Guardian Cryptic 27,083 by Rufus

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27083.

I know that Rufus has a large and vociferous following, but for me this is another Monday, another Rufus. This one is not quite so heavy on the cryptic definitions, which I would regard as a plus, and there are more clues which required more thought than usual; against that, I find more niggles than is often the case.
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Across
1 BOHEMIAN Ham bone I cooked in unconventional way (8)
An anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘ham bone I’.
5 DECAMP Leave the City in the wet (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of EC (‘the City’ of London) in DAMP (‘the wet’).
9 PEDANTRY Still room to absorb education that’s hair-splitting (8)
An envelope (‘to absorb’) of ED (‘education’) in PANTRY (‘still room’).
10 UNFAIR Not just an internat­ional trade show (6)
A charade of UN FAIR (‘an international trade show’).
12 SCOFF Speak mockingly about food (5)
Double definition.
13 NEEDINESS Denis seen to be wanting (9)
An anagram (‘to be’?) of ‘Denis seen’.
14 PSYCHIATRIST Breakdown expert? (12)
Cryptic definition.
18 PRISON WARDER Key man in the penal system (6,6)
It’s Rufus, so this passes as a cryptic definition.
21 GEOMETRIC Eric got me confused just using simple figures (9)
An anagram (‘confused’) of ‘Eric got me’.
23 AVAST A great stop for sailors (5)
A charade of A VAST (‘a great’).
24 ARNHEM British sailors occupy a border town on the Rhine (6)
An envelope (‘occupy’) of RN (Royal Navy, ‘British sailors’) in A HEM (‘a border’).
25 STREAKER Someone not suited for running (8)
Cryptic definition.
26 SEDATE Cool way to use barbit­urates (6)
Double definition. I am not sure where ‘way’ fits in; since SEDATE is to administer the drug rather than to take it, it might be better to include it in the second definition, but that suggests a noun rather than a verb.
27 ODYSSEUS His Greek island tour became quite an epic (8)
Cryptic definition.
Down
1 BYPASS Go over someone’s head, being close to exam result (6)
A charade of BY (‘close to’) plus PASS (‘exam result’).
2 HYDROS People with complaints may resort to these (6)
Cryptic definition.
3 MANIFESTO The form aims often may make (9)
An anagram (‘may make’) of ‘aims often’, with an extended definition.
4 ARRANT COWARD One really frightened proceeded quickly in drawing a crowd around (6,6)
An envelope (‘in’) of RAN (‘proceeded quickly’) in ART (‘drawing’) plus COWARD, an anagram (‘around’) of ‘a crowd’.
6 ENNUI Agitated nun that is upset about the tedium of life (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of NNU, an anagram (‘agitated’) of ‘nun’ in EI, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of I.E. (‘that is’).
7 ACADEMIC Scholarly in theory (8)
Double definition, although more like the same definition twice over.
8 PARASITE Ruination of parties, a hanger-on can be (8)
An anagram (‘ruination’) of ‘parties a’.
11 RECIPROCATED I accept order mistakenly and went to and fro (12)
An anagram (‘mistakenly’) of ‘I accept order’.
15 TEENAGERS Youngsters eat greens for development (9)
An anagram (‘for development’) of ‘eat greens’. Rather familiar.
16 EPIGRAMS Sayings in page’s rim need translating (8)
An anagram (‘need translating’) of ‘page’s rim’.
17 DISOWNED Denied having fed pig inside (8)
An envelope (‘inside’) of SOW (‘pig’) in DINED (‘having fed’).
19 RANKLE Cause irritation right on the joint (6)
A charade of R (‘right’) plus ANKLE (‘joint’).
20 STARTS Jumps at openings (6)
Double definition.
22 EVENT Keyhole operation? (5)
A charade of E (musical ‘key’) plus VENT (‘hole’).
completed grid

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,083 by Rufus”

  1. Thanks, PeterO. I think Rufus was being extra gentle today which was a relief as my brain is definitely in holiday mode. But I don’t know the term HYDROS? Something to do with water? Or mythology – the Hydra?

  2. I agree with PeterO, too many niggles. For 1dn BYPASS was imprecisely clued; ditto 2dn, where HYDROS, which would probably not be the first stop for most people with complaints! 11dn was surprisingly inelegant for Rufus.

  4. Thanks, Dave. I googled it but only found references to electricity power stations. I’ll tuck this away for future reference.

  5. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

    I liked 10a UNFAIR, 23a AVAST, and 25a STREAKER (although the latter felt very familiar).

    While I enjoyed solving the anagram for 11d, RECIPROCATED, I agree that the surface of the clue was very awkward.

  7. Re 4d: ‘arrant coward’ is not collocation I’ve encountered before. Re 22 down: ‘event’ = ‘operation’? Mmm..

  8. Thank you, PeterO, agree largely with your summary.

    No fewer than 8 longish anagrams today; some, as others have mentioned somewhat clunky in their wordplay.

    Is to be really the anagrind in NEEDINESS? Seems a little lacking even for Rufus. Couldn’t help thinking a chunk of the clue fell off somewhere.

    STREAKER was nice and I liked swatty’s addition.

    Hey-ho, whatever Rufus’s faults, he’s got us off to another year so thanks to our most profuse setter.

    Happy New Year, everyone.

  9. I ended up cheating with more than one clue, simoly because I couldn’t be bothered (unlike last week’s offerings which were a pleasure to chew over). Too many doubtful, if not downright poor, clues.

    I hate to start 2017 on a negative note (and I don’t normally have a problem with Rufus), so thank goodness for Hectence’s Quiptic, which was elegantly and smoothly clued and provided a satisfying and enjoyable quick solve.

  10. Only 9 comments as I start to type but most of my minor gripes have already been dealt with. I guess we’ve been spoilt by some excellent fare through the festive period and a standard Rufus is going to seem a bit of a step down.

    I agree with points raised about ‘sedate’, ‘event’, ‘reciprocate’, ‘arrant coward’ and the large number of anagrams. Happy to let ‘bypass’ pass and ‘prison warden’ is OK by me, if not particularly challenging.

    HYDROS might be better than is immediately obvious if ‘resort’ is being used as a verb based on the noun that means ‘spa’. (Apologies for that rather clumsy phrasing – I’m sure there’s a correct grammatical term for what I’m trying to say!)

    A couple of clues did stand out: I agree that STREAKER isn’t completely original but I liked it (and the observation by swatty @6:), also liked DISOWNED and thought AVAST probably my clue of the day.

    Thanks Rufus and PeterO for balanced and helpful review.

  11. Epeolater and Mark @7 & 10: If it was good enough for Shakespeare…

    FALSTAFF
    Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there’s no equity stirring. There’s no more valor in that Poins than in a wild duck.

    (Henry IV pt 1)

    I found one or two of the clues slightly more difficult than usual but good fun nevertheless.

    Thanks PeterO and Rufus

  12. Anyone with niggles about this should proceed to Qaos Genius.From what I’ve done so far I would say its excellent

  14. Thank you Rufus and PeterO.

    I really enjoyed this puzzle, a break from struggling with the alphabetical!

    I think Letzbefair @2 is being a little UNFAIR, the clue for HYDROS is fine, people usually only “resort” to a hydro when other treatments are not having a helpful effect, often the case with rheumatism.

  15. Thanks Rufus and PeterO.

    I hadn’t heard of ARRANT COWARD or AVAST, so they caused problems.

    The clue for STREAKER made me smile, even if it’s not entirely original.

    We seem to be having quite a few of PSYCHIATRIST recently. Is it the season for that?

  16. As someone who has taught and researched in universities for over thirty years I have a problem with 7, in fact I take offence at it. The offence is aggravated by PeterO’s comment that they are one and the same. Just because something is of academic importance (to researchers) does not mean it is just theoretical and it is not important to the general public, (as an example, research into cancer treatments). Scholarly work does not just exist in theory.

    I would normally preface my comment with Thanks to Rufus and PeterO, but not this time.

    The offence is compounded by including PEDANTRY at 9 as if to equate it with the second meaning at 7.

    However, it does remind me of a great comeback for someone who has in the past been accused of being pedantic. When a friend/colleagues accuses you of splitting hairs, just say. “Oh you are such a pee-dant”. When they correct you and say, “the word is pedd-ant”, you can roll your eyes and look around those surrounding you and say, “See what I mean.”

  17. On re-reading my comment, I thought I should add that when people say “that’s academic” meaning it’s only theoretical, they mean it in a derogatory way. Hence, my offence.

  18. Enjoyed this. We always enjoy Rufus. Sometimes he is easy, sometimes more difficult, but always a pleasure. Can’t say we enjoyed the blog today. More important things to worry about. Thanks to nearly everyone.

  19. Kevin @ 16 & 17.
    I take “academic” in this context to mean “of no practical use” or “incapable of being put into practice”, thus merely theoretical.
    A bit like the referendum on Brexit. The result was clear, but purely academic, as we shall see.

  20. jeceris @19

    From my side of the world I agree with you about BREXIT, but your definition of academic is exactly the one that causes me offence.

  21. Ouch. By turns too easy and too dubious. Rufus not on his best form – I’ll forgive him a bit, as he sets so many. And I bet he’s used the TEENAGERS clue before!

    My problem was in the NW, where I’d thought of HYDROS and discounted it as too imprecise for a cd. It was a long way back from there.

    Elsewhere, ‘to be’ as an anagrind? Really? ODYSSEUS was not even barely cryptic. But I did like EVENT.

  22. Whether Kevin likes it or not, one of the several meanings of academic is “theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful”. Not one of Rufus’ best, but a good way to ease into 2017.

  23. All pretty standard Rufus, struggled with HYDROS (never heard of that) and though ARRANT and COWARD were familiar, I didn’t realise they made a stock phrase – presumably military slang…

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO, and Happy New Year to everyone

  24. I really do not understand why an editor would let a setter get away with the clash of tenses in the clue for 11 down.

  25. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. HYDROS was yet another UK term new to me that I can add to my mental list. As one classified as an “academic” going back to my post-graduate days starting in 1959, I have always bridled at the often invoked phrase “that’s academic” (maybe more US than UK?) where the meaning is “theoretical” or more pejoratively “of no practical use” or “trivial” or “something to be indulged in by those with nothing better to do.” For me the 7down clue therefore makes perfect sense.

  26. HYDROS was LOI and I thought it a pretty dreadful clue. I’m not sure
    what I think of this puzzle: on the one hand it was more difficult
    than usual for Rufus; on the other, it was sloppier! Oh well, I did
    like A VAST,STREAKER and PEDANTRY- the last of which took me far too
    long to get!
    Happy New Year to Rufus and everyone else.
    Ps Do lighten up, Kevin!

  27. Mark @13 — don’t give up so easily on “arrant coward”: the fact that Shakespeare used those two words next to each other doesn’t make the pair a set phrase in the sense we usually expect in a crossword. If memory serves, Shakespeare quite frequently paired adjectives with nouns — not all of them are crossword-ready phrases.

  28. I had “prison warden” rather than “warder”, which is the intended answer. I see Mark @10 writes the same thing. In American English, “warden” would be the clear right answer. If “warder” is standard in British English, then I guess I have no complaint. But Google NGram seems to indicate that that’s not the case: its “British English” corpus suggests that the two phrases are about equally common in recent books, although “warder” used to be far more common.

  29. Ted @28
    Collins has an entry for “prison warder” but not for “prison warden”. I think “prison officer” may be the official term these days, though, as in the Prison Officers’ Association (now just the POA). Although that Google NGram shows the two terms converging around 1990 and again around 2000, it also shows the same thing happening around 1950 but then “warder” dominating again for the following 50 years, whereas the equivalent US English NGram shows “warden” heavily dominant for the whole time. I definitely think of “prison warden” as a US/North American term.

    However, as there is no crosser to rule out “prison warden”, I think US solvers should regard it as a good enough answer, even though I think “warder” must have been what Rufus intended.

  30. Well, I enjoyed this, so I’m going to stay away from all the quibbling about quality and just thank Rufus and PeterO.

  32. henry @31
    We are required by law to give notification of the use of cookies. Once you have accepted them you should not see the notification again for another 30 days (unless you clear your browser cache, either deliberately or have your browser set to automatically delete it on exit).

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    Was it really necessary to swear?

  33. Thanks to Rufus (HNY) and PeterO (HNY also).

    Dare I suggest at this late hour that the differentiation between “warder” and “warden” is a good example of a point which is “academic” in that it is there to be known (and knowledge is powerful stuff) but makes no real difference whatsoever? In that sense it has no theoretical aspect, so perhaps Kevin@16 has a point.

    But it’s only a crossword after all. Oops, I’ve overstepped the mark…

    In my defence I’ve been wassailing.

    Not an acceptable defence?

    I see.

  34. I want to wish all contributors to fifeteensquared a HNY, by the way. Have really enjoyed your company in 2016.

  37. Oh dear, is this really a good start to 2017, which does not look promising anyway, and certainly nothing to do with Rufus or PeterO. As regards Kevin’s comment @16, I dread the day when no-one will criticize some research as being purely ACADEMIC. After 20 years of research directly, and indirectly, devoted to the maintenance of genetic variety in agricultural crops, I fear that many researchers no longer find funding unless their project is likely to give an immediate financial profit. Much seemingly fruitless research in the past has later proved to be of vital importance.

  39. Thanks, jennyk!

    I did know that “warder” was at least a possibility, from various English detective stories I’ve read. Chambers says that the prison usage of “warden” is North American, so in the absence of an indication of Americanism in the clue I should have gone for “warder”.

    I routinely get answers wrong by using American spellings — generally “-er” instead of “-re”, and the occasional “ize”. I know that it’s entirely my problem — I’m not obnoxious enough to complain about the use of British spellings in a British newspaper’s puzzles! (Or to be more precise, I’m not obnoxious in this particular way.)

    By the way, I know from reading Dorothy Sayers that a warden is an official at an Oxford college (and probably other universities too). I believe that one of Harriet Vane’s bridesmaids was the Warden of her college. The layperson who manages an Episcopal church (which is the US church that’s part of the Anglican Communion) is called a warden, and Chambers confirms that you’ve got that sense over there as well.

  40. Ted @39
    I fear we may be drifting too far off topic, but perhaps Gaufrid is in a Happy New Year mood and will allow us a little more leeway. I just wanted to add a personal note to your reference to college wardens. At my university in the late 1960s, our wardens were not equivalent to the Oxford wardens, but we did have single sex halls of residence and each had its own warden to oversee the behaviour of residents. In the women’s halls, that entailed locking the doors at 10pm and making sure no males stayed overnight. Needless to say, being the 1960s, their attempts were doomed to failure.

  41. I too was torn between WARDER and WARDEN at 18 across. I reasoned that the clue is only a cryptic definition in the first case, exploiting two meanings of the word “key”. If the answer were PRISON WARDEN the clue would be a straight definition and nothing else.

    Thanks Rufus and HNY to all!

  43. Pierre @42

    From Chambers under ‘stillroom’:

    1. A room, in a large house, where liquors, preserves, etc are kept, and where tea, etc is prepared for the table
    2. A housekeeper’s pantry

    Could I please ask that, to avoid any confusion with our blogger Pierre, you add something to your username (say the first letter of your surname) when posting a comment in the future. I know the difference because I can see your email address but normal visitors do not have this facility.

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