Guardian 26,191 / Brendan

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It’s a long time since we had a Rufusless Monday: December 9th was the last time Brendan was called up from the bench.

If anyone had told me the theme before I began, I would not have believed how much I would enjoy solving this puzzle. I have never played the game in my life but surprised myself by how many of the terms I was familiar with [a number of them from crosswords, I suspect] and this is one of those clever puzzles, typical of Brendan, where the theme is interwoven into both clues and answers – with some excellent surfaces – without demanding any detailed knowledge of it.

Many thanks to Brendan – a pleasant start to the week!

Across

7 One hoping trick will work, actually being taken in by French (8)
FINESSER
IN ESSE [actually] in FR [French]

9 Handsome youth holding hand down bids in oddly deficient way (6)
ADONIS
Even letters [oddly deficient] of hAnD dOwN bIdS

10 After top honour, duke worsted in court, in a way (4)
ACED
ACE [top honour card] + D [duke] – reference to both bridge and tennis

11 Hard to handle, like a pointless holding? (10)
UNBIDDABLE
Double definition

12 Positive indicators about right requirements for contract (6)
TRICKS
TICKS [positive indicators] round R [right]

14 Difficult partner no longer playing (8)
EXACTING
EX [partner no longer] + ACTING [playing]

15 Claim about line with ace and queen that’s made by professional (6)
SALARY
SAY [claim] round L [line] A [ace] R [queen]

17 Don’t follow suit — change to green energy (6)
RENEGE
Anagram [change to] of GREEN + E [energy]

20 Complaint I had rejected — more upset about diamonds (8)
DISORDER
DI [reversal – rejected] of I’D [I had] SORER [more upset] round D [diamonds]

22 Defend against South, in another test for learner (6)
RESIST
S [south] in RESIT [another test for learner]

23 Made first bid, holding cards tight? Just the opposite (4-6)
OPEN-HANDED
OPENED [made first bid] round HAND [cards] – My favourite clue, I think

24 Reports from one couple at table about another (4)
NEWS
NS [two partners at bridge] round EW [the other couple]

25 Didn’t bid spades, oddly (6)
PASSED
Anagram [oddly] of SPADES

26 Turn of partner to err — for example, about passing (8)
ELAPSING
EG [for example] round LAP [reversal – turn – of PAL – partner] + SIN [err]

Down

1 For instance, gets rid of diamond, being heartless? (8)
DISCARDS
A cryptic definition, referring to playing a diamond rather than a heart – I think

2 Start putting one’s cards on the table in corrupt deal (4)
LEAD
Anagram [corrupt] of DEAL – a nice surface, which could easily refer to a business contract, too

3 Concerns — lots of little ones raised by partners, normally (6)
ISSUES
Double / cryptic definition

4 Patience, for example, as funny fellow hunted animals (4,4)
CARD GAME
CARD [funny fellow] + GAME [hunted animals]

5 People managing without skill name business associates (2-8)
CO-PARTNERS
COPERS [people managing] round ART [skill] + N [name]

6 Nothing old foursome raised for player taking bow (6)
VIOLIN
Reversal [raised] of NIL [nothing] + O [old] + IV [foursome]

8 Some 19 that’s extractable from tropical plants or shrubbery (6)
RUBBER
Double definition – and it’s also ‘hidden’ in shRUBBERy

13 Bid one’s spades over West, showing immaturity (10)
CALLOWNESS
CALL [bid] + ONE’S S [spades] round W [west]

16 Penalties for players, not clubs (3,5)
RED CARDS
Double definition, again with a reference to a different game

18 Blow to West coming from unwise bid, ultimately, since double goes in (4,4)
EAST WIND
AS [since] + TWIN [double] in last letters [ultimately] of unwisE biD

19 Part of 6 or 24 down for English composer (6)
BRIDGE
The theme word of the puzzle cleverly clued by three more definitions: the composer is Frank Bridge

21 Way to dramatically expose king not ruled out (2,4)
IN PLAY
Lear, for instance, is a king dramatically exposed [Edit: see jvh’s comment @3 – will I ever live this down?] – and another football etc reference

22 Leader’s odd new arrangement of pack (6)
REDEAL
Anagram [odd] of LEADER

24 Advance cautiously, finishing in two hearts, vulnerable (4)
NOSE
Last letters [finishing] of iN twO heartS vulnerablE

31 comments on “Guardian 26,191 / Brendan”

  1. I completed this but didn’t enjoy it at all. Nothing wrong with the clues I hasten to add, it’s just that I loathe card games with a passion and would rather go to the dentist than participate in them. Fortunately, not too much acquaintance with the finer points was needed to solve the puzzle. I hope that tomorrow’s puzzle doesn’t have a chess theme as that’s the only other pastime that comes close to irritating me as much as bridge and the like.
    I’m sure that other solvers will be delighted with the puzzle, and I am, of course, pleased for them.

  2. Thanks Brendan and Eileen
    I have played a lot of bridge, and in some ways that proved a disadvantage – for instance I tried YARBOROUGH (a “pointless” hand) for 11a and REVOKE (the correct technical term, though Chambers does accept “renege”) for 17a.
    I almost totally failed in the NW, getting only LEAD and TRICKS, and not really understanding the others even when “cheating”! Thanks Eileen for the explanations.
    Loved RUBBER.
    Did anyone else blank out the “in” in constructing a word from last letters in 24d? Amazing how difficult it is to “see” small words. “GOSE” doesn’t work, of course, so I got the “NOSE” eventually!

  3. Thanks Eileen.

    I thought 21D was a reference to King Claudius, dramatically exposed by Hamlet (“the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King”).

  5. I’m another who enjoyed this despite having never played bridge. Thought there might be some wordplay going on with DISCARDS and ISSUES but apparently not.

  7. Thanks Eileen. I quite liked the way the theme shuffled through clues and answers, playfully repeating eg ace, bid, card, partner, tricks and lead-deal; and the surfaces were pretty good. As Cryptocyclist says, 1d seems inadequate: the ? Implying that discarding anything is usually done coldly.

  8. Thanks Eileen and Brendan

    An enjoyable start to the week. I got the Hamlet reference but was a bit dim about the full parsing of 3d and 10a though the answers were clear enough. 1a seemed to be of a different order of difficulty from the rest of the puzzle.

  9. Just looking in out of curiosity, but I think I can explain 1dn. You are only allowed to discard if you do not have any cards of the suit led, so if a heart is led you must be “heartless” to play a diamond.

  11. Thank God, a non-Rufus Monday! Good puzzle.

    I agree with jvh@3 about the Hamlet reference.

    “Renege” is a current Americanism and an archaism over here.

    I’ve had a link to the puzzle posted on the English Bridge Union’s web site (www.ebu.co.uk) – Brendan’s fame spreads far and wide!

  12. I’m another one who doesn’t play card games at all, and any knowledge I have of bridge has been gleaned entirely from doing crosswords over the last several years. I must have been paying enough attention because I managed to finish this without recourse to aids, and although it wasn’t my favourite Brendan puzzle by a long chalk I still appreciate the skill it must have taken to put it together.

    ISSUES was my LOI after FINESSER.

  13. Thanks, Eileen

    I’m surprised this puzzle has been damned with so much faint praise. I thought it was a tour de force by Brendan and I enjoyed it a lot; as an amateur setter I appreciate the great skill in constructing a puzzle so crammed with thematic references and yet eminently solvable even by those, like myself, who have never played (or wanted to play) bridge.

    I found most of this straightforward, apart from the NW quadrant which was a bit more recalcitrant, FINESSER being, IMHO, the most difficult clue/solution combination in the puzzle. I thought the cryptic definition and double definition clues were particularly good – it is Monday, after all.

  14. Nothing much to add – I’m another non-bridge player but that didn’t cause many problems. I missed the Hamlet reference and IN ESSE was new to me too. Last in were CALLOWNESS and SALARY.

    Thanks to Eileen and Brendan.

  15. For me Bridge is a distant memory, well over 30 years in the past. I won’t say it all came back to me because FINESSER needed aid – the Latin for actually being totally new to me.

    However I much preferred this to the normal Monday fare. RENEGE my favourite, perhaps because of its surface, but I really enjoyed getting the Shakespearian reference at 21 straight away (sorry Eileen).

  17. Thanks to Eileen for the blog. You explained a couple of cases where I had the right answer but not the parsing.

    I was really kicking myself over 19d: I had VIOLIN but not 24d and I really had no ideas. I looked at a list of composers then eventually came to Frank BRIDGE 🙁

    I am also not a bridge player but that was no problem as I knew all the terms – from somewhere.

  18. Don’t like bridge, didn’t really enjoy this. But the Hamlet ref gave me a brief pang of nostalgia for the rev. Sorry Brendan. Feel bad now.

  19. Well blow me! I’d have thought there’d be quite a crossover from bridge to crosswords in the community. I loved this and got a few bridge subtleties that are too verbose to attempt to type on my phone. Thanks Eileen and Brendan.

  20. I liked this. Though 16dn reminded me of the injustice suffered by Arsenal on Wednesday which I witnessed at the Emirates: keeper sent off, penalty given, emphatically a penalty for the club…

  21. muffin @ 2 – me too (YARBOROUGH and REVOKE)! But as they didn’t work, I eventually worked out what they should be. I had trouble with the NW corner.

    I thought the puzzle was great. Thanks to Brendan and Eileen.

  22. Re 1d, the essence of the clue is in “For instance” – if a trick was led in hearts, and you had none in your hand, you might discard a low diamond, or club or spade for that matter – emotion has nothing to do with it!

  23. Well firstly, what a pleasure to have a non_Rufus Monday.

    Secondly it was such a joy that this time Brendan hadn’t “dumbed down” for his “Mondays must be easy” slot. 😉

    I too thought this was a tour de force and thoroughly enjoyed it.

    Nothing wrong with 1d which is in fact an &lit. or not or even the other type of &lit which has been discussed recently. (Your choice) It’s already been explained that a discard in bridge is “throwing away an unwanted card when one can’t follow suit.)

    I would also like to point out that RENEGE is definitely not an archaism in England. Not where I play Bridge anyway. Also the card references are not solely Bridge (See 4D) and RENEGE is definitely the word used in games such as Welsh Don and Napolean in the pubs where such games are played.

    Thanks to Eileen and Brendan

  24. Enjoyed this greatly – much more than this setter’s usual offerings under the Brendan brand-name. Easy to forget that there’s been a lot more to this guy over the years – maybe (although I didn’t get to do many) his Sunday Telegraph puzzles being amongst his best – depending on your taste.

    1d I think the description in the blog is correct but the underlining needs either to be dropped (in a CD it’s implicit anyway) or cover the whole surface. Coming to it cold it makes a good CD (you think firstly of engagement rings) – knowing the theme it’s a bit of a giveaway, but none the worse for that.

    Haven’t played for a while but from memory it’s only usually called a discard if one suit is led and (finding yourself void) you play another suit but not a trump. If you pitch a rag from the led suit (sorry – more bridgespeak) I don’t think you normally call it a discard. So the definition is 100% accurate – “for instance” because one suit is arbitrarily chosen as an example.

    Much as I’d love to I can’t make an &lit (nor any fraction of one) out of it because (AFAICS) there’s no wordplay component. There is the possibility of seeing a long and a short version of the def – but that’s not enough.

    Many thanks to S&B.

  25. JS @24

    With regard to 1d of course you are right.

    I didn’t notice the lack of wordplay!!! (I blame the Tanglefoot)

    Yes it’s a CD with the whole clue supplying a third def.
    I did mean to mention in my original post that DISCARD can mean ABANDON which does suggest heartlessness.

  26. I’m in the “liked the clueing style but not the theme” school too.

    I’ve never played bridge, not enjoying card games in general, but have had to learn something about it to solve puzzles, as its terms appear often.

    Re IN ESSE, I’ve no idea at all why people sometimes use an uncommon (in English) Latin expression, when our own perfectly good term is equally compact. I was beaten by this.

    I’m not as rufusceptic as some, but did welcome the change for its own sake in any case.

    Thanks one and all.

  27. Really enjoyed this both as a solver and a bridge player. Well constructed and the occasional lead out of turn (ha ha)!!

    Well done Brendan for the redoubled effort.

  28. Thanks to Eileen, and Brendan for a lovely Monday start after last week’s combultounauriness. That’a a word, really.

    A very nice quarterly break from my old friend Rufus (I have come to terms with him these years ongoing). The theme was fun – what you hate bridge? – might as well hate books or history or crosswords.

  29. Thanks Brendan and Eileen

    Nice to get a bit of a challenge with this one – especially in the top left where 7a and 3d were the last two in. Picked up a card theme early enough which neither really helped nor hindered.

    Crisp clues made for it to be still very gettable.

  30. Huw @28 – a Google search for “combultounauriness” gives one result, which is a link to this page (and “did you mean combat insurance” which sounds just as unlikely…)

  31. I would just like to express my sympathies to all those poor blinkered souls who fulminate about not liking bridge. It’s akin, in the context of music, to not liking J. S. Bach or the Rolling Stones or Leonard Cohen. Such people just miss out on ***so much***.

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