Guardian 26,598 by Rufus

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Slightly delayed write up due to a rather embarrassing mistake…

I actually initially wrote up the Indy crossword only to see NealH had already posted, oops.

Well it’s Rufus so you know what to expect with CDs and DDs and literal defs, not too difficult but some misleading stuff to keep you on your toes.

 

The grid can be seen in the following link to completed grid

 

Across

8 Water jug back in sink for so long (8)
FAREWELL

EWER (a jug) reversed in FALL (sink)

9 They are partial to a good loaf (6)
IDLERS

Cryptic def, quite a clever, misleading one too with me looking for partial answers of other part solutions

10 Enjoy corresponding (4)
LIKE

Double def

11 He outshone in a fashion, at someone else’s expense (2,3,5)
ON THE HOUSE

[HE OUTSHONE]* fashioned

12 Intriguing little parties (6)
CABALS

Cryptic def, the write up is tricky as it also contains bits of C(onservative), LAB(our) which may be purely a coincidence,  double meaning for cabal which is small group and intrigue

14 A translation showing hostility (8)
AVERSION

A & VERSION (translation)

15 Two points in dog delight (7)
BEWITCH

East & West in BITCH

17 Imperfect we hear, so knocked down (7)
FLOORED

Sounds like FLAWED

20 Composer has part played back for a single-minded man (8)
BACHELOR

One who wishes, perhaps to be single. BACH & ROLE reversed

22 Go round with a list at half-term (6)
ROTATE

ROTA (list) & half of TE(rm)

23 About to appeal — yet again! (10)
REPETITION

RE (about) & PETITION (appeal)

24 Bank of Scotland (4)
BRAE

Cryptic cum literal definition

25 I had to stand in line — it’s neater (6)
TIDIER

I’D in TIER

26 Former spouse to create trouble, resulting in hate (8)
EXECRATE

EX & CREATE* troubled. Marvellous truthful surface he said ruefully…

Down

1 Humorous repartee may appear hurtful in time (8)
BADINAGE

BAD IN AGE

2 Present the woman’s beginning to expect (4)
HERE

HER & E(xpect)

3 He is leader of many old slaves (6)
HELOTS

HE & LOTS (many)

4 Plant making two light carriages (7)
FLYTRAP

FLY & TRAP (both of which are carriages)

5 Team not assumed to be of star quality (8)
SIDEREAL

SIDE & REAL

6 Initiates left in fox-hunting? (5,5)
BLOOD SPORT

BLOODS (initiates in foxhunting) & PORT (left), clever, if distasteful clue.

7 Forces change in form of decoration (6)
FRESCO

FORCES* changed

13 Crime that somehow involves one in school subject (10)
ARITHMETIC

1 in [CRIME THAT]* somehow

16 The dog on the line is mine (8)
COLLIERY

COLLIE & R(ailwa)Y

18 They’re taken out of context (8)
EXTRACTS

Cryptic def & part of (cont)EXT which is abbr for extracts

19 Judge turned irritable, losing one pound (7)
ARBITER

1 & L (pound) removed from [iRRITABlE]* turned

21 One getting over show of nerves can be really sour (6)
ACETIC

ACE (one) & TIC

22 Give up and get plastered (6)
RENDER

Double def

24 Poet’s endless stream (4)
BURN

(robbie) BURN(s)

39 comments on “Guardian 26,598 by Rufus”

  1. Good morning, flashling, and thank you.

    Rather liked IDLERS, BLOOD SPORT & CABALS although this latter took a long time to spot. The ‘Bank of Scotland’ was also quite neat.

    Not quite comfortable with the part of speech in RENDER, although I suppose if you render a wall it’s the same as ‘get it plastered’ so it sort of works.

    Nice week, all.

  3. I think render can be a noun meaning plaster. I suppose a bitch is a sort of dog but I wasn’t happy with it, and I thought a brae was a hill, but I see it’s also a steep bank, so that a brae is a sort of bank making ‘the banks and braes’ sound a bit silly…

  4. I also found this on the tricky side for a Rufus puzzle. FLYTRAP was my LOI and it only fell into place after I decided to think about a 3-4 split for the carriages instead of 4-3.

  5. Thanks flashling and Rufus
    I enjoyed this once I got going. Some tricky clues. I was not totally satisfied with 15a – bitch is often used for the female and dog for the male – but it was a nice clue otherwise..

  6. Thanks Rufus, I found this one a bit tricky.

    Thanks flashling, I got a bit stuck on the NE quadrant with IDLERS my LOI (although I like the clue.) As you say, EXECRATE makes more sense with ‘troubled.’ I liked BADINAGE and COLLIERY for its surface.

  7. Izzythedram @3 Yes, that’s how I read it, but isn’t the tense a bit of a strain? To render = to plaster certainly but the clue gives ‘plastered’ so I couldn’t quite make it work. Perhaps I’m reading it wrongly.

  8. Thanks Rufus and flashling.

    I also found this harder than the usual Rufus. CABALS, HELOTS and SIDEREAL had to be dragged up from the depths.

    Like Izzythedram @3, “the banks and braes” came to mind and sounded silly. A BITCH is a female ‘dog’, but can one say a woman is a female man ?

    However, I enjoyed the puzzle, particularly FAREWELL (do hope Rufus is not thinking of retiring), IDLERS, BACHELOR, BADINAGE, FLYTRAP and COLLIERY.

  9. [Sil, if you look at this puzzle, is 19d Judge turned irritable, losing one pound (7) similar to 26,591, Philistine,
    13d Feature of food that could lead to digestion stress with spare tires (10) ?]

  10. Thanks to Rufus and flashling. I got stuck for a while on FLYTRAP and was not sure EXTRACTS was correct but still got through quickly.

  11. Much more difficult than usual I felt, took me a while to get going. 12a and 15a were my last ones in. But thanks for something a bit more stimulating than the usual Monday fare.

  12. [Cookie at #9
    If I may butt in, I won’t say the two clues are similar. I would say they are of the same clue type – composite anagram.
    More about that here:

    http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/01/composite-anagrams.html

    Previously some clue types were used only in advanced cryptics in Sunday papers and journals but of late some of these are being used occasionally in sttandard blocked cryptic crosswords such as these.
    I have not followed any previous conversation between you and Sil, so I am missing anything please pardon me.]

  13. Glad to see that 12a has caused nearly everyone else problems too.

    Originally had BARD for some reason at 24d, which given that I’ve just come back from walking in southern Scotland with both BURNS and BURNs all over the place is totally inexcusable.

  14. As is often the case with Rufus it all falls into place quite quickly except one. In this case it was FLYTRAP which took rather a long time to get. I thought CABAL rather tricky too, although it had a rather good clue. I did this in between cutting my hedges which I will now have to go back to!
    Thanks Rufus.
    P.S. I don’t see the problem with RENDER.

  15. Re 9 the two examples are different in structure to the extent that one works an the other does not. Today’s gives you two options, take the IL out in the order given from IRRITABLE then do the anag OR get one possible anag of ARBITER/ IL. The Philistine one does not work and is wrong.

    I cannot understand CABALS. Anyone?

  16. Don’t quite see the render problem folks are having with it. Mind you I expected the flawed/floored moans but I got over that when Raich (late of this parish) used it.

  17. Thanks Rufus and flashling

    This grid can always make Rufus a bit tougher, especially for cryptic definition clues like that for CABALS where you end up with a -A-A-S (and over 80 possible words that can fit into it). Still was pleased to somehow dredge up the correct answer without help !! Was also initially a bit iffy with the tenses in 22d, but think that it nearly works – didn’t stop me from writing in RENDER anyhow.

    Finished with the two shorties in the SE … and had to fight off the urge to go for BARD whilst looking for the ‘right poet’ that made sense with the rest of the clue !

    FAREWELL IDLERS across the top would be a humorous goodbye message … but like Cookie, I really hope that it isn’t !!

  18. Found this a little tougher than Rufus often is, though in retrospect it’s hard to say why, apart from HELOTS (my last in) which I only got from the helpful wordplay without which I wouldn’t have remembered it. A pleasant start to the week.

    Thanks to Rufus and flashling

  19. Re #15
    Intriguing little parties
    is just a definition written fancifully. There is no wordplay in it. I am not sure if it can be called ‘cryptic definition’.
    A cabal is usually ‘small’. Almost always it has a nefarious purpose charting out a plan, a ploy, a stratagem, a conspiracy and so on. The word ‘parties’ is used only in the sense of groups or cliques.
    ***
    In Tamil Nadu Tamil speakers often use the word ‘party’ to mean what you might call ‘dish’ (real looker, attractive female, not the one on the roof)
    There is a Tamil film song that goes like this:
    (Male voice) Party nalla partythaan…
    Freely translated, the line means “Dish, oh what a good dish she is…”

  20. As per the blog, a cabal is something intriguing and it is also a small group or party. The clue then is hardly a stretch to a cd.

  21. I am amazed and disappointed that no one has pointed out that, in most of the English speaking world, FLOORED does not sound like FLAWED

  23. Flashing; Being new to this I’m not sure of the difference, but after finishing the puzzle I read your answers (blog?) and others comments

  24. At Jacko my apologies all the complaints were on the guardian’s own crossword blog not here. Frankly I don’t see or hear the problem in my head, perhaps a minor intonation change but nothing compared to scone/scone if you hear what I mean.

  26. Rishi @12, thanks, and Hoggy @15, thanks, but the Philistine letters can also be taken out in the right order starting with ‘t’.

  27. julia; floored and board have the letter ‘r’, flawed does not. After years of cross wording I’ve come across many examples of this, and am frankly fed up. Large aquatic mammals do not play at the millennium stadium, Huckleberry Finn’s friend was not a bean, the fastest feline is not an unfair contestant, Jaw Jaw does not rhyme with war war, etc. Perhaps setters could bear this in mind.

  28. I agree with flashling, but others would pronounce the r in floored, so I can see Jacko’s point…

  29. I was thinking this was fairly typical Monday standard until I found myself with three in the NW which held me up for a long time. I finally saw LIKE and wondered how it could have taken so long. With that in, BADINAGE leapt out at me, but CABALS required a trip to a word finder, though it was fairly obvious once I saw it.

    Homophones are almost always controversial. FLOORED/”flawed” works well enough for me. I think I articulate them slightly differently but the sounds which come out are pretty much the same. I grew up in London, my mother had a marked Lincolnshire accent, and since leaving home I have lived in various parts of southern England but also in Huddersfield (briefly) and N. Ireland.

    Thanks to Rufus and Flashling.

  31. Cabals are quite common within political groups hence parties and are often as a result of disagreements regarding policy or internal conflict and the intrigue relates to plotting or power struggle. Thinks there’s a lot of it going on now following the election. This was quite tricky for a Monday.My favourites were flytrap and bank of Scotland once the penny dropped

  32. Unless homophone clues are banned in cryptic crosswords, there are always going to be problems with them.

    Most people in the UK are familiar enough with hearing RP or its close relations through the media to recognise words even if they are not said in the way they would say them themselves. Would any UK readers here have real problems understanding FLOORED pronounced like “flawed” if they were listening to someone from the Home Counties?

    For people who have not spent enough time in the UK to be familiar with RP, I appreciate that it would be a bigger problem. Perhaps the use of RP homophones should be regarded in the same way that British geographic names or our B- or C-list media personalities are – an inevitable part of doing UK crosswords, or perhaps an interesting additional challenge?

  33. It took me a while to get going on this puzzle, but it ended up being a very enjoyable solve. My favourites were 20a, 4d, 5d.

    Thanks Rufus and flashling.

  34. Thanks to Rufus for a welcome challenging and tight puzzle, and flashling for the blog.

    I thought CABALS was weak however, as (so I understand) a small group wouldn’t be called a cabal without any hint of intrigue, n’est-ce pas?

    Usual twitchiness about homophoneys. Maybe it’s time to resurrect (or even create) that subjunctive, so that we the readers/listeners can distinguish between opinion and a statement of fact by the author’s choice of voice.

  35. A little more difficult from Rufus but still his own imimitable style. 😉

    RENDER is definitely wrong in my opinion.

    I’ll be convinced it’s OK if someone comes up with a sentence in which “render” can be replaced by “get plastered” or even “plastered”.

    FLOORED/FLAWED starts the old homophone debate again. The clue doesn’t say the words are homophones! It uses the phrase “we hear”. This can suggest that someone says flawed and “we hear” floored. They are near enough for this to happen in most dialects. (Especially that bizarre affectation known as RP!)

    julia @25

    Now I am intrigued! What other words rhyme with the way you pronounce “board”? The way I pronounce it is at most only a “half rhyme” with flawed.

    Thanks to flashling and Rufus

  36. Brendan @ 35

    “I’m going to render that wall” vs “I’m going to get that wall plastered”.

    As a construction that more or less works for me. What works less well for me, as a former builders merchant, is that plaster is generally gypsum or lime based while render would more often be cement based. But we are in crosswordland, so normal rules don’t always apply, do they?

  38. Thanks Simon S @36

    I’m not arguing about the equivalence of render and plaster. They are equivalent terms used by a layman.

    However the sentence:

    “I’m going to get that wall plastered”

    is the canonical passive tense I believe.

    The equivalent is:

    “I’m going to get that wall rendered”

    The sentence:

    “I’m going to render that wall”

    is the active future tense whose equivalent would be

    “I’m going to plaster that wall”

    So unfortunately the tense and voice are incorrect. Hence the clue is alos incorrect.

    The only reason I solved this is that I knew this was Rufus who seems to sacrifice rigour for speed of compilation. For some reason the editor appears to do something similar. 😉

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