. Mine didn’t have any romantic connotations.

    Whereas ‘Music master’ leads immediately to Maestro. Not least because there isn’t a common word for a music teacher that I know and master is almost maestro anyway.

    Swagman @10

    I suspect your first paragraph is probably true. 😉

  15. Well, yes, a phone might be engaged, as might a toilet, but I’m still not persuaded.

    Hyperbole, as in “amazement” and “20th”, doesn’t help your case.

    Nor does JS’s “dweeb and related species”. Quite the reverse, as it’s such a “school playground style” of wit.

Comments are closed.