Guardian 26,413 – Rufus

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I found this very much on the easy side, even by Rufus’s standards, with many clues being immediate write-ins, and no serious hold-ups. Thanks to the setter.
Across
1. CLASSIC Form gets 99 in Latin — great work! (7)
CLASS (form) + IC (99 in Roman numerals, though, as often noted, this is not really correct)
5. LAWLESS Wild, wild Wales in the ’50s (7)
WALES* in LS
10. STAG Game unsuitable for women (4)
Double definition – game as in something you shoot at, and unsuitable for women as in stag parties
11. COUNSELLOR Breakdown specialist (10)
Cryptic definition
12. VICTIM Prey of little boys (6)
VIC + TIM (two abbreviated boys’ names)
13. NUTCASES Fruit with coverings — they’re bananas! (8)
NUT + CASES
14. SEAWORTHY Fit for the voyage? In other ways, perhaps (9)
(OTHER WAYS)*
16. FIRST Placing of the winner may create rifts (5)
RIFTS*
17. SCOOP Pick up something exclusive (5)
Double definition
19. STEAMSHIP Eleven in one vessel start to cheer for another (9)
TEAM (eleven in e.g. cricket or football) in SS + HIP (start of “hip hip hooray”)
23. PUT-UP JOB Accommodate a man who suffered in fraud (3-2,3)
PUT UP (accommodate) + JOB (man who suffered in the OT)
24. NAVIES A struggle between North and South Sea forces (6)
A VIE in N S
26. PICNICKERS Select underwear, say, for those eating out (10)
“Pick knickers”
27. NEAT Cattle without water (4)
Double definition – “neat”for cattle is a standard crosswordism.
28. PROTEST Outcry in favour of a trial? (7)
PRO TEST
29. MAN-MADE It’s crazy wearing hair that’s artificial (3-4)
MAD in MANE
Down
2. LATTICE Window in the French garret (7)
ATTIC in LE – the cryptic grammar is slightly tortuous, but it works as “in the French, garret”
3. SIGHT Location in sound and vision (5)
Homophone of “site”
4. INCOMER Immigrant proceeds right (7)
INCOME + R
6. ASSETS Fool set about things of value (6)
ASS + SET*
7. LULLABIES Noted soporifics (9)
Cryptic definition
8. STOKERS Crew men showing little variation in strokes (7)
STROKES with the R moved to near the end, so an anagram if you like..
9. TURN THE TABLES But nettlerash can erupt and gain the ascendancy (4,3,6)
(BUT NETTLERASH)*
15. WHODUNNIT I hunt down suspect in murder mystery (9)
(I HUNT DOWN)*
18. COURIER He travels to work (7)
Cryptic definition
20. AMNESIA You won’t remember suffering from it (7)
One of the least cryptic cryptic definitions I’ve seen for a while
21. IRELAND Composer close to Britten in sound (7)
Composer John Ireland, and Ireland is close to Britain
22. EJECTS Turns down right away and chucks out (6)
[R]EJECTS
25. VENOM Five thousand hold one up with spite (5)
ONE reversed in V + M

29 comments on “Guardian 26,413 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and Andrew
    Misprint in you parsing of 5a Andrew – *WALES in LS, not LL.
    I liked SEAWORTHY and WHODUNNIT. I’m not sure NUTCASES would pass the Guardian style guide, though!
    I was going to question VIE as a noun, but Chambers gives it as “obs.”

  2. Thanks muffin, 5a corrected (though to be honest it was more a thinko that a typo).

    I don’t think you have to treat “vie” as a noun in 24a – it’s “a + struggle” = A + VIE.

  3. Andrew @ 2
    “struggle” (which certainly can be noun or verb) is a noun in the clue, so it’s neater if it clues another noun, I think – however I take your point that this neatness isn’t actually a requirement.

  4. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    The noted soporifics had me fooled at first, put somnnifers (not in the OCED), liked this clue.
    3d, I thought of SIGH and SIGHT

  7. I liked 21ac: Ireland was close to Britten as well, in the sense that he taught him at the Royal College of Music (though it appears that they didn’t get on and Britten learned little from him).
    I was held up in the SW corner. I didn’t have 17ac, and _ _ U _ I _ R led me to HAULIER for 18dn.

  8. Thanks Rufus & Andrew.

    As you say, fairly straightforward.

    Just to keep the Latin 99 conversation going, I found this on the web:

    ‘In today’s modern terms 99 in Roman numerals is XCIX.But in times past the Romans themselves would have probably calculated 99 on an abacus counting device as LXXXXVIIII and then wrote it out in the simplified form of IC (-1+100 = 99) In fact the Latin word for 99 is “undecentum” which literally means one from a hundred.’

  11. Thanks, Andrew.

    Rufus puzzles don’t always fall out for me that easily – all those double defs and cryptic defs can take a bit of disentangling – but this was a breeze, thanks to a generous sprinkling of anagrams. The clue for WHODUNNIT is beautiful.

    I don’t understand muffin’s quibble @3: using words that have to be read as one part of speech in the surface and a different one for the cryptic parsing is entirely legitimate and a common ploy in the setter’s mission to deceive.

  18. Nice quiptic, not enough meat for me for the daily. Some clues seem a little familiar, the cryptic definitions are all terrible, and there are too many anagrams. And it’s Monday. OMG.

  22. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    Another who found it quite straightforward, but none the worse for that. Nice to get a bit of a respite … have been struggling a bit of late fo get through some of the ones later in the week.

    Last couple in were LATTICE and CLASSIC.

  23. Agree that this was one of the easiest Rufus has given us recently, but still fairly enjoyable. CLASSIC was first in, but the rest of the NW corner held me up a little, especially LATTICE which only became simple once I stopped trying to read it the wrong way round.

    Thanks to Andrew and Rufus

  24. This was Rufus again doing what he has been asked to do for the Monday slot, and doing it with the customary Rufusian charm. I agree there was more than a whiff of chestnut in the autumn air; but he always delivers economical and graceful clues, so somehow wins you over every time.

  26. Nice to limber up on a,fairly, easy puzzle. I suppose there were a few chestnuts here but I can’t say I noticed them while I was doing it. I liked PICNICKERS,LULLABIES and LATTICE. I think we’re being a bit pernickety about CLASSIC. It didn’t occur to me that there was anything wrong with it.
    Thanks Rufus

  27. Late comment (only just attacked and completed this this morning – 30 mins! – my record time for the Cryptic! – and I think that says it all, really.)

    I have a quibble on 2d. I think the clue’s the wrong way round. Shouldn’t it be: “Garret in the French window” (or something like that)?

  28. Mike – see my comment on the clue. I agree that it appears to be the wrong way round, but I think it can just about be interpreted to give the required answer.

  29. Haha, another late comment! Couldn’t believe how long it took me to recall the word for not remembering! Grey matter slow to move around lately!

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