Guardian 26,574 by Rufus

by

Th puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26574.

A good Rufus, with no more than one cryptic definitions (a plus in my book). Then there is 10A, for which, although the answer is obvious, I cannot provide any sensible wordplay.

Across
8 FIANCEES
Nice safe sort of girls to marry (8)

An anagram (‘sort’) of ‘nice safe’.
9 LOLLOP
See election return in lounge (6)

A charade of LO (‘see’) plus LLOP, a reversal (‘return’) of POLL (‘election’).
10 SNOB
Pretentious person has a job at last (4)

I really do not see how this is intended to work. I can see various ways of coming up with the right letters, but each is less satisfactory than the last. For example, how about an anagram (‘pretentious’) of ‘person’ which has PER (‘a’), but without it gives SNO, plus B (‘a joB at last’). No? Can you come up with anything less far-fetched? Someone on the Guardian blog mentioned a PDM, so perhaps the copper did not drop for me.
11 ELEMENTARY
Preliminary manoeuvres alert enemy (10)

An anagram (‘manoeuvres’) of ‘alert enemy’. The definition seems a little loose to me.
12 AMUSED
Diverted by a thought? (6)

A charade of ‘a’ plus MUSED (‘thought’ past participle).
14 TOILETRY
I entered lottery, perhaps, winning bath salts? (8)

An envelope (‘entered’) of ‘I’ in TOLETRY, an anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘lottery’. The question mark suggests the indication by example.
15 PROFESS
Declare intention of entering journalism (7)

An envelope (‘entering’) of ‘of’ in PRESS (‘journalism’).
17 IGUANAS
Lizards that may be using a double disguise (7)

An anagram (‘disguise’) of ‘using’ plus AA (‘a double’).
20 HASTINGS
Not a good place for Harold, as things turned out (8)

Cryptic definition (the Battle of Hastings, of course, was fought at Battle, not Hastings).
22 CREEPS
Moves stealthily and quietly among Native Americans (6)

An envelope (‘among’) of P (piano, ‘quietly’) in CREES (‘Native Americans’).
23 DOUBLE TAKE
Delayed action with stand-in starting film scene (6,4)

A charade of DOUBLE (‘stnd-in’) plus TAKE (‘film scene’).
24 TEAL
Duck leaves lake (4)

A charade of TEA (‘leaves’) plus L (‘lake’).
25 EN BLOC
Altogether, Ben mis­directed back pass (2,4)

A charade of ENB, an anagram (‘misdirected’) of ‘Ben’ plus LOC, a reversal (‘back’) of COL (‘pass’).
26 RESPONSE
Angrily press one for an answer (8)

An anagram (‘angrily’) of ‘press one’.
Down
1 MISNOMER
Mean one to take French name — but it’s the wrong one (8)

An envelope (‘to take’) of NOM (‘French name’) in MISER (‘mean one’).
2 KNOB
Boss sounds a toff (4)

A homophone (‘sounds’) of NOB (‘a toff’).
3 LEGEND
The story of Achilles‘ heel? (6)

Double definition (‘heel’ as LEG END).
4 ASSERTS
Maintains a rising pressure (7)

A charade of ‘a’ plus SSERTS, a reversal (‘rising’, in a down light) of STRESS (‘pressure’).
5 ALTERING
Changing integral formation (8)

An anagram (‘formation’) of ‘integral’.
6 ALL THE SAME
Nevertheless, shows no distinctive qualities (3,3,4)

Definition and literal interpretation.
7 TOURER
New route right for an open car (6)

An anagram (‘new’) of ‘route’ plus R (‘right’).
13 SAFETY BELT
Security zone for motorists (6,4)

A charade of SAFETY (‘security’) plus BELT (‘zone’).
16 SENTENCE
A few words addressed in French to the Church (8)

A charade of SENT (‘addressed’) plus EN (‘in French’) plus CE (‘church’ of England’).
18 APPLAUSE
Praise custom following papal trip (8)

A charade of APPLA, an anaagram (‘trip’) of ‘papal’ plus USE (‘custom’).
19 ASTAIRE
Hollywood 3 appearing in a new satire (7)

‘3’ as 3D LEGEND; a charade of ‘a’ plus STAIRE, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘satire’.
21 ABOUND
Have riches in a vault (6)

A charade of ‘a’ plus BOUND (‘vault’ as leap). The third charade of ‘a’ plus …
22 CREASE
Where the batsman stands about, in case (6)

An envelope (‘in’) of RE (‘about’) in ‘case’.
24 TOOL
Excessively long instrument (4)

A charade of TOO (‘excessively’) plus L (‘long’).
completed grid

77 comments on “Guardian 26,574 by Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and peterO – needed your help with Lollop.

    ‘Snob’ apparently is an old word for a cobbler’s apprentice, so a ‘job at last’ suggests doing a cobbler’s job.

    In 19d, I assumed Hollywood 3 referred to the fact(?) that three Astaires made it to Hollywod

  2. Thanks PeterO and Rufus,

    I thought SNOB was a final letters cue, but it isn’t. The DD suggested by Freddy @1 is an interesting idea.

    HASTINGS has a little more to it: (AS THINGS)*. Nice clue.

  3. From this online dictionary:

    1781, “a shoemaker, a shoemaker’s apprentice,” of unknown origin. It came to be used in Cambridge University slang c.1796, often contemptuously, for “townsman, local merchant,” and passed then into literary use, where by 1831 it was being used for “person of the ordinary or lower classes…”

  4. Thank you Rufus and PeterO

    I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, with my favourites being 6d, 12a, 1d, 15a, 25a, 16d, 21d.

    Due to the grid, it felt like solving 4 mini puzzles. I found the RHS to be easier, and the last corner in was the SW.

    I could not parse 10a and wanted to check if my parsing of 19d (LOI) was correct. I also realise now that I did not parse 3d properly.

    I agree with muffyword @ 2 on the anagram of AS THINGS = Hastings

    Freddy @ 3 – thanks, and I see now that my online dictionary also defines ‘snob’ as cobbler:
    “ORIGIN late 18th cent. (originally dialect in the sense ‘cobbler’): of unknown origin; early senses conveyed a notion of ‘lower status or rank’, later denoting a person seeking to imitate those of superior social standing or wealth. Folk etymology connects the word with Latin sine nobilitate ‘without nobility’ but the first recorded sense has no connection with this.”

    I should look in the dictionary more often!

    P.S. How do you change the format to italics on this site?

  5. michelle @3

    To change the appearance of the text, “mark-up tags” are used, mostly in pairs: so for italics the i-tag is used. Type in <i>italic</i> (note the / in the second tag) and it comes out as italic when you preview/submit.

    <b>bold</b> shows as bold and <b><i>bold italic</i></b> shows as bold italic

    and so on … There is a list of allowable tags just above the blog entry box. The recent addition of the preview button lets a person play to their heaart’s content!

  6. Michelle @4

    If you look above the comment box, you’ll see the list of acceptable XHTML tags. The “i” in angle brackets starts italics, adding a “/” immediately before the “i” turns them off. Sorry for the wordy description, but if I put the actual tags they’ll be stripped out and my text will become italic.

  7. Freddy beat me to it, and did it more elegantly. 🙂

    Should the preview button work again now? It doesn’t for me.

  8. And now to the puzzle …

    A nice start to the week, but the cryptic definition of SNOB escaped me. I had met that meaning before, but it didn’t occur to me this morning. I also missed (AS THINGS)*. Favourites were FIANCEES, PROFESS, IGUANAS, EN BLOC, MISNOMER and SENTENCE.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  10. Rufus on top form today. My favourite was HASTINGS until Freddy explained SNOB which now becomes the new favourite. Thanks to all.

  11. Thanks Rufus and PeterO
    Very enjoyable. I missed “as things” too, so thought that 20a was an odd clue – now I see how clever it was!
    I knew the cobbler/last meaning of SNOB, but I still don’t see where the SNO comes from.
    As ever, when I think to look for a nina, there isn’t one.

    Freddy @5
    How did you manage to put in the tags in your explanation without them doing anything to the text?

  12. Oh, SNOB is just a double definition, of course – it was the “joB at last” that I was mistakenly taking as double duty.

  13. muffin @11 – SNOB is my favourite because it misdirects so strongly. Like you and PeterO I couldn’t help trying to force some sort of charade out of the clue, it is just so tempting.

  14. Yes, an excellent Rufus. Favourites were HASTINGS, FIANCEES, EN BLOC and IGUANAS. Not quite sure about ‘Lounge’ for LOLLOP, but close enough. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  15. drofle @14
    I thought “lollop” meant to move uncoordinatedly, so looked in Chambers – “to lounge” as a second definition.

  17. Thanks to above for the SNOB explanation – it had me stuck. I’m not convinced about ASTAIRE and Hollywood 3. Spent some time researching the sponsor of the third letter in the Hollywood sign, but no good! Agree this is one of Rs better ones. Thanks to both.

  20. No real problems here, and with FIANCEES got off to a very good start. The SNOB / KNOB crossers led to some delay at the end – it seemed so unlikely that we’d have two such similar meanings, and like most people I didn’t know the old meaning of the former, though I guessed that it might be some cd based around the cobbler type of last.

    Thanks PeterO for parsing IGUANAS which escaped me. Yes, TEAL is good too.

  21. Great puzzle, although it went pretty quickly. I’m an insomniac today: it’s 4 a.m. here.

    I’m another who didn’t know the second definition of “snob,” and another who completely missed the “as things” anagram for Hastings. In the former case, that’s my fault, and in the latter case, that’s high praise for the clue: it’s so elegantly constructed that even without the anagram it’s a fine (“fine” as in “adequate,” not “fine” as in “high-quality”) cryptic definition.

    I also thought “Duck leaves lake” for TEAL was elegant in its simplicity, and FIANCEES had a lovely surface.

    For those still weirded out by “Hollywood 3”: more often than not, a number appearing in a clue is meant to refer to the answer that corresponds to that number. So in this case, you substitute “legend” (the answer to 3-down) for the 3; you’re looking for a Hollywood legend. Just one Astaire, the Fred who danced with Ginger Rogers so often.

  22. Thanks, petero and Rufus.

    I am often less than fulsome about Rufus’ work; I just want to say i found today’s 13 minutes worth very enjoyable, especially the HASTINGS one.

  23. Oh, and I thought of putting AENEID in where LEGEND is, but of course Achilles is dead before the Aeneid begins. Thought of the right answer shortly thereafter.

  24. Thank you PeterO and Rufus. Enjoyable way to start the week with a long lie-in. Thank you to all those who have explained 10a, I did not know that definition of snob.

  26. Thanks Rufus and PeterO,

    A most enjoyable puzzle, especially after having struggled with Everyman yesterday.
    Like Michelle @4 I found the RHS easier, the SW corner being the last filled in. Parsed HASTINGS as did Muffyword @2.

    So many favourites, in particular LEGEND, DOUBLE TAKE, MISNOMER, PROFESS, ASSERTS, KNOB and SNOB.

    Thanks to all those who pointed out how to use italics and bold!

  27. Thanks Rufus for a fun puzzle.

    Thanks PeterO for the good blog. I had to come here to find the alternative definition of SNOB (it is in the BRB also.)

    I didn’t get the full parsing of IGUANAS, which now becomes my favourite clue. I’m not sure whether ‘disguise’ is really needed because may be (maybe) could be an anagrind. Although we have had a LEG END fairly recently, I still enjoyed this one.

    jennyk @7; the ‘preview’ issue has been discussed before. This seemed to work with IE:

    I put ‘www.fifteensquared.net’ in the “Compatability View settings” list (via the “Tools” menu)
    Then it works as expected. The page looks a bit different but not too bad, for instance the “Preview Comment” button has moved to the right.

  28. P.S. With the advent of the new Everyman setter it has become harder and more like a daily Guardian puzzle. Might be worth a few more trying it!

  29. Thank you, Robi @27. I’d seen comments about its apparent absence before, but not noticed this suggested solution. It’s very useful when including tags, to make sure all is as it should be.

  30. Even though I got through this one quickly I thought it was an excellent puzzle. I didn’t know the other meaning of SNOB but the answer was obvious enough and a post-solver check in my Chambers confirmed it. I thought the clue for MISNOMER was very good but it was bettered by that for HASTINGS.

  32. Thanks PeterO and Rufus
    Enjoyable puzzle. Like others, I was beaten by the parsing of10a. Favourite was 1d.

    I agree with Robi @28 re the Everyman. I didn’t realise there was a new setter.

  33. muffin @11

    The tag <i> is entered as &lt;i&gt; (lt = less than, gt = greater than)

    &lt; and &gt;are called html entities: there’s a whole load of them.

  36. Two blunders – one looking for something which was not there, the other failing to see something which was. My excuse, such as it is, is that the blog was somewhat rushed because of other commitments. I did not know the origin of SNOB, and probably would not have looked it up even given more time. I should have picked up on the anagram of ‘as things’ for HASTINGS. However, this is not the first time that I have relegated a Rufus clue to the CD category when it has wordplay – the expectations can be just too strong. That leaves us with the rarity, a Rufus vrossword with no straight CDs.

    Freddy @1 (and elsewhere – thanks for all your comments)

    I do not think that your suggestion of three Hollywood Astaires pans out. Son Fred Jr. did appear in one film with hid dad, but sister and stage partner Adele did not. Anyway, 3 as LEGEND seems quite adequate.

  37. Fred Astaire certainly does count as a legend–he was your classic triple threat. So the clue works fine that way. (Though in fairness on the “triple threat” thing, his acting was never more than serviceable. But on the other hand, in nearly all his best-known movies he was asked to play a guy who sings and/or dances for a living, which can’t have been all that much of a reach for him. Would his acting have been better known if he’d had more challenging roles? Perhaps…)

  38. “the Battle of Hastings, of course, was fought at Battle, not Hastings”

    “The story of Hastings only really begins with the historic battle which was fought at a nearby town called Battle. Now, what are the chances of that happening?” – Humphrey Lyttelton

  39. Thanks for IGUANAS which had me perplexed. Some of my older relatives here in London still refer to the shoe-mender as the “snob” – but it didn’t mean I guessed it – in fact I thought 2d was SNOB for a while.

    I’ve seen the ALTERING/INTEGRAL anagram used the other way around quite recently somewhere.

    Favourites FIANCEES AND LEGEND (ouch!)

  40. Thanks again to Robi, @28 this time. I haven’t tried an Everyman since I got back into cryptic crosswords a few months ago, but following your hint I’ve just done the latest one and found it very enjoyable.

  42. Freddy and JennyK – thanks for the info on formatting text – I will try tomorrow.

    With all the discussion about LEGEND I finally realise that I did not solve that clue – I remember putting in AENEID at one point, then removing it, and I never went back to parse it or look at it again.

  43. I was another who had AENEID (my classical eduction is clearly deficient), so LEGEND was last in after the rather too similar TOOL and TEAL. All fairly pleasant apart from that. Liked TOILETRY…

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO

  44. RCWhiting @41

    I am intrigued by what you consider shameful. The crossword? The blog? Liverpool’s loss to Crystal Palace? Perhaps you could expand.

  45. Like others I had trouble with SNOB and initially did not connect LOLLOP and “lounge,” but I did catch HASTINGS-“as things” and got ASTAIRE first, then backtracked to LEGEND. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  46. Poor Rufus, I think RCWhiting is referring to 24d – since doing crosswords I am ashamed to admit I have been corrupted by Paul.

  47. Peter O
    That a respected newspaper like the Guardian should present its loyal purchasers with such a travesty of a CRYPTIC puzzle.
    To compound matters today is my birthday!

  48. Well, happy birthday RCW, but I think you’re being far too harsh. I liked this and found it rather more challenging than Rufus can sometimes be. I liked SNOBS and knew that it related to cobbling or homemaking as a result of being given an essay on snobs as a comprehension exercise. I’ve been racking my brains who it was by- anybody know? I struggled over TOOL having become convinced that I was looking for a musical instrument and only got it when I stumbled on TEAL which I liked. I was another who had AENEID rather than LEGEND to begin with.
    All in all quite good fun.
    Thanks Rufus

  49. I’m with PA@48. Harsh to criticise this for being quite straight forward, which I suppose is Rufus’ brief. I sometimes find him rather banal, but thought there was a lot of elegance here. 14a and 24a to mention two.
    And robi@28, thanks for that bit of info about Everyman. I had assumed that I must be getting dimmer!

  50. peterO @36

    For 19d, I agree, three Astaires was a bit tenuous, but I don’t get the connection between 3 and legend.

  52. Thank you PeterO and Rufus

    I confused myself over 3D too but by thinking it must be Lesson as in Achilles’ heel had less on!

    Loved Hastings though

  56. I am truly amazed by RCW’s comment. (Happy birthday by the way)

    I was going to come on here and say how I much I actually enjoyed this puzzle and how astonishing that the same compiler produced last weeks Monday puzzle. (The two ends of the Rufus spectrum I suppose)

    No CDs to speak of and some delightful clues.

    Of course it was easy and we had a loosish definition at 11A which was just about OK IMO. At least this had “real” cryptic clues and was like most of the puzzles we see the rest of the week. Just easier. Much more educational for the cryptic beginner. (I assume that’s the intended purpose of the alleged “Easy Monday Policy”)

    Anyway thanks to PeterO and Rufus

  57. Happy Birthday, RCW!
    A shame that you called this puzzle ‘a travesty’.
    Instead, you should be honoured that on this very day Rufus wrote a crossword without any cryptic definitions. I don’t think I’d ever seen that before.
    How unique is that?

    5d was my/our first entry and how wrong I was/we were.
    Anyone else who went for TRIANGLE?
    [with ‘changing’ as the indicator and, I admit, a somewhat loose but justifiable definition]
    It is also an angram of ‘relating’.
    Not so very long ago Puck had the triangle/integral combination, then calling an integral a function (which I found odd).

    Anyway.
    Nice but easy crossword.
    Many thanks to Rufus.
    And PeterO, and Freddy for explaining SNOB!

  58. Since my stroke I do now frequently find that I have to give up with one or two clues unsolved.
    Not today! Too many non cryptics where the definition and numeration leads straight to the solution: 20 across is awful!
    That’s how I feel.

  59. Sil van den Hoek @57

    An integral is a very common mathematical function. I’d like a pound for every equation or component that I have intergrated!

  60. Dave Ellison @ 22

    I agree with your thoughts regarding Rufus, and Most will recognize what you meant by ‘fulsome’. Ihope you don’t mind my correcting you, but if you look it up you’ll find its meaning is exactly the opposite – ‘sickeningly obsequious’ and ‘nauseatingly affectionate’.

    It’s a common misuse about which I regularly write to the Guardian. It’s correct in their Style Guide but not enough of them read it

  61. Roger @57, I am actually a maths teacher and I have never called an integral a function.
    So, you’d like a pound for ‘every equation you integrated’?
    Not sure what that means.
    Integration is part of solving differential equations, sure.
    Meanwhile, the Oxford dictionary calls what you get when the given function is a derivative, an ‘integral’.
    I would callit the ‘integral function’ which is something really different to me.
    But let’s not take this too far.

    And, by the way, seeing your surname here, today we had once more L = long.
    It’s not in the list of crossword abbreviations nor a stand-alone abbreviation in the dictionaries.
    I mentioned this before and I know the counterexamples people give.
    So, let’s not take this too far either.

    And RCW, ‘Too many non cryptics where the definition and numeration leads straight to the solution: 20 across is awful!’.
    I am afraid I do not agree.
    But I will have a glass on you tonight!!

  62. Sil van den Hoek @ 61

    Oops; Had I known I might be addressing an authority I would phrased my comment a little more carefully!

    Thanks for taking the trouble to correct me, and I see your point about the usage. I sat my degree at Chelsea Poly (now London U.) back in the 1950s so you can imagine it’s many years since I integrated anything.

  63. For once I totally agree with B(NTO) (@56) – this was not just a “very good crossword for a Rufus”, it was a “very good crossword” – one of the most enjoyable and entertaining this year, with several very clever clues. Not difficult, I agree, but none the worse for that.

  64. RCW @58

    I don’t believe there were any “non-cryptic” clues today.

    20A is most certainly a very elegant cryptic clue.

    Definition: Not a good place for Harold

    Wordplay: as things turned out

    Anagrind: turned out

    What’s so “awful” about that?

  65. I think RCW’s complaint is that this crossword was too easy because for him or her there were too many write-ins with no need to decode wordplay. Although I don’t myself think it is a bad clue, the definition and surface reading of 20a seems to have made the answer so obvious for a lot of us that we didn’t even notice the anagram wordplay until Muffyword @2 pointed it out.

    Perhaps the real problem is that RCW’s birthday fell on a Monday this year, and Monday puzzles are traditionally easier. In 2017 it will be on a Thursday, which is often one of the harder puzzles of the week, so that may be more satisfying for him/her.

  66. Thanks Rufus and PeterO.

    24 D&A were last ones in for me because I was hung up on trying to parse ‘oboe’.

    I thought that ‘starting film scene’ was the definition for 23A (i.e. when the actor has a start [as in surprise] she does a double take) – but then I couldn’t work out how ‘delayed action’ gave ‘take’. So I’m grateful to have that one explained.

  67. I can’t help wondering whether there isn’t something else going on in 20A, wherein the ‘H’ (for ‘Harold’) is not in a good place in ‘as things’, and is, therefore, turned out.

    Since it all works with ‘turned out’ as a simple anagrind, I suppose that I’m overcomplicating it.

  68. RCW – a belated happy birthday – it’s good to see the old contrarian controversialist back. Probably a bit late to mention it but Knut in the Indie was a bit more challenging.

  69. RCW – can I echo beery hiker @ 68. The quality of resident controversialism has certainly declined since your heyday.

    I can sort of understand it if you felt shortchanged on your birthday. I finished this faster than any previous Rufus I can remember. But…..the clues were universally good and satisfying, and the unaccustomed lack of CDs was a definite plus.

  70. B(nto)@64
    Of course I noticed the anagram in Hastings!!
    Only after the answer was written in reread, digested, not ad mired etc.
    Jennyk says most of my thoughts and sympathetically.
    I never did understand why criticising a published crossword was controversial.

  71. B(nto)@64
    Of course I noticed the anagram in Hastings!!
    Only after the answer was written in reread, digested, not ad mired etc.
    Jennyk says most of my thoughts and sympathetically.
    I never did understand why criticising a published crossword was controversial

  72. RCW – It is not your criticism that people object to but your rudeness.

    As you say jennyk manages to put your point clearly and sympathetically. Your own attempt was a single word comment of “Shameful”. This is not criticism, it was is plain rudeness.

    Your are clearly a very intelligent person so I don’t really believe that you are unable understand why “Shameful” is controversial comment. You may choose not not understand, fair enough. But declarations of incredulity about how people could find your comments controversial seem ingenuous to say the least.

    Happy birthday and keep up the good work.

  73. That should have been “disingenuous” in the previous comment, though “ingenuous” (naive, childlike, simple…etc) might fit the bill too.

  74. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    Late to post on this … and good to see so many positive comments on a Rufus puzzle. Sure it was as straightforward as usual, but all of his key strengths – elegance, well disguised anagrams, lesser known definitions of common words, etc. were well to the fore in this !

    I was initially a TRIANGLE tragic at 5d which did slightly hold me up in that NE corner with ALL THE SAME and TOILETRY the last two in.

  75. Very late to the party, so I doubt anyone will read this, but just in case they do – can anyone explain to me what the “at last” is doing in 10?

    I can’t see the reason for it despite the above explanations.

  76. tahc @75

    As blogger, I get an email for any comment, so I am here to help you even if I made a mess of the clue the first time round. A last is the form on which a cobbler builds or repairs a shoe, and as Freddie @1 points out, s SNOB is (or was) a cobbler’s apprentice. If you google “shoemaker’s last” you may find some examples.

  77. Aha – I should have clicked through. Now it makes perfect sense and I have also been educated to boot!

    Many thanks PeterO

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