Guardian Cryptic 26,993 by Rufus

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26993.

A Rufus with a particularly large number of … envelopes (OK there are a couple of CDs and a DD; it would hardly be a Rufus without some), and some nice clues to outweigh the odd quibble.

Across
9 ABSORBENT Sailor told to go round globe, taking things in? (9)
An envelope (’round’) of ORB (‘globe’) in AB (‘sailor’) plus SENT (‘told to go’).
10 ONSET Start working as a film actor (5)
ON SET.
11 ACADEME Made out in expert world of scholars (7)
An enveolpe (‘in’) of ADEM, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘made’ in ACE (‘expert’).
12 EL GRECO Attic studio ideal for this artist? (2,5)
A play on ‘Attic’ in the sense of from Attica, Greece (actually he was born in Crete and worked for a while in Italy before settling in Toledo).
13 ALIVE Quick drink about teatime? (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of IV (Roman 4, in the afternoon the traditional ‘teatime’) in ALE (‘drink’). Very nice.
14 NIGHTCLUB Dive for weapon used after dark (9)
Definition and literal interpretation.
16 ARMED TO THE TEETH Well protected, gumshield and all? (5,2,3,5)
Definition and (sort of) literal interpretation.
19 SEMICOLON Half an organ stop? (9)
SEMI-COLON (‘half an organ’).
21 ACORN Fruit suggests trouble afoot (5)
A CORN.
22 ICEBERG Drifter of a coldly detached nature (7)
Cryptic definition.
23 BEAR OUT Confirm a wild animal has escaped (4,3)
Definition and literal interpretation.
24 IDEAS One can’t imagine being without them (5)
Cryptic definition.
25 TRAPEZIUM Figure offered by corporation accepting a prize novel (9)
An envelope (‘accepting’) of RAPEZI, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘a prize’ in TUM (‘corporation’).
Down
1 CATAMARANS Crafts based on fundamental duplicity (10)
Cryptic definition.
2 ESCAPISM Dunce’s cap is, maybe, the case for a dreamer (8)
A hidden answer (‘the case’) in ‘duncE’S CAP IS, Maybe’. The definition (however much you include) leaves something to be desired.
3 GREECE Fat, it is said, of the land (6)
Sounds like (‘it is said’) GREASE (‘fat’).
4 WERE We are cut down or used to be (4)
WE’RE (‘we are cut down’) or the past tense (‘used to be’) without the apostrophe.
5 STRENGTHEN Get NHS rent reviewed and grow stronger (10)
An anagram (‘reviewed’) of ‘get NHS rent’.
6 FORGET IT Mould bird in metal? No way! (6,2)
A charade of FORGE (‘mould … in metal‘; I think this a somewhat loose definition) plus TIT (‘bird’).
7 AS WELL And, what is more, a real gent! (2,4)
A SWELL.
8 OTTO He races in circles (4)
An envelope (‘in’) of TT (‘races’) in OO (‘circles’).
14 NEON LIGHTS One is distracted with northern stars, they’re very bright (4,6)
A charade of N (‘northern’) plus EON NEO , an anagram (‘is distracted’) of ‘one’ plus N (‘northern’) plus LIGHTS (‘stars’).
15 BEHIND TIME Late, it turns in after me (6,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of TI (‘it turns’) in BEHIND (‘after’) plus ‘me’.
17 DECREASE Get less iron (8)
Double definition.
18 ECONOMIC In income distribution, company is thrifty (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of CO (‘company’) in ENOMIC, an anagram (‘distribution’) of ‘income’.
20 MEEKER More like those blessed with a worldly inheritance? (6)
A reference to the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 11:29).
21 AWAKEN Come round to a strangely weak point (6)
A charade of ‘a’ plus WAKE, an anagram (‘strangely’) of ‘weak’ plus N (‘point’ of the compass).
22 IBIS I get an encore — or the bird (4)
A charade of ‘I’ plus BIS (‘an encore’).
23 BOAR Steal up around a wild beast (4)
An envelope (‘around’) of ‘a’ in BOR, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ROB (‘steal’).
completed grid

60 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,993 by Rufus”

  1. Enjoyed ICEBERG immensely once I got the first and last letters. Had been attempting to anagram (nature vb?) detached minus the c. Also liked 21. Familiar variations of ONSET and SEMICOLON clues. Like EL GRECO very much. Thanks to Peter O for the Attica reference. I had found an account online from April 2015 that a possible El Greco was found in an attic in the UK valued at 300 pounds and sold for over 120,000! Wrong attic.

  2. Thanks to both Rufus and PeterO.

    Quite enjoyable.

    I got 25a TRAPEZIUM but didn’t understand TUM for “corporation” and still don’t; similarly solved 22d as IBIS but have never heard of BIS for an encore.

    Hard to believe it took me so long to see 6d FORGET It, my LOI.

    Favourites were 14a NIGHTCLUB and 1d CATAMARANS.

  4. Julie, ‘corporation’ is an old-fashioned term for a large stomach. Sometimes also, by association, a term for the watch chain stretched across the waistcoat.

  7. @Phil Wood
    I assumed that the suggestion is base of ship=hull=foundation and that a catamaran has two of them (duplication)

  9. Phil @ 5 I took it as there are two of their bottoms (hulls).

    Thanks PeterO and Rufus. I found this easy again (albeit 80%, in terms of time, harder than last week’s)

  10. Re 6a…the definition MOULD…IN METAL would be more precise, even though it is a split phrase.
    Thanks PeterO and bravo Rufus.

  11. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    Very mixed bag. I found the NW surpisingly (for Rufus) difficult, with ALIVE LOI (I don’t like “teatime” for IV – very loose, and certianly innaccurate in our house!)

    Is “craft” like “fish” – one craft, a few crafts, lots of craft? If not, the “crafts” in the clue is just wrong.

    El Greco wouldn’t have found a studio in Attica ideal at all. I doubt if he would have called “The Greek” if had had worked in Greece!

    24 is a typical weak cryptic definition by Rufus. MINDS actually fits the definition better. Also are “stars” LIGHTS (in 14d)?

    However there were several clues that more than made up for these weaknesses. TRAPEZIUM, ESCAPISM, DECREASE and IBIS all made me smile.

  12. From my perspective this was a brilliant Rufus. Loved ALIVE, IBIS, CATAMARANS (when I got it – LOI), ESCAPISM, TRAPEZIUM and others; I thought his DDs were particularly good today. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  13. Rather enjoyed this Rufus, not something I say too often. I know CATAMARANS was a bit dodgy for the reasons stated above but it still got a groan from me when it went in, as did ICEBERG – that’s two cds with a tick, almost unprecedented. Plenty of other clever stuff eg DECREASE.

    For me, the only let-downs were the weak def in OTTO and the doubling up of wild things at 23.

  14. Thank you, PeterO.

    Purely personal but I thought this was Rufus at his best. The surfaces here should be a tutorial for ceratin other setters. I ticked ABSORBENT, ESCAPISM, ONSET, EL GRECO, SEMICOLON, CATAMARAN, TRAPEZIUM, ALIVE, and (although we’ve seen the device before) DECREASE.

    A shame it was such a rapid solve, I loved it.

    Thank you, Rufus.

    Nice week, all.

  16. Thanks PeterO and Rufus.

    I enjoyed the somewhat tongue-in-cheek definitions, including CATAMARANS.

    I fear you have a slip-up at 3d, Peter: the answer has to be GREASE, for the crossing A of 11ac

  17. Thank you Rufus and PeterO.

    One of Rufus’s best, so many good clues, too many to list all, but I particularly liked DECREASE, CATAMARANS, EL GRECO, ABSORBENT, TRAPEZIUM, ALIVE, ONSET and IBIS!

  20. Thanks Rufus & PeterO.

    Small point, but I think the parsing of 14d is a charade of NEO*/N/LIGHTS. I thought ESCAPISM was brilliantly well-hidden – the dunce’s hat for me! CATAMARANS was my LOI and I had to think twice to parse it – good, even if it should have been craft.

  21. Thank you to ken in oz @ 3 and Becky @ 4 for the explanations and elaborations. ken in oz, is TUM a term that we use in Australia, as far as you know, for the notion of the long (and sometimes liquid) lunch? If so I have not heard it.

    Agree with muffin @ 11 regarding MINDS as a better possibility for 24a; it was certainly my first fill-in there. Using pencil and eraser these days, however, so always ready for a rethink. I still think IDEAS was okay as the solution for this clue.

  22. 2d – shouldn’t the definition be an abstract noun to tally with the solution? Surely ‘a dreamer’ is an escap*ist*.

  23. Muffin @11 I took the EL GRECO clue less literally than you did. I didn’t think the clue suggested that the painter actually had had a studio in Greece; it simply suggests that, given his name, an attic studio would be ideal.

    I’m pretty sure this compiler knows jolly well where El Greco painted and, indeed, I thought this was precisely why he added his final question mark.

    Just my interpretation, you understand.

  24. Ken & Julie in Oz Re bis, you may be interested (apologies if you already know) to learn that this is the origin of the word biscuit Literally “twice cooked” to make a little cake go hard and keep longer by cooking it partially, letting it cool, then cooking it again.

  25. Maysie @10

    I accidentally left out the ‘… in metal’ from my description of 6D; however, I do not think that including it makes it any the more precise.

    On the other hand, I am not impressed by the criticisms of 1D. I would have thought (albeit with little corroborative evidence) that, as muffin @11 suggests, the plural of craft may or may not have an s; and using ‘duplicity’ in its basic meaning of doubleness, minus the rider of conduct or intention which is normally attached, strikes me as fair game in a cryptic definition – indeed, this is the kind of thing that cryptic definitions should do.

  27. Bis, meaning twice, is part of the lexicon of Italian musical terms. The corporate logo of the excellent Swedish record label BIS includes a pair of appropriate symbols (simile marks).

  28. Hi Peter @25; for the meaning of craft=boat, the plural is craft. I think the clue would have been just as cryptic if the singular ‘craft’ had been used. We all solved it so it’s not a matter of great importance.

  30. Other twice-cooked baked goods are biscotti and zweibach.

    Seems we’ve had tum recently in its corporate sense .. anyone recall?

  33. Thank you Rufus I enjoyed this very much.

    Rufus has his share of critics but as William @14 has already mentioned the surfaces here, as with pretty much all his clues, are immaculate!! Once again William and others have mentioned a raft of great clues, but may I add MEEKER as a favourite as well!!

    PeterO, thanks for clearing-up a few uncertainties in my attempts to parse.

  34. Valentine @30 and Cookie @32

    Tum/corporation was also used in Independent 9307 by Phi on August 12th, and there are several older examples.

    Robi @28

    Surely craft as a collective plural is fine, but the OED gives some examples of crafts for specific boats – and then there is that nautical fellow, Rufus.

  35. Thanks both,

    I struggled with this for a bit then it mainly fell into place. ‘Escapism’ was brilliantly hidden.

    PeterO @34. Online OED implies the plural of craft (small boat) is craft. It does give one example of ‘crafts’ in that context, but that is dated 1616.

  37. Tyngewick @35

    ESCAPISM may be well hidden, but the definition is not merely hidden, but missing.

    Curious about crafts: the hard-copy OED does not give that example, but does give two from the 18th and 19th century.

  38. I found this quite difficult in the NW corner. It took me ages to see ALIVE, and CATAMARANS was a guess until I came here. Both, in retrospect, were very good clues and I could kick myself for not understanding the latter. I expect to complete a Rufus pretty quickly but not this time!
    Thanks Rufus.

  40. I thought this puzzle, apart from a few clues, was one of the best from this setter for a while, and I enjoyed it more than last week’s Rufus. I’ve enjoyed the discussion points on this page just as much.

    I picked out ONSET, SEMICOLON, ICEBERG and OTTO as the best among 10 clues that I ticked as being very good for their surfaces as well as their wordplay.

    However, I thought 1d CATAMARANS was doubly dodgy. ‘Crafts’ as the plural for the sea-going kind of craft seems doubtful to me, whatever some dictionaries might indicate, and ‘duplicity’ in the sense of doubling or ‘two-ness’ is just as doubtful in my opinion (except of course in the sense of double-dealing).

    Similarly, although some dictionaries might allow ECONOMIC to mean economical (‘thrifty’ in 18d), this too is doubtful. In this case and the one above, I’m sure it wasn’t necessary to resort to definitions like these.

    Finally, I think ‘stronger’ is too close to STRENGTHEN to be suitable as part of the definition (‘grow stronger’). Even ‘grow stronger’ doesn’t quite make it, unless I’ve missed something – I thought ‘strengthen’ meant ‘make stronger’.

    Thanks anyway to Rufus and to PeterO.

  42. Re. 1dn, removing the ‘s’ from crafts leaves a perfectly good cryptic clue. The editor may have left the ‘s’ on, but we can always think of it as a Grauniad misprint.

    Given the transparency of its Latin etymology (Chambers lists it under the headword ‘duplex’) I can’t see anything wrong with ‘duplicity’ as part of this cryptic clue.

  43. Found this one a little more slippery than Rufus can be. GREECE was last in, no excuses for that!

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO

  44. John E @42

    I never thought of a Grauniad misprint for ‘craft’! [It’s good in a way, though, that this is no longer the first thing that comes to mind.]

    Concerning ‘duplicity’, I didn’t check Chambers before posting my last comment. I’ve checked it now, and it says what I thought it would say.

  46. Alan B @44. For the avoidance of doubt in the age of online dictionaries, my Chambers is a print edition and the gist of the entry under ‘duplex’ is as follows (with my caps. to indicate the words printed in bold):

    DUPLEX, adj. twofold: double: having some part doubled … — adj. DUPLICITOUS. — n. DUPLICITY, doubleness, esp. in conduct and intention: insincerity: double-dealing.

  47. I live on board a craft, and there are many other craft in the same boatyard. Some people living on these craft are engaged in crafts such as wood turning and knitting, or making of artworks with which to adorn their craft.
    Just saying.

  48. John E

    Thanks for going to that trouble. My print dictionary (Chambers 11th Edition) says the same as your online edition. Chambers does like to cover every angle, hence the ‘esp.’, but I’m not convinced by this entry or by the entry for ‘doubleness’ (which you might like to look up – my print edition says ‘the state of being double; duplicity’).

    I generally find Collins to be clearer and more consistent. As it happens, Collins doesn’t allow ‘doubleness’ as a definition of ‘duplicity’. (Do careful, skilled speakers and writers of English ever use ‘duplicity’ in any sense other than deception or double-dealing?)

  49. Meg @47

    I loved your crafty observations!

    I was thinking along exactly the same lines while making my earlier comment on this page.

  50. When it comes to consistently clear and witty surfaces for me Rufus is the master. This was one of his best in this respect. Others may offer more of a challenge but that is only part of the enjoyment.2

  52. Alan B @48. I was quoting from a print edition (the 1988 one), which I see also gives that interesting entry for ‘doubleness’. Since you have drawn attention to it, I must say that that entry looks to me like a very solid support for this clue! (Do experienced setters of cryptic crosswords do anything other than try to subvert the normal expectations of careful, skilled speakers and writers of English?)

    I know that Collins differs from Chambers in this instance, but I have always treated these two dictionaries as complementary rather than competitive.

  53. Another good Monday puzzle from Rufus, even with a few niggles (my main one being “duplicity”). My favourite was ABSORBENT. Thanks, Rufus and PeterO.

    Alan B @40
    In weather reports, “strengthen” means “grow stronger” rather than “make stronger”, as in “the wind strengthened, becoming gale force”.

  54. John E

    Sorry this is so late. You make some very good points.

    My answer to your question in parentheses is ‘Yes’ – I think setters try to keep to recognised meanings, and especially the less familiar or unexpected ones in order to mislead us. More than once today, however, I think Rufus has slipped into using doubtful or ‘marginally correct’ meanings, no doubt for a worthy cause such as achieving a good surface. This is just my opinion, and I would not deny you yours.

    Collins and Chambers are indeed complementary – that’s the best way to regard them. Their policies differ in some respects. One manifestation of Collins’ policy on guiding us in the use of English is the peppering of the dictionary with Language Notes here and there to deal with common difficulties. I can guess how Rufus, in today’s mood, might define ‘enormity’, for example: I wouldn’t like it, but Chambers allows it, and Collins goes one better with a Language Note on the word to advise us on its use.

    Thanks again for your views on this topic.

  56. Alan B @54. It is always interesting to have this kind of debate.

    The only example of Rufusian awkwardness that bothered me in this crossword was the wording of the clue for 2dn, for the reason given by PeterO.

  58. Failed on ALIVE as I try not to drink caffeine after midday and I just couldn’t think of a synonym for ‘quick’ that had A-I-E! Last in was ESCAPISM which I didn’t even notice was a hidden. I got the CAPIS part and just bunged the other three letters in on a hunch. Overall, a very enjoyable workout – thanks Rufus and PeterO

  59. matrixmania @59

    For ‘quick’, I first thought of AGILE – can anyone suggest an amusing way in which ‘GI’ might be ‘tea’ ?

    Many thanks to Rufus (much improved !) and PeterO

  60. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    Good to do a Rufus puzzle after such a long time … and this one was a good ‘un !

    Was another who found the NW corner the hardest to finish with CATAMARANS and ALIVE the last couple in – had no problem with either, once I saw what he meant.

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