Guardian 26,819 / Rufus

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A traditional Rufus medley, with perhaps more anagrams and fewer cryptic and double definitions than usual. There are a couple of places where the cluing seems rather awry but it’s perhaps me being a bit dim today.

Thanks, as ever, to Rufus for a genial kick-start to the week.

Across

1 Fear Ruby will suffer in period of atonement (8)
FEBRUARY
Anagram [will suffer] of FEAR RUBY
Lent [period of atonement] began on 10th February this year, which is almost the earliest it can be

5 Score a number (6)
TWENTY
Double definition

9 Unfortunate craftsman left to fend for himself (8)
CASTAWAY
I spent a minute or two looking for some wordplay here but it’s a cryptic definition, a craftsmn being a man in a boat

10 Code word for “S” is rare in operation (6)
SIERRA
Anagram [in operation] of IS RARE

12 Ruth’s mother-in-law caused no end of a minor riot (5)
NAOMI
Anagram [riot] of A MINO[r]

13 Leave the witness box and go off duty (5,4)
STAND DOWN
Double definition – but they’re rather close

14 Conversation is about management of natural resources (12)
CONSERVATION
Anagram [about] of CONVERSATION – anagrams don’t come much easier than this!

18 Seems return for my passage will be by end of day — pity! (4,8)
FEEL SYMPATHY
FEELS [seems] + a reversal [return] of MY + PATH [passage] + [da]Y

21 Could be next Open Champions, perhaps (9)
EXPONENTS
There’s an anagram [could be – or perhaps] of NEXT OPEN but I can’t see where the S comes from

23 Man in the orchestra playing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony (5)
NINTH
Hidden in maN IN THe – but I can’t see an indicator

24 Address for delivery? (6)
SPEECH
Cryptic definition

25 Ready to stand up to trained fighter (8)
GAMECOCK
GAME [ready] + COCK [stand up]

26 He may handle your case (6)
PORTER
Cryptic definition

27 Lime and cats affected plant (8)
CLEMATIS
Anagram [affected] of LIME and CATS

Down

1 Point to a hundred in stock that’s prolific (6)
FECUND
E [compass point] + C [a hundred] in FUND [stock]

2 Piece of the cloth? (6)
BISHOP
Cryptic definition, referring to a chess piece

3 All agreed to distribution of a union sum (9)
UNANIMOUS
Anagram [distribution] of A UNION SUM

4 Turbulent masses resent another valuation (12)
REASSESSMENT
Anagram [turbulent] of MASSES RESENT

6 Strange device to raise river level before dam opens (5)
WEIRD
WEIR [device to raise water level + D[am]

7 Painkiller used on Arctic trip (8)
NARCOTIC
Anagram [used – or trip?] of ON ARCTIC

8 Desire of head changing study (8)
YEARNING
[l]EARNING [study] with its first letter [head] changed

11 Northern tourist attraction needs law on handrails reinstated (8,4)
HADRIAN’S WALL
Anagram [reinstated] of LAW and HANDRAILS – the ‘on’ is out of place

15 Club menu the AA had changed? (9)
ATHENAEUM
Anagram [had changed] of MENU THE AA

16 Volunteers get increasing presents (6,2)
OFFERS UP
OFFERS [volunteers] + UP [increasing]

17 Springtime — when women propose to break with tradition (4,4)
LEAP YEAR
LEAP [spring] + YEAR [time] with a crypticish definition – but it’s really only today, so best of luck!

19 Business expense on company’s time (6)
ONCOST
ON + CO’S [company’s + T [time]

20 Hearing Arab leaders gives us the shivers! (6)
SHAKES
Sounds like [hearing] sheikhs [Arab leaders]

22 Recess in pleasant hospital (5)
NICHE
H [hospital] in NICE [pleasant]

43 comments on “Guardian 26,819 / Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and Eileen

    Was typical and yet not … I think that it’s the first time that I’ve seen a theme in a Rufus puzzle – LEAP YEAR and FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH.

    Puzzled over GAMECOCK for a while,

    Last couple in were EXPONENTS and HADRIANS WALL.

  2. Thanks Rufus. I liked Beethoven’s Ninth.

    Eileen – probably because you thought it too obvious to be worth mentioning, today is February 29th, Leap Year’s Day!

  5. Thanks Rufus and Eileen

    After the discussion of “near homophones” recently, we now have a “near anagram” for EXPONENTS! Some strange clues. I don’t think TWENTY is cryptic at all (and I don’t see it as a dd as both “score” and “a number” refer to 20). I can’t think of a context in which “cock” means stand up. I hadn’t heard of ONCOST.

    I did like HADRIAN’S WALL.

  7. Thanks for the blog, Eileen. I think 21 must be a typo (Rufus probably meant ‘champion’ singular). Re 25, a dog cocks its ears (in the sense that it pricks its ears up) so I’m happy with that.

  8. Re me @ 7…… silly me! the answer to 21 has 9 letters so it has to be plural. In which case, it’s just a lazy clue!

  10. Yes there does seem to be an unexplained S in exponents- if it were a Paul puzzle I would make a thorough investigation……
    Twenty very obvious for score but forgiven as it ties in with leap year and ninth.
    Thanks Eileen

  11. On the subject of setter errors, Paul’s rare faux pas in a prize puzzle in early January was the subject of a ‘corrections and clarifications’ entry in the Guardian last week (about 6 weeks on), in which they provided a re-cast of the clue to make it work.

  13. Thanks Rufus and Eileen.

    FEBRUARY, the first in, made me wary, and after TWENTY I searched for NINTH, 23a did not really need an indicator. LEAP YEAR was great.

  15. Thanks, Eileen.

    21a seems to be a rare slip from this setter.

    I had to check ONCOST: clear enough from the wordplay, but I wasn’t sure it was a word. Then, almost immediately, I came across it (with a hyphen) in Roy Greenslade’s piece about the New Day in today’s Guardian: “Printing and distribution won’t have been too much of an on-cost.” GAMECOCK was my LOI.

    (BTW, for those interested, the New Day has a cryptic crossword, but, as you might expect from a paper intended as a short read for busy people, it can be finished in about the same time as a Guardian Quick.)

  16. I thought there might be complaints that some of the clues/anagrams were just too easy today, but I still didn’t spot the 29th!

    Perhaps 21a should have been “Could be next Open’s champions, perhaps”

  18. I agree that some of the cluing was a bit off as Eileen has mentioned. However, most of this was straightforward until I got to the SW where I got stuck. I’d got DEEP instead of FEEL SYMPATHY- there’s an impending funeral in my wife’s family so I suppose the former formulation is stuck in my head. Once I got OFFERS UP the answer became obvious.
    Not one of his best but-
    Thanks Rufus.

  20. Made pretty heavy weather of this, particularly the SE corner, mostly due to putting the AE in the wrong place in ATHENAEUM but GAMECOCK and ONCOST were the last to fall. I never seem to get any better at solving Rufus clues…

    Thanks to Eileen and Rufus

  22. A double first for Rufus then, both a theme and a mistake. I bet he’s mortified about the latter. Hugh probably hasn’t noticed yet.

    The theme led me to NINTH having got the barely-cryptic TWENTY, just like Cookie @13.

    Delays though for the usual Rufus reasons, staring forever at S*E*C* and seeing nothing, and at *A*E*O*K and only seeing FACE(=ready to stand up)-something … FACEBOOK wormed its way in.

  23. How it’s possible to miss a theme that advertises itself so openly, I’m not quite sure. I managed, though!
    Spent a long time trying to justify BOOK=TRAINED FIGHTER,in 25a since FACE=STAND UP TO, which leads (obvs, as they say) to FACEBOOK. Got there in the end!
    Thanks, all.

  24. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. Like others I experimented with other lead-ins to SYMPATHY (deep? show?) before getting FEEL and did not know ONCOST. Last in was FECUND (I had trouble spotting “fund”). As usual, an enjoyable solve.

  26. Thank you, Eileen.

    Even as a confirmed Rufusian, I must agree with others that this was perhaps not his best. Perhaps the unfamiliar pressure imposed by adding a theme threw him off slightly.

    Shaky clueing or not, all gettable in the end.

    Nice week, all.

  27. A fine Monday Rufus. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

    Re 21a, “could be” or just “be” suggest “is” which can also be ‘s. “Perhaps” as the anagrind, you get *(next open)’s = exponent’s.

    That’s my take from Sunny Southern California anyway.

  28. Completed but not happy, as not too sure about why the answers are the answers, even having seen Eileen’s explanations. Never heard of ONCOST.

  29. Trailman @ 22 and DP @ 23: me too for FACEBOOK! I was also flummoxed by CASTAWAY. I missed the theme as always – I think I need THERE IS A THEME written in large letters across the top. Favourites were FEEL SYMPATHY and FECUND. As Eileen says, CONSERVATION was just about the weakest anagram possible. Thanks to R & E.

  30. Surely proof postive that our illustrious Ed never looked at this puzzle strewn with loose cluing and even a mistake. 🙂

    I thought February was the month of purification?! However my take was that February is the month of atonement in the sense of “settlement of differences” i.e. it’s the month that settles the differences between 365 days and a true astronomical year. (Pretty loose though)

    This could only be solved if one new it was a Rufus IMHO. One just ignored the mistakes and loose cluing. As Eileen said, there would have been more investigation and comment if this were any other setter!

    But of course none of this matters as it’s Monday, and Monday is Rufus 😉

    Thanks to Eileen and Rufus.

  31. It would be possible to use a Boatman-like construction to get around the problem in 21, e.g.
    Crowns next Open champions, perhaps (9)
    where Crown is the indicator and the S supplements the fodder.
    This is probably not a Rufus preferred method 🙂

    Decent puzzle. I liked 9 and 17. Thanks, Rufus and Eileen

  32. I’m inclined to agree with Brendan here – the editor should have picked up the mistake. We all make mistakes and isn’t it an editor’s job to weed all or most of them out?

    A variant of the old joke: The Guardian crossword editor, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the taxman all fall off a tall building at the same time. Who hits the ground first?

    Well obviously the taxman, as the others are figments of imagination.

    Gets coat…

  33. Brendan @39

    “As Eileen said, there would have been more investigation and comment if this were any other setter!”

    Where?

  35. Thank you Eileen for the blog.

    I’m too late to add much that can be original. I noticed two mistakes: the one at 21A (EXPONENTS) has been mentioned quite a lot, but the one at 11D (HADRIAN’S WALL) not so much, although I see that you pointed it out in your analysis.

    I stalled a bit on 18A (FEEL SYMPATHY) because it seems (feels!) like two words put together to make a valid, meaningful phrase but not a significant or recognised phrase for a crossword.

    Finally, I couldn’t help noticing the use of a device that is quite fashionable now, namely, that used in 22D (NICHE), where ‘hospital in pleasant’ (H in NICE) is clued as ‘in pleasant hospital’, which you have to read as ‘in pleasant, hospital’ – rather like ‘in wine, truth’ (in vino veritas). This is just an observation and not a complaint – we all recognise it, and the clue, as here, can be a straightforward solve.

  36. Alan, I think that strictly speaking 11d (HADRIAN’S WALL)is all right.

    The clue tells me first to put LAW on HANDRAILS, giving LAWHANDRAILS.
    Next I should anagrammise (if that is a word), giving the solution as it is.
    Having said that, I am not very comfortortable with the clue for the reason given.
    Yet, I think it’s OK.

  37. It’s a crossword. Perhaps a bit on the easy side, even for Rufus, but the errors didn’t get in the way of solving the clues. Hardly the end of the world.

  38. usual moaners engaging in patronising nitpicking. yawn. great crossword as always. thanks rufus you rock x

  39. Sil van den Hoek @36

    I didn’t see that way of interpreting the wordplay, so thank you for pointing it out. I wouldn’t have done it that way myself, but I shouldn’t call it a mistake.

  40. Sorry Eileen, I could have sworn it was your comment. I was probably mixing it up with your initial comment about “cluing being somewhat awry”. I blame the ravages of ageing. 😉

    shaar @38 how can comments about basic mistakes in cluing combined with loose cluing be described as patronising or nitpicking? This laziness has obviously marred the enjoyment of many solvers and should easily has been avoided by even cursory editing.

    The only patronising comment I can see on here is your own. To describe this debacle as a great crossword is laughable.

  41. muffin@5
    My memory — increasingly arbitrary these days — connects me to an entry in an ancient manual of letterpress printing terms in which a raised (rather than a dropped) initial is described as a ‘cock’ or ‘cock-up’ capital, standing up, as it does, proud of the line.

    I’m astounded that that arcane nugget has proved of use.

    Although Rufus’ role seems to be to ‘gentle’ us into the week (which I’m usually grateful for!) this one did seem a little too easy due to the preponderance of straightforward anagrams. I feel sympathy for Rufus here as it must be far more difficult to gauge shades of difficulty at the ‘soft’ end of the scale. Perhaps it’s consciously designed for inexperienced solvers, in which case: perfect.

  42. Re 21ac – wondering if CHAMPIONS should be read as CHAMPION S – anagram the two words, then put them ahead of ‘S’

  43. Thanks Eileen and Rufus.

    This really did feel like it had been bashed out in a hurry – despite the theme.

    I don’t have anything against “easy” – after all we all have to start somewhere. But there should be no excuse for loose clues. There are a few alternative to the first word of 18ac and more than one for the crossing 16dn.

    “Playing” in 23 looks more like an anagram than an inclusion indicator and SIERRA for S is hardly “code”.

    I did get there but I don’t really feel that I enjoyed the challenge this time. Which is a shame because there are usually one or two nice little nuggets in Rufus’ puzzles.

    Hope for better next time.

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