Even more…
…cryptic definitions than usual (10!). A repetition of putting another word in DEED, and something up with 12ac. Favourites were 30ac, 4dn and 28dn. Thanks, Rufus.
| Across | ||
| 9 | APART | Separate craft in which father’s conveyed (5) |
| ART=”craft”, with PA=”father” inside | ||
| 10 | TESTATRIX | Willing female (9) |
| cryptic definition – a woman who has made a will | ||
| 11 | OTHERWISE | Mother wisely included it — or else! (9) |
| Hidden in [M]OTHER WISE[ly] | ||
| 12 | EIGHT | Oarsmen include a soldier in the overturned boat (5) |
| GI=”soldier”, in THE reversed/”overturned”. Seems like one of “Oarsmen” or “boat” is an extra definition | ||
| 13 | BEELINE | Quickest way home for some workers (7) |
| cryptic definition – referring to worker bees. Possibly a double definition as =”Quickest way” and “home for [i.e. location of] some workers [bees]” | ||
| 15 | TRAINEE | One under instruction to make a stand about wet weather (7) |
| TEE=”a stand” for a golf ball, around RAIN=”wet weather” | ||
| 17 | AESOP | He told tales for soap set around English capital (5) |
| (soap)* around the capital letter of E[nglish] | ||
| 18 | TED | Hal stopped with him (3) |
| Hal + TED = ‘halted’ = “stopped” | ||
| 20 | TACKS | VAT, say, for nails (5) |
| sounds like ‘tax’=”VAT, say” | ||
| 22 | DESIRED | Wanted to be a schoolmaster, in fact (7) |
| SIR=”schoolmaster” in DEED=”fact” | ||
| 25 | SURREAL | A ruler’s confused in a dream world (7) |
| (A ruler’s)* | ||
| 26 | MONET | French painter changes, not me (5) |
| (not me)* | ||
| 27 | MAGNIFIED | Made to look great! (9) |
| cryptic definition – “great” in the sense of ‘large’ rather than ‘excellent’ | ||
| 30 | GRAPEVINE | Even a prig could be a passer-on of gossip (9) |
| (Even a prig)* | ||
| 31 | LOOSE | Nothing to to do at this end (5) |
| cryptic definition, referring to the phrase ‘loose end’ | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HALO | Upper Circle (4) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | CASHIERS | Sacks those that take money (8) |
| double definition: =dismisses from the armed forces=”Sacks”, and =”those that take money” in a shop | ||
| 3 | STIR | Start to wake up in prison (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 4 | STRIDENT | Safety first with missile launched from submarine grating (8) |
| S[afety] plus TRIDENT=”missile launched from submarine”, the UK’s nuclear deterrent | ||
| 5 | ASSENT | Nod when told to go? (6) |
| AS=”when” plus SENT=”told to go” | ||
| 6 | MALEFACTOR | Criminal macho characteristic (10) |
| MALE=”macho”, plus FACTOR=”characteristic” | ||
| 7 | DRAGON | Formidable woman appears to be tedious (6) |
| DRAG ON=”be tedious” | ||
| 8 | EXIT | Get out of this! (4) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 13 | BEARD | Feature of barley used to make bread (5) |
| (BEARD)* would make “bread” | ||
| 14 | IMPURITIES | Foreign parts? (10) |
| cryptic definition, as in a ‘foreign body’ rather than a foreign location | ||
| 16 | EASEL | Peg-legged supporter of the school board (5) |
| cryptic definition – an easel might have wooden/peg legs, and “school board” as in a blackboard/whiteboard | ||
| 19 | DESIGNED | Intended to put one’s name in a legal document (8) |
| SIGN=”put one’s name”, in DEED=”a legal document” | ||
| 21 | CREDITOR | The settlement is due to him (8) |
| cryptic definition – he is owed a settlement, rather than the settlement happened because of him | ||
| 23 | SANDAL | It’s bound to go on foot (6) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | DIMWIT | Obtuse humour of a stupid person (6) |
| DIM=”Obtuse”, plus WIT=”humour” | ||
| 26 | MAGI | Wise men have a month in Paris about the end of spring (4) |
| MAI=the month of May in French/in Paris, around [sprin]G | ||
| 28 | IDLE | Unemployed paid less at the centre (4) |
| the centre letters of [pa]ID LE[ss] | ||
| 29 | DIET | Might it turn the tide for those overweight? (4) |
As you said, a lot of CDs! Of the two DE…EDs, one is a legal document which is fine, but I’m not sure about fact.
When I got to 13d I only had the central “a” so I was sure it had to be YEAST somehow. Then I saw it was cleverer than that. I looked up “beard” to see if it really is the right name for the thingies on barley, to discover that beard is also “a woman who escorts a homosexual man to give the impression he is heterosexual.” I’ll watch out for that in in a Paul crossword.
Thanks Rufus and manehi.
I enjoyed 30a GRAPEVINE, 1d HALO, 6d MALEFACTOR, 7d DRAGON (nice pun) and 14d IMPURITIES.
But like manehi, I questioned “boat” in the clue for 12a, EIGHT.
Failed to parse 13a but then realised why when I came here, as I had BEEHIVE rather than BEELINE. But I think beehive would be a better answer for “home for some workers”, while I can see that BEELINE does mean “quickest way”.
Should 2d read “those WHO take money” to designate CASHIERS? I realise we now have self checkouts at supermarkets, but I still prefer to deal with a person, so I go to a cashier with whom I can have some human interaction.
Interested in others’ comments as the forum unfolds.
The cds slowed me down today, as always … they are my cryptic kryptonite! Julie, I also use “who” instead of “that” as I think it sounds better but “that” has precedence as far back as Shakespeare:
“The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
Thanks Rufus and manehi
With this grid I always try the down ones that give first letters first; today that held me up as I confidently wrote GODS for 1d (as in theatre seating). Apart from that, it was all very quick. EIGHT just looks wrong – it isn’t a boat, it’s the rowers in it. Also SRREAL is an adjectve; I’m not sure that “in a dream world” is, as it couldn’t be applied to a noun by itself, could it?
I liked TED and DESIGNED.
Thanks, Rufus and manehi.
In 16dn, I took ‘peg-legged’ as referring to the holes for pegs to adjust the height of the board, as easels used to have when I was at primary school – but when I went googling for a picture, I found that they don’t any more!
Julie and matrixmania – I was taught to use ‘who’ for people and ‘which’ or ‘that’ for things but I’ve noticed more and more people using ‘that’ for ‘who’ these days.
[We have a “peg-leg” in a clue in today’s Quiptic as well.]
muffin @4: the BRB gives “eight – an eight-oar boat” and I have heard it used in this way when listening to commentaries on the Ox/Cam Boat-race. I, too, had GODS at first for 1d.
Thanks Rufus and manehi
A nice Rufus, particularly HALO, TED, EASEL and BEELINE. I find his DDs and CDs can be a bit tricky, but satisfying once solved. Many thanks to Rufus and manehi.
This should have been very straightforward, but I got held up by CASHIERS (the military definition was unfamiliar) and MALEFACTOR (no excuses for that one). All pleasant enough.
Thanks to Rufus and manehi
Thanks Rufus and manehi. This was great, even though I failed to get HALO, and “gods” would not fit. Favourite was 18a, HalTED!
Thanks for counting the cds up to ten for us manehi, I’d lost count after the first few. Is this a record? For me, I thought I was swimming along with what for me is a bête noire of clue types, shelling out nine in a row with no problem and then …
I*P*R*T*E*. ‘Foreign parts’ so might be something to do with empire hence some derivative of IMPERIAL? As you might imagine, my struggles were long and hard, and lasted many times longer than the other 32 clues put together. But we got there. Aha!
Is there an extra “to” in 31 across?
Trailman@11 – Yes, I had a long struggle with I*P*R*T*E*, which was also my LOI. A typical Rufus CD, to which (depending on crossers) the answer could equally well be ‘prostheses’, or probably a few other words.
Gasmanjack – so there is. Completely missed that.
Gasmanjack @12 I noticed that too – I wonder how many others did??
I almost finished this without any help at all, but like Trailman and drofle I was stumped by 14d. I think my favourite was 13d but I also liked 30a.
Thanks Rufus and manehi.
Like Christa, I also liked 30a and 13d. For the latter, I had help from an old farming song, collected (Google tells me) from a farm laborer in 1923. The verses are all about how likable barley is. Here’s the chorus —
All among the barely, who would not be blithe
When the ripe and bearded barley is smiling on the scythe.
I think BEELINE is “quickest way home.” Bees probably don’t fly in a beeline on their outbound foraging trips, but would once they’re loaded up.
I missed the “to to” too.
If we are being picky, 29d should be (tide)*
Thanks to Rufus and manehi. Like others I needed all the crossers to get IMPURITIES and also CREDITOR and was slowed down by the second appearance of “deed” (I thought one of them must be wrong). Still, lots of fun.
12a – When I parsed it, I thought boat was there in the sense of being a container (like a gravy boat). So GI in a container/boat of THE.
Trailman @11
Rufus 27023 which I blogged two weeks ago also had ten CDs, although one I labelled just “Definition”, and another I did not label at all, just pointing out the proverb to which it alluded. I hope this is not a trend.
I didn’t enjoy this much. It’s probably not much different from other
puzzles by this setter but somehow this didn’t click with me. Perhaps it
was the number of cryptics. Anyway, thumbs down from me. 12ac does seem a bit odd-where does “upturned boat” come in? I paused to fill in DESIGNED as I’d already got DESIRED but,hey,this is Rufus.
Another enjoyable Rufus puzzle. I too took a long time to see IMPURITIES, even though I considered yjat it might be some kind of intrusion. I think it was partly due to it being more difficult to see the pattern formed by the crossers in a down answer but also partly because those particular crossers kept trying to rearrange themselves into vaguely related word elements like INTER- even though I knew they were in the wrong places.
Like Edward Halliwell @20, I saw “boat” as part of the wordplay for 12a, though it could be taken as an extra definition (in which role I think it might have been regarded as a creditable bonus if delivered by some other setters). My favourite was MAGI.
Thanks, Rufus and manehi.
I had BRAWN for 13D, with only vague parsing. That, of course, made 22A impossible. Other than that, I did well.
In 20, “say” has to do double duty for the homophone and the DBE. Feels uncomfortable to me, like a crooked picture. Something like “VAT could be picked up for nails” might solve the problem.
I wonder if Rufus has ever done a puzzle with CDs only. That would be quite a feat, I think.
Thanks, manehi and Rufus.
Irritatingly I got stumped by 21d CREDITOR. I also mentally went through STORPEDO and SPOLARIS before getting to STRIDENT!