Guardian 26,347 by Rufus

43 comments on “Guardian 26,347 by Rufus”

1. Favourites 8d and 17d. Found it a bit more challenging than most Mondays. So thanks to Rufus for that and thanks manehi for an early blog.

2. Thanks Rufus and manehi
   I found this a lot harder than usual for a Rufus, and failed on TOPS UP. I liked TRANSEPT.

   I was baffled by BORNEO, partly because I saw BORE rather than BORNE for “carried”, and partly because I wouldn’t describe it as a “Pacific island” (in either sense of the word “pacific”).

3. Thanks Everyman and manehi

   My favourites were 12a, 2d, 21a, 25a.

   I needed help to parse 10a, 9a.

   Like muffin @ 2 – I was unsure about Borneo being a Pacific island and was trying to think of another island for a while….

4. Borneo is in the South China Sea, ‘a marginal sea that is part if the Pacific Ocean’ (Wiki). But I needed to check.

   Another ‘rudiments’ Rufus for me; the week pulls away smoothly in first gear, maintaining full control; as it should be.

   Thanks to troopers Rufus and manehi.

5. 10a had me stumped not being a poker player.
   Thank you Rufus and especially manehi without whose help I would never have finished.

6. Thanks Rufus and manehi

   Actually found this not as hard as the last couple of weeks – but I think that has more to do with being on his wave length of cd / dd style clues.

   Last couple in were TRY OUT and TRANSEPT.

   Also had to see if the Pacific stretched that far west to include BORNEO – and spent a little time trying to work the A into BORNE until twigging to the ’round’.

7. Thanks Rufus and manehi.

   For Borneo, Collins says simply: ‘an island in the W Pacific,’ so I think it should be acceptable.

   I liked the stakeholder.

8. Usual Monday fare, but there were one or two I had to think about a bit. Last in was TOPS UP and MAIDEN OVER also took longer than it should have. I wondered about BORNEO too but concluded that the China Sea is at least loosely part of the Pacific, so I liked the misdirection.

   Thanks to manehi and Rufus

9. Thanks, manehi, for the blog.

   Not too bad for a Rufus, but 11 and 8 are the all too familiar straight definitions. Of course, “step up from the gutter” suggests a second meaning, as do “flight” and “landing,” and if the answers played on those second meanings instead of the obvious first meanings, they would then be cryptic definitions. I almost paused before entering the obvious STAIR CARPET, thinking perhaps there was something else to do with aeroplanes going on. But then I remembered it was Rufus.

   Perhaps the question mark at the end of the clue to 11 is there to ask, “Is this clever enough to be a cryptic clue?” It is not.

10. Sorry — same comments apply to 2 as well. I thought I remembered two odd question marks.

11. Just like the first two posters I found this slightly harder than the average Rufus.

    Manehi, you started your preamble with “Plenty of double and cryptic defs as usual from Rufus” but isn’t this becoming a bit of a cliché?
    There were 4 CDs and 5DDs which is not a World Record for Rufus.
    On the other hand, there were 6 full anagrams and 9 charades!

    Thanks for the blog.
    And Rufus for the entertainment.

12. Thanks, manehi.

    Just to be contrary, I found this a bit easier than the average Rufus – all those anagrams and charades!

    I also paused over ‘Pacific’ for BORNEO, but I satisfied myself that this was an accurate placement. Just ‘Carried round an island’ would have sufficed, though the clue would have been slightly harder to crack (and thereby less Rufusian?).

    How one responds to cryptic definition clues like 8d depends on which of the two meanings springs first to mind. Unlike Ian SW3 @9, I saw the aviation sense first, so the domestic fittings connotation only came to me after a while, and provoked a smile: in fact, it was one of my favourite clues, alongside the great surface of 18a.

13. I often feel the need to remind contributors herein that these crosswords aren’t for ‘us’, they are for everyone. Thinking about my son and daughter-in-law, busy parents who are easing themselves into crossword-land as their children get older (and wouldn’t even think about checking out 15×15), the STAIR CARPET clue would be a real educator. As a play on words and misdirection, it is utterly brilliant unless you are an old hand, and expect ‘flight’ to mean stairs as much as aviation.

    Ian SW3 – they simply are NOT straight clues if you are not a regular and they ARE cryptic. It’s a national daily paper, not a specialist daily crossword. Other, harder crosswords are available.

    I think we had this recently – the cartoon of two ducks talking to each other. One says he is a Mallard, found mainly in temperate and subtropical areas; the other says he is a Smew, found mainly in crosswords.

    I appreciate this blog is for such discussion, but not at the expense of essentially being rude to the setters. “Not too bad for a Rufus” suggests that Rufus sets bad and less bad crosswords. No, he sets accessible crosswords that most people who start it won’t be able to complete, which any of us can pick up online entirely free or as a very small proportion of the cost of a £1.60 daily newspaper.

    Rant over!

14. Well said Tim Phillips @13

15. Bravo Tim Phillips and more power to Rufus. Totally agree about doable crosswords for us mere mortals – if the Guardian were full of Paul crosswords I wouldn’t have a prayer – I sometimes get only two or three clues. Thanks Manehi.

16. Well,RUFUS puzzles are more accessible than most other Guardian setters and to say this is not to disparage them; it’s more to do with our expectations of a particular setter. That said,it took me ages to get TOPS UP. I liked STAIRCARPET but I seem to remember this clue being used before by RUFUS not so long ago? But perhaps I’m wrong.

17. Thanks Manehi. I found this pretty tricky.

    I enjoyed STAIR CARPET but agree that KERB was just not cryptic enough.

18. Indeed – it’s not about two sets of people; those who can and those who can’t. It’s a spectrum. And we need also to remember that setters are a spectrum as well: not better or worse, but different. ‘orses for courses.

    It’s a pastime, which I always thought was about relaxation at a time when there is no other pressure on your time. If crossword clues annoy you, or you feel they are somehow invalid, maybe you should think about a different pastime!

19. @13 Tim Phillips: absolutely correct!! Well written!! If posters wish to flaunt their brilliance, no problem; although we only have their word for it. But it really upset me when we on 15×15 denigrate setters. I really feel that that is not what this blog is for. Rufus has set more crosswords than most of us have tried to solve so he deserves our respect, not being damned by faint praise.

20. I thought 5a was clever as it also refers to streaming video as a “current production”.

21. Tim Phillips @13
    re “smew” – this week’s Quiptic also features an animal found only in crosswords.

22. Tim @13 and @18 – while I agree with much of what you say I think you are being a bit unfair on Ian SW3. He doesn’t like Rufus’s style for sure but he states his own personal opinion and criticises Rufus’s clues, this is not the same as personal criticism of Rufus himself. Moreover he doesn’t claim to speak for anyone else or claim that other people should have the same views as he does.

    This is a site for commenting on crosswords, if negative comments on crosswords are not acceptable then this site becomes a bit pointless. Tolerance of other people’s views is what makes this site work.

23. Thanks all
    I am struggling very badly with the holiday special from Saturday so this came as a nice bit of light relief. Last in were theses and tenanted ( cookie @5 put ante in your memory bank, it’s a regular in cryptics).

24. I thought this was a typical Rufus puzzle inasmuch as I didn’t find it any easier or any harder than the majority of his puzzles. BOASTS was my LOI because I didn’t know the squash shot and I was pleased to find it was correct when I checked it post-solve.

25. I am not criticising Rufus for composing easy crosswords, and I recognise the demand for less challenging puzzles for beginners (though the Guardian already has an entry-level crossword in the Quiptic). My complaint is that he always has too many clues that are not even cryptic, and so they will be of no use to learners, as they will not encounter such clues anyhere else. I am by no means alone in saying this.

    Perhaps 11d is more cryptic than it seemed, but you don’t have to have been solving long to realise that “flight” usually means “stairs” not “aviation,” just as flowers and bankers are always rivers.

    Thanks to those who came to my defence. As for the suggestion that I give up crosswords if I don’t enjoy them, I do enjoy them each and every day — except for three Mondays a month.

26. Well said Tim. I have been doing the Guardian crossword on and off for fifty years and I believe that they have become much less accessible to ‘ordinary’ solvers. Mainly recently and I think, in large part due to bloggers moaning about how easy that was. “I solved it before my coffee got cold” doesn’t really help us mortals and ratchets up the difficulty.

27. But that’s the whole point, Ian; flight doesn’t always mean stairs and flowers and bankers aren’t always rivers. So that’s of immense use to ‘learners’ (a term that itself I find somewhat pejorative).

    It’s a shame you don’t enjoy crosswords on three Mondays a month (why three?), but if you don’t enjoy them, why on earth do you do them, let alone comment on them? I don’t do non-mandatory things that I don’t enjoy.

    Crosswords – “it’s just a bit of fun”.

    And I have to say, “not too bad for a Rufus” @ 9 does sound very much like you are indeed “criticising Rufus for composing easy crosswords” @ 25!

    I don’t mind – anyone can say what they like. I am just uncomfortable reading some comments directed at setters as if they have to comply with certain unwritten standards, which just don’t exist. Apart from that, I am a really happy man…honest!

28. Well said, Tim Phillips.

    I read 16d as a double definition – maintains = tops up (eg “tops up the car”)/a high level = top’s up.

    Thanks Rufus and Manehi.

29. What a brilliant blog- and many thanks to Tim P for articulating my own opinions so clearly.

    Unfortunately I have only had about 20 minutes today to look at the crossword but one of the few clues I got was TRANSEPT and I was just going to say that I thought “metamorphosis” was a brilliant “anagrind”.

    Having read the blog I feel driven to add a few comments. I have been a lifelong Guardian reader but until recently did not take the crossword seriously as it always seemed too “difficult”. Rufus, however, was the sole exception as he was the only setter I could understand.

    Since discovering 15×15 I have been disturbed by the patronising attitude to Rufus. I realise that some of his clues are irritating as they are capable of more than one solution but he is the most accessible of the Guardian setters to people like me who regard the crossword as an “extra” to the paper and can’t be bothered to hunt down the Quiptic electronically.

    I also agree with the comments regarding clue words like flower and lower – it’s more fun when they don’t refer to waterways or ruminants!

30. Thanks Rufus and Manehi,

    I enjoyed this – Rufus always has more cryptic definitions that make you think in a different way to most Guardian setters – sometimes I find this frustrating because if you don’t “get them” then you can’t hack them out from the wordplay – but no complaints with this one…

    FOI 5a, LOI 12a (I had real problems thinking of a word to fit the first part – d’oh)

    Ah – didn’t parse 10a but couldn’t be anything else…

    Favourite I think was 8d – the great thing about cryptic definitions (and Rufus does them very well) is the pleasure when the penny drops…

31. Well OK for a Rufus 😉

    A couple of clues that weren’t obvious and nothing outrageously non-cryptic.

    I’ve been doing the Guardian crossword for 42 years and these are my honest opinions. As this is a site to discuss 15×15 cryptic crosswords I believe I am just as entitled to air them here as as any one else.

    I am also fairly sure that Rufus doesn’t give a flying **** what I or indeed anybody else thinks about his offerings. I think he’s been doing this long enough to know that it goes with the territory.

    Any implied criticisms on here are surely primarily aimed at the editorial policy and not at the poor underpaid setters who merely supply what is required of them. (Thanks to them for that.)

    Ian SW3 is only expressing what hundreds of others, myself included, are feeling.

    Thanks to manehi and Rufus

32. B(NTO)

    “hundreds of others…”

    Are you sure? The responses above would suggest otherwise.

    Have you asked Rufus whether or not he gives a flying **** what anybody else thinks?

    None of us has to take part in this website. But there is comment/discussion and there is being rude.

    @ Ian; perhaps perversely, this wasn’t directed at you (personally). You happened to be the first to appear in my…oh, what’s that perennial crossword clue? Oh yes, cross hairs. I just get fed up with comments such as your last @9. Who are you – or I – to make such judgements?

33. @32
    Well put.

    As well as wondering a little at B(NTO)’s somewhat conjectural hundreds of kindred spirits I counted the total of defenders (“those who came to my defence”) Ian SW3 had been moved to thank @25. The total was one, PeeDee, and even he said he agreed with you.

34. Tim Phillips @ 32

    “Are you sure? The responses above would suggest otherwise.” WHY?

    Of course what I say is conjecture just as what you say is also conjecture. No facts can be gleaned from this smallest of small samples.

    Over the years many people, like myself, have complained about the dwindling standard of Rufus puzzles. (In their opinion of course) They have been “shouted down” by Rufus’s many supporters on here.

    I suspect that this has led many posters to “give up” commenting on the Monday puzzle.

    However despite this “righteous indignation” there has been a marked improvement in Rufus’s puzzles over the last 6 months. (Last year he was sometimes getting away with murder. IMHO of course)

    Finally, I don’t understand this “rude” nonsense. How exactly has anybody been rude with Rufus. The man is paid by the Guardian to produce puzzles. Presumably these are vetted by the editor and published in the public domain.

    Nobody as far as I am aware has said “Rufus you have a big nose” or “Rufus, you are thick and ugly”. That would be rude. All they have done is expressed their opinion that one of his puzzles wasn’t up to standard. Very rarely has anybody said they were too easy. Usually the complaints are about poor CDs or DDs (often with several valid solutions) or just clues that can barely be described as “cryptic”. The other point that people make is that his puzzles are so different than the majority of other cryptic setters that they are of little use to “beginners” in learning the art of solving cryptics.

    All this may or may not be valid or even interesting, just the honest belief of the poster. However in my opinion it is certainly not rude.

35. Well, what a lot has been going on here this evening!

    So I’m going to wade in with my twopennarth. I can see both sides of this debate. I think the problem has been that some comments do appear to be critical of the setter rather than the clues provided which was probably the intention and then things got a bit heated.

    Surely the fact that I as a long standing solver, and many, many other people have never had any bother at all in completing the Guardian crossword, either on Mondays or any other day of the week, proves that they are ALL good crosswords. If there are one or two clues that you can classify as semi cryptic or more quick crossword in style, what does it matter? A lot of people who are beginners but keen to learn surely deserve their chance to get a start. Those who want a better challenge have plenty of other options like the genius etc.

    Perhaps we should just keep calm and be thankful that there are enough people like Rufus who are willing to spend their time creating our daily brain workout. Where would we be without them?

36. Ian SW3 @10 – re 2, “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.”

    Peter A @16 – in 25395, in Aug 2011, Rufus gave us ‘Steps inside?’ for STAIRCASE.

    B(nto) @31 – I asked Rufus at one of the S&Bs if he minded the dreary whinging about his puzzles being “too easy’. He said that it was his job to set Monday puzzles that are “not difficult”.

    Tim Pillips – well said throughout.

37. Now, I am a blogger too and actually one that blogs the relatively easy Monday FT puzzles, about half of them provided by Rufus’ alter ego Dante.
    Just like Ian (who started it all @9), I usually prefer a tougher challenge than the puzzles that I blog.
    But I will not use terms similar to “not too bad for a Rufus” as it indeed reflects a strong personal opinion towards this setter’s crosswords in general which, I think, is not relevant.

    I try to be as objective as possible, focusing on whether clues are well-written or not.
    Of course, quite regularly, I do have complaints/questions about clues but I do not want my queries or opinions to set the tone.
    I am generally more interested in whether a clue is technically all right than in whether it was over in less than 10 seconds.
    For me, the level of satisfaction of a puzzle isn’t necessarily linked to its level of difficulty. But it can be, of course.

    I think the much mentioned 8d today is quite a good CD because of its ‘airplane’ surface. For some, the solution may be too obvious but for me the quality of writing is just as important. And this one was, in my opinion, quite good.

    I am wholeheartedly with Tim Phillips in all his comments.

    And, Brendan NTO, saying “The man is paid by the Guardian to produce puzzles” is a complete disgrace. Really the wrong approach, IMO.
    I met Rufus on more than one occasion and he is someone who is genuinely interested in people who are interested in his crosswording skills.
    However, not in people who are marginalising him anyway.

38. Now come on Sil! To say

    “And, Brendan NTO, saying “The man is paid by the Guardian to produce puzzles” is a complete disgrace. Really the wrong approach”

    is REALLY a disgrace. It is also being rude with me personally. (Which I’ll forgive this once. 😉 )

    I was merely trying to point out the difference between one doing something on an amateur and a professional basis. The former can expect no criticism but perhaps gentle advice whereas the latter should expect criticism if necessary.

    Why is this the wrong approach or even a disgrace?

    I also said in my early post that

    “Any implied criticisms on here are surely primarily aimed at the editorial policy and not at the poor underpaid setters who merely supply what is required of them. (Thanks to them for that.)”

    I suppose that is a disgrace too 🙂

    All this overprotectiveness towards certain setters is merely serving to stifle lively debate.

39. Personally I enjoy Rufus crosswords. I recognise that they are somewhat more accessible than those set by Nutmeg and others. I rarely fully complete a Guardian crossword, and turn to 15 x 15 for help towards the end of the day. Thank you to those who day by day provide not only the answer but more importantly the explanation.

    Regarding today’s debate. I was a little perplexed by 11a thinking immediately that the solution was kerb but then doubting whether I was being too simplistic.

    However that did not detract from the pleasure of solving the crossword.

    My thanks to Rufus et al.

40. Thanks all for the comments.

    Sil@11: It may well be my own reaction to the Rufus ‘cliche’, but the cd’s and dd’s did stick in my mind more when solving/blogging – they do tend to be limited to 1-2 appearances in most other crosswords, whereas anagram and charade numbers have a higher variance anyway.

    On cryptic defs: I do find it unfortunate that there can be numerous cryptic def clues that all hinge on the same play on words – especially shibboleths such as ‘flower’ – such that a certain amount of experience moves them from impenetrable to trivial and that there is therefore only one ‘aha’ moment followed by a lifetime of write-ins. I’m certainly glad that there are repeated opportunities for newcomers to get that first ‘aha’ – and even the second time, there’s some thrill in the feeling of progress – but there are definitely occasions where ‘oh, that again’ is quite the underwhelming feeling. I generally don’t mind ‘just obvious’ cryptic defs too much, as long as a cryptic interpretation is possible – I saw KERB almost immediately, then paused and smiled afterwards. And RANSOM was definitely an ‘aha’ for me, so thanks Rufus.

41. Well said Tim Phillips and also (despite his moniker) Coltranesax.

    I must confess that there was a time when I would have preferred an Araucaria/Paul/Enigmatist-type wordplay crunch every day of the week but I have come increasingly to like Rufus’s puzzles.

    CDs and DDs simply offer a different tussle – they are not necessarily easy per se but they avoid complex wordplays for those not yet accustomed to such things.

    CDs are sometimes unfairly criticised for not being cryptic at all. Since they depend on a plain meaning being the first interpretation and a different cryptic one being the key to the answer the effect is obviously lost if the solver happens on the latter meaning first – but that doesn’t mean the clue was no good. Maybe it’s a bit like twigging the punchline to a joke before it arrives.

    OTOH back in the day – before things settled down (and before the Ximenean heresy spread its insidious influence) puzzles would frequently have the occasional non-cryptic clue in the mix. No harm done if you know it’s part of the game.

    The quotation clue (with a missing word) was also commonplace. Was that so harmful that it had to be totally banned?

    Personally I think I prefer not to have literal clues but the odd quotation clue wouldn’t hurt provided it was not too obscure and particularly if it suggested to the solver an interesting line of enquiry they might want to follow up on.

42. OK Brendan NTO, @38 – if you’re still there – I will take back my ‘disgraceful’ words. Actually, I shouldn’t write comments after midnight anyway.

    Still, I do not fully agree.
    When you say “The man is paid by the Guardian to produce puzzles”, I think you actually mean ‘proper puzzles’.
    And, in your own words, not puzzles of ‘a dwindling standard’.

    Rufus’ crosswords are completely unique (within the world of the broadsheets [I haven’t looked beyond that]) and worth being published. Don’t worry, he can gear up a bit if needed but the editors (plural) don’t want him to.
    Somewhere above I read: “I am also fairly sure that Rufus doesn’t give a flying **** what I or indeed anybody else thinks about his offerings”. I think he does, he most certainly reads all these comments here. He sometimes drops in, too. But his style has become his style and that’s it. I personally don’t see any reason for him to change.

    Yes, the puzzles are easy (are they?) and especially double definitions are not my cup of tea as I find it a lazy device.
    But having said that, take a closer look at Paul’s crosswords (or even more at Mudd’s in the FT) and see that even he uses DDs quite a lot. Nobody’s complained about that so far!

    I still think that solvers who criticise Rufus find his clueing too simplistic and therefore not good enough.
    I am not one of those. I actually enjoy the smoothness of his clues, knowing that some clues will indeed be weak but that the overall feel will be good.

    Some solvers, often more experienced, have their stomach turned around just by seeing the name Rufus on a puzzle, before even having a go at the crossword.
    I would say, don’t do the puzzle then.
    No solver has the right to demand 6 puzzles a week that fully matches their needs or ideas about what a crossword should be like.

    Every day, also on Monday, there are plenty of alternatives.
    Yesterday, for example, The Times offered three (!) crosswords – apart from the normal and the quiptic-style ones, a Jumbo too!
    All this for only 1.20 pounds.

    In Crosswordland there should be room for everyone, solvers with donkey’s years of experience, beginners, occasional solvers, you name it.
    In that sense, I really think the Guardian does a good job.

    Let’s leave it here.
    And once more, with some apologies to Brendan NTO but also admiration for Tim Phillips for formulating things so well.

    And now for the question of the day: 1 – ….. = 0.
    Talking about ‘simplistic’ 🙂 .

43. Thanks, Sil.

    I have only one thing to add…

    It’s only a bleedin’ crossword!

    Tim

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