Guardian 26,628 by Rufus

by

Well it’s Monday, it’s Rufus, what do you think you’ll be getting?

Pretty much as you expect, a lot of easy anagrams and some double/cryptic defs to make you ponder for a minute or two.

 

Thanks Rufus

Across

9 Instant tea or coffee (5)
MOCHA

MO (moment, instant) & CHA (tea). Bit of an old chestnut to begin with.

10 He swore it might be different (9)
OTHERWISE

[HE SWORE IT]* as  it might be

11 Make changes to it again and there’ll be trouble (9)
AGITATION

[TO IT AGAIN]* is changed

12 Damp is needed for love-in-a-mist (5)
MOIST

0 (love) in a MIST

13 After writing French badly, Bill reflected again on getting the cane (7)
MALACCA

MAL (french for bad), AC(count) & CA (as before but reflected). It’s a cane made from raffia

15 Idea for consideration (7)
THOUGHT

Double definition

17 Tangled ropes can present a problem (5)
POSER

ROPES* are tangled

18 Put a foot wrong doing right about turn (3)
ERR

R(ight) & RE (about) all turned

20 Pull in first behind another vehicle (2,3)
IN TOW

IN (from the clue) & TOW (pull)

22 They turn up in Australia (7)
DIGGERS

Double cum cryptic def re Australian soldiers

25 Mongoose found around market in the East (7)
MEERKAT

E(ast) in MARKET* around

26 Murphy’s pile (5)
CLAMP

Cryptic def –  from the SOED:

B verb trans. Pile up in a clamp; store (potatoes etc.) in a clamp. m19.

Murphy is a pejorative term for potato/Irishman etc

27 Object and go mad about the Bank’s cut in gold transactions (9)
DEMURRAGE

DEMUR (object) & RAGE (go mad)

30 Funny comedian tours North in total control (9)
DOMINANCE

N(orth) in COMEDIAN* funnily

31 Warning about right to beg (5)
CRAVE

R(ight) in CAVE (somewhat archaic for warning)

Down

1 Some of them may feature in Austen novel (4)
EMMA

Hidden answer in thEM MAy

2 Greek hero is sick, gripped by pains (8)
ACHILLES

ILL (sick) in ACHES (pains)

3 A little upset when given the facts (4)
DATA

A TAD reversed

4 Get control of silly mid-on before tea break (8)
DOMINATE

[MID ON]* sillily & then break TEA*

5 Roughly a tenth is in Kent (6)
THANET

[A TENTH]* roughly

6 A performer’s bound to be uplifted by it (10)
TRAMPOLINE

Quite a nice cryptic definiton

7 To avoid it a child may go into it (6)
HIDING

Double cum cryptic defs, keep thinking there may be some wordplay I’m missing though

8 Bowed to talent (4)
BENT

Double def

13 Banned from motorways, was unhappy (5)
MOPED

Double def, in the UK at least mopeds are banned from motorways, presumably because they aren’t fast enough, although if you’ve been on the m25 you’ll know how fatuous that is when you’ve done one mile in the last two hours.

14 Agree to write (10)
CORRESPOND

Double def

16 Maybe two take it as an example (2,3)
TO WIT

TWO* maybe  & IT

19 Recall soldiers and arm (8)
REMEMBER

R,E. (soldiers) & MEMBER (arm, say)

21 Remove portable meals (4,4)
TAKE AWAY

Double def

23 An award for record achievement (6)
GRAMMY

Cryptic def

24 Used by track runners taking a rest (6)
SIDING

Cryptic def, re trains

26 Hand over church keys (4)
CEDE

C.E. (church of England) & (D & E) (musical/keyboard keys)

28 State and church together owning substantial assets (4)
RICH

R(hode) I(sland) & CH(urch)

29 They look for sounds of agreement (4)
EYES

Sounds like AYES

47 comments on “Guardian 26,628 by Rufus”

  1. Yup – Monday, Rufus – what more can one say?! A few clever clues: I liked MOCHA, DEMURRAGE, MOPED and HIDING, and thought that DIGGERS and GRAMMY were somewhat dubious. Thanks to Rufus and flashling.

  2. Thanks Rufus and flashling
    Brainfade in your answer to 10a, flashling!

    Mostly a gentle re-introduction to crosswords after a break, though there were several I didn’t like. I didn’t parse ERR, and DEMURRAGE was a new word for me.

    Odd to have DOMINANCE and DOMINATE in the same puzzle.

  9. muffin @2

    …especially when, with the given crossings in the particular slot, other choices are available.

    But I can understand. Setters are apt to miss such repetitions when filling the grid or even when writing clues. Repetitions in gridfill or repetitions of anagram signals, same indications for letter components and such things can be detected only when checks and rechecks are done.

    Don Manley’s wise statement in his manual is worth quoting: “when you check your puzzle, check one thing at a time … You can easily [miss something] by trying to check everything at once.

    As I had learnt this from experience, I appreciated the Don’s inclusion of the warning in his tips for setters.

  10. Rufus amply filling his briefs as ever. A fun level for the newer/weaker solver.

    I smugly thought I was on for a new record solving time, until stuttering over SIDING/DEMURRAGE.

    Thanks to Rufus and PhilA.

  11. I failed to solve 26a, 27a & 24d, and wondered if 6d was simply a CD. New words for me were THANET and MALACCA cane.

    I liked MOIST, ACHILLES & DATA.

    I also thought that it was a pity to have the words/solutions DOMINATE & DOMINANCE in one puzzle.

    Thanks Rufus and flashling

  12. Thanks for the blog.
    One question:
    26ac. Clamp…..Murphy is a perorative term for potato. Is ‘perorative’ a word or did you mean ‘pejorative’?
    Anyway I took the clue as referring to the common nick-name given to someone with the surname Murphy.
    I.e., Spud Murphy. So Spud’s pile.

  13. To Admin
    Haven’t posted on here for a while – I remember some time ago I was having problems with the preview comment option – it wasn’t working. Someone suggested a fix – it ‘moved’ the preview button slightly to the right – but worked fine. Same problem has now returned – can you remind me how to fix it please? I seem to remember it was changing one of the settings with my browser (I.E. 11) but can’t remember what to change.
    Thanks in advance.

  14. 4 down and 30 across further demonstrate why I feel joy when I load up the Monday crossword and see that Rufus is not the setter. I believe he pulled this same sort of thing a few weeks ago. And upon checking the letter pattern given by the crossers, I found that there are several other words he could have used instead, so it’s not like his options were limited. Yes, I’m still going to do a Rufus, but only because he makes me appreciate the other setters more.

    (The views expressed in this post are the opinion of the poster, and may not reflect those of other solvers.)

  15. I had CHAMP for 26a. It’s an Irish dish of mashed potatoes with chives and butter. Delicious. And it’s in Chambers.

  16. Re: Me @13 – Have sorted problem – I had a look at various settings and remembered ‘compatibility view settings’ – this must have got changed somehow. Now working OK – sorry for any bother.

  18. Thanks Rufus & flashling.

    Got a bit stuck in the SW corner with all the CDs. I was a bit mystified by DIGGERS – Collins gives the following, which may be relevant: one of a number of tribes of America whose diet was largely composed of roots dug out of the ground.

  20. Thanks Rufus and Flashling.

    A gentle start to Monday morning. I managed to dig up DEMURRAGE from somewhere, but failed at first with CLAMP. At school a pupil would call out CAVE if she heard the teacher approaching, that must date me!

    I liked TRAMPOLINE, MOPED, HIDING, MOIST, DATA and MALACCA (made of rattan, not raffia).

  21. William @19, the Wiki reference seems fine. I always thought the term started in New Zealand, way before WWI, then spread to Australia, and that it was originally applied to ‘prospectors’ on the gold diggings . It is still used for chum, mate etc.

  24. brucew@aus @22 Many thanks, Bruce, found that really interesting.

    Cookie @21 I think you’re right and it’s borne out by Bruce’s article.

  25. Hi Cookie … neither really. Digger wasn’t used as a term to call somebody a mate … it more engenders the concept of mateship through having shared something that was very hard (as in warfare, the life in the goldfields, etc). Cobber is quite dated and not used all that much these days. ‘Mate’ is the most common term used nowadays.

    The irony is that in the puzzle I didn’t have DIGGERS – I had DEGREES – because of ‘arts’ turning up (reversed) in Australia. 🙁

  26. Well all right for a Rufus I suppose and enjoyed the SIDING / DEMURRAGE crossers, when I got them, but can’t really claim to have finished owing to 26a. Like Poc @15 I vaguely knew of CHAMP as something to do with potatoes, but the check button showed that was wrong, leaving CLAMP and CRAMP of which the latter seemed worth a go. Ah well third time lucky. If you don’t know that a CLAMP is a frame in which potatoes are piled, you’re really a bit stuffed with this one, aren’t you? And that can be the problem with Rufus’s cryptic defs.

  27. I enjoy Rufus despite his being more accessible. If I didn’t enjoy his puzzles I wouldn’t do them and, with the possible exception of DOMINANCE/DOMINATE this was quite acceptable. I got stuck on DEMURRAGE which I’ve never encountered before but you couldn’t quibble with the clue.
    I seem to remember that the DIGGERS were a political movement in Australia early last century. There is reference to the movement in D H Lawrence’s novel KANGAROO which, like much of Lawrence’s oeuvre is pretty much unreadable now.
    But enough of that- Thanks Rufus

  28. Hmmm. Found this much tougher than Rufus usually is – the top half went in very quickly but I got completely stuck for a while with 5 or 6 to go. DEMURRAGE and the required meaning of CLAMP were new to me, GRAMMY, DIGGER and SIDING all took much longer than they should have. In retrospect CLAMP is the only one which seems a little unfair…

    Thanks to Rufus and flashling

  29. Just as a follow on to earlier … Rufus has a habit of drawing the error with me – he got me twice here with DIGGERS (degrees) and CLAMP (champ). The second one is a choice between two obscure words that can be taken to mean a heap of potatoes – one after just being picked … and one after just being cooked !! Don’t know whether that is really fair for a cryptic definition clue.

    DEMURRAGE was new. I only vaguely remembered that THANET was a town in England somewhere.

    Thanks to Rufus and flashling

  30. Thanet is a district not a town. Most famous recently because Nigel Farage (and Al Murray the Pub Landlord) failed to win Thanet South…

  31. bruce@29
    Thanet is a region of Kent, known as the “Isle of Thanet”, as, historically, it was.

    It features in Billericay Dickie, by Ian Dury – see here.

  32. Lest ye forget…..

    Saxons, and Jutes who, landing at Thanet, soon overran the country with fire (and, of course, the sword)

    The conversion of England was thus effected by the landing of St Augustine in Thanet and other places, which resulted in the country being overrun by a Wave of Saints.

    led by such memorable warriors as Harold Falsetooth and Magnus the Great, who, landing correctly in Thanet, overran the country from right to left, with fire

    For this purpose they were made to go back and start again at Thanet, after which they were called in future Thanes instead of Danes and were on our side and in the right and very romantic.

    This memorable monarch, having set out from Norway to collect some Danegeld, landed by mistake at Thanet, and thus became King

    all as per 1066 and All That. Wonderful book.

  33. ‘Demurrage’ is a term that I have known for decades but not in connection with gold transactions. I deal only with ironmongers.
    Goods moved by train/lorry had to be collected within a certain period. If the deadiline was past, we had to pay demurrage at the rate of so much for each day.
    Today if drones are shot by miscreants on the way and we don’t receive the goods, maybe we can expect demurrage to be paid to us, can’t we?

  34. I was another CHAMPer, from the potato point of view, and also never having heard of this usage of CLAMP.

    The first 12 clues I looked at went straight in on first reading, and the rest proceeded without undue alarm until all were solved after about ten minutes, so it’s a bit galling to be wrong by one letter.

    In fact having spent so little time on the puzzle today, I then spent considerably longer afterwards composing a response and finding ways to include all the solutions in it. I deleted it though, worried that posting like a POSER would cause DEMURRAGE among my fellows, some SIDING with me and others making no effort at HIDING their AGITATION at this unfunny alternative TO WIT.

    I have MOPED about it though, and am MOIST round the EYES: to ERR on such an obscure usage of CLAMP causes me some AGITATION and DOMINATEs my THOUGHTs. I have checked the DATA and CEDE that I am wrong. For consolation I CRAVE a RICH cup of MOCHA (this clue CORRESPONDs with one in another recent puzzle; I wish it were OTHERWISE).

    I shall venture out in THANET with EMMA (my pet MEERKAT) IN TOW, my BENT MALACCA cane CLAMPed in hand, to discuss the cricket with some Aussie DIGGERS; their DOMINANCE at Lord’s exposed England’s ACHILLES heel. Ah cricket: our form goes up and down like a TRAMPOLINE artiste. Still no one can TAKE AWAY that first win.

    If I REMEMBER, I will set this to music: might win a GRAMMY or something.

    Apologies all: won’t happen again. Thanks Rufus and flashling.

  35. Poc @15 and William @ 17
    Champ is traditionally served with a glass of buttermilk on the side. To enjoy it at its best make a deep crater in your Desperate Dan style heap of champ with the back of a spoon, allow a knob of butter to melt in the crater and dunk each forkful of champ in the resultant butter bath, which may need frequent replenishment.
    I can feel my arteries harden as I write.

  36. Thanks to 1961B@34 for a post that afforded me more entertainment than the puzzle did today. Our blogger (to whom, thanks) says: What do you expect? I DON’T expect Clamp – insoluble for most of us without searching for references, I would guess, as there’s no wordplay confirmation. Nor DEMURRAGE, again I would guess obscure to most, though at least there’s wordplay to lead to a possible solution. I’m not anti-Rufus, but these seem to belong in a quite different puzzle.
    I’ll stop moaning and go and prune the roses……..

  37. DP@36

    Damned with faint praise!

    I agree though, this one was 99% too easy and 1% CLAMP!

  38. I think your moaning was justified, DP@36. I knew that meaning of “clamp” but, judging from the comments, it’s obviously much too obscure to be used in a CD clue. A pity, because there was much to like otherwise.

    Thank you so much for the diversion, 1961B@34 – do hope it will happen again! Thanks too to flashling for the blog.

  39. 1961B@37: Praise was not intended to be faint! A thoroughly entertaining addition to the conversation – thank you….

  40. I tackled this puzzle while awaiting a plane at Heathrow. Like others I was stumped by CLAMP but guessed correctly at DEMURRAGE and THANET. Thanks to Rufus and flashling.

  42. ‘Clamp’ is pure Ambridge as far as I am concerned. If it’s on The Archers it ought to be a fair clue in The Guardian.

  43. 1961B@34
    thanks for the entertainment – and I do hope you will do that again some time.

  44. Oops … bad Bruce !!! Back to English geography books !!! Had heard of the name – obviously didn’t pay enough attention to the detail. :-((

  45. At last. A cryptic we could do! We used to do be able to do these BC ie before children, then something changed. Thanks Rufus. More of these for your average punter please?

  46. Thanks flashing and Rufus.

    Thought I’d check in so you know I’m still working to catch up on the Guardian – just 5 weeks behind now.

    It was a romp through until I hit Demurrage (I’d forgotten the banking rather than the shipping term) and CLAMP (which despite having a choice of only 4 possible words defeated me).

    Re 20 ac, I’ve used ON TOW often enough but have never heard IN TOW. Obvious but really?

    Malacca as a cane was new for me so another vocabulary extension.

    Thanks again.

  47. FLASHLING – sorry. ****ing predictive text.

    Had ‘jerking off’ for Kuerkenhof once so maybe not so bad this time!

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