The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27113.
Apologies for the late arrival of this blog – I did not notice it was my turn. Standard fare Rufus, I think, with the usual clever twists in a sea of CDs and DDs.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TOSSPOTS | They drink to steamship vessels (8) |
| A charade of ‘to’ plus SS (‘steamship’) plus POTS (‘vessels’). | ||
| 5 | COWARD | Animal on a road is easily frightened (6) |
| A charade of COW (‘animal’) plus ‘a’ plus RD (‘road’). The answer must be as an adjective. | ||
| 9 | BLACKCAP | A death sentence impending or just some bird? (8) |
| Double definition, the first referring to the square of black cloth on the head of a judge pronouncing a death sentence, back when an English judge was required to do so. | ||
| 10 | OSIERS | I appear surrounded by rambling roses and trees (6) |
| An envelope (‘surrounded by’) of ‘I’ in OSERS, an anagram (‘rambling’) of ‘roses’. | ||
| 12 | EVENS | Levels the odds (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | SCOTS PINE | A tree northerners long for (5,4) |
| A charade of SCOTS (‘northerners’) plus PINE (‘long for’, except that ‘for’ is necessary only for the surface) | ||
| 14 | MAGIC SQUARES | Whichever way you look at them, they add up to the same thing (5,7) |
| Cryptic definition; if you are not familiar with them, they are described in Wikipedia. | ||
| 18 | ALL OF A SUDDEN | Novel, alas, unfolded unexpectedly (3,2,1,6) |
| An anagram (‘novel’) of ‘alas unfolded’. | ||
| 21 | ENDEAVOUR | Try an overdue reform (9) |
| An anagram (‘reform’) of ‘an overdue’. | ||
| 23 | EYRIE | Nursery for high-flyers? (5) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 24 | AGENDA | Girl takes in information for programme (6) |
| An envelope (‘takes in’) of GEN (‘information’) in ADA (‘girl’). | ||
| 25 | ABASHING | A striking defeat that’s embarrassing (8) |
| A BASHING (‘a striking defeat’) with a play on ‘striking’. | ||
| 26 | KISMET | Musical destiny (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 27 | VERY WELL | Fit as a fiddle? If you say so! (4,4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TABLET | It may be prescribed or inscribed (6) |
| Double allusion. | ||
| 2 | SCALES | Climbs on the weighing machine (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 3 | PIKESTAFF | A plain standard (9) |
| A punning reference to the saw “plain as a pikestaff”; but ‘standard’ is a loose definition – standards and pikestaffs are both poles, but the former has a flag on the end, the latter a point. | ||
| 4 | TRANSMISSION | Conveyance in one’s car (12) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | OASIS | Well-equipped place to ring a relative (5) |
| A charade of O (‘ring’) plus ‘a’ plus SIS (‘relative’). The defintion is cryptic, with ‘well’ in the sense of water source. | ||
| 7 | ATELIERS | Earliest form of workshops (8) |
| An anagram (‘form’) of ‘earliest’. | ||
| 8 | DISPERSE | The last thing a crowd will do (8) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 11 | CONSIDERABLE | Regard as skilful and substantial (12) |
| A charade of CONSIDER (‘regard as’) plus ABLE (‘skilful’). | ||
| 15 | USELESSLY | American Lesley’s going out with, to no avail (9) |
| A charade of US (‘American’) plus ELESSLY, an anagram (‘going out’) of ‘Lesley’s’. | ||
| 16 | FACE PACK | Confront Wolves, say, in the mud (4,4) |
| A charade of FACE (‘confront’) plus PACK (‘wolves, say’) The ‘say’ is also needed for the definition, as a FACE PACK may be of mud, but not necessarily so. | ||
| 17 | GLADNESS | Finish up having a drink outside for pleasure (8) |
| An envelope (‘having … outside’) of DNE, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of END (‘finish’) in GLASS (‘drink’). | ||
| 19 | CRUISE | One goes in an old vessel for a voyage (6) |
| An envelope (‘goes in’) of I (‘one’) in CRUSE (‘old vessel’). | ||
| 20 | BENGAL | Part of India once producing oddly designed bangle (6) |
| An anagram (‘oddly designed’) of ‘bangle’. | ||
| 22 | ADDLE | Confuse a clergyman with the French (5) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus DD (Doctor of Divinity or Divinitatis Doctor, ‘clergyman’) plus LE (‘the French’). | ||
A reasonably straightforward test for me today as often seems to be the case on a Monday: what does that say about the crossword editor’s opinion of Guardian readers I wonder? My last entries were FACE PACK AND KISMET. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.
I didn’t know CRUSE as an old vessel at 19a, but the only plausible answer was CRUISE.
I was sure 1a was PISSPOTS which is how we would describe people in Australia who drink to excess, but then I had to revise this to get the crosser for 1d TABLET, a clue I liked.
Ian @ 1
I expect the crossword editor thinks his/her would-be solvers vary widely in their ability to solve, and varies the difficulty of the puzzles accordingly. Seems reasonable to me.
I wondered if we were going to get a Monday morning pangram today. Everything bar X, Z and H if I’m right. SE corner was last to solve and then it became clear it wasn’t to be.
I presume it’s Rufus in the DT as well and this was a similar level of challenge. Straightforward but that’s not a criticism. I liked PIKESTAFF, OASIS, DISPERSE and FACE-PACK. Favourite is TABLET.
I wonder if the crossword editor would have allowed ‘pisspots’ through. We’re all fairly grown up around here but I can still imagine someone complaining about vulgarity! Oddly enough, solving 1a is the first time I’ve actually connected TOSSPOT with drinking. Pretty obvious really, though I think the word has lost that association in its general usage as a fairly blunt insult.
And, whatever the crossword editor thinks of us, I’m always reasonably happy to start the week with something gentle and, as Rufus seems to do double duty most Mondays, no complaints from me.
Thanks Rufus and PeterO
Thank you Rufus and Eileen.
I do enjoy Rufus’s puzzles on a Monday. I was stuck for a while on 19d, but ‘cruche’ came to mind and I thought I must have been spelling it wrongly, so put in CRUSE. The clues for BLACKCAP, FACE PACK and TABLET were great!
P.S. just realised ‘cruche’ is a French word, apologies.
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.
A straightforward Monday offering with favourites TOSSPOTS and VERY WELL, both of which took a little more process time than they should have. Spoiled it for myself by plumping for MAGIC NUMBERS (dimly remembered from somewhere) and pressing “reveal this”. Doh!
Thank you so very much Rufus, I am a senior and I have never been able to do cryptic crosswords so have avoided them all my life, but decided this morning to give this one a try in order to see if by effort and practice I might be able to get somewhat proficienct in the future. Even when I cheated some of the answers, I was no closer to understanding how to arrive at them from the clues, your explanation is wonderful – I see that all I need is to be a lot more devious – wonderful, I think I can do that 🙂
[Chrissy Day @8, I am 75 years old and started doing the cryptic crosswords two years ago after having looked at them longingly in the Guardian Weekly for 50 years (I lived in Africa much of this time and am now in France), then I discovered fifteensquared and Eileen and all the other bloggers, just marvellous. I am able now to solve the Saturday Prize without help from the check button and so I am sure you will soon manage Rufus’s puzzles and the Quiptic crossword – unfortunately this has not appeared today.]
Possibly lowering the tone but regarding those times when we as solvers have ruder answers than intended by the setter reminded me of one from a few years ago. I can’t remember the construction but already in was L-M- D-C- and I was looking for an answer that described someone weak (4,4). Took me a while to spot the acceptable answer.
Chrissy Day @8
Welcome to cryptics and to the blog. If it was just by chance that you picked this crossword, you hit on a good place to start. Rufus has a distinctive style, and his puzzles are generally at the easier end of the Guardian range of cryptics. Some solvers find continuing enjoyment with him; others move on to more challenging fare. Either way, there is plenty of entertainment to be had from the pastime. You might be interested in having a look at the Quiptic crosswords on the Guardian website. This week’s puzzle has yet to appear, but there are enough archived to keep you happy for quite a while.
PeterO, apologies, and thanks, I had assumed it was Eileen to blog Rufus today since she blogged the Prize, but now realise it is the person who deals with the Friday Cryptic who blogs the Monday Cryptic.
I thought that “say” in 16d refers to wolves as an example of a pack.
All pretty straightforward apart from the unfamiliar CRUSE, which meant CRUISE was last in (Rufus has used it before but not since 2008).
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I did this puzzle while watching the Super Bowl. I did not know “plain as a PIKESTAFF” and missed the “well-equipped” part of OASIS but did enjoy this puzzle.
Thanks both,
I thought this was pretty much a write in until I saw I had ‘tabled’ rather than ‘tablet’ for 1 d. I thought I had a valid parsing based on the different UK and US meanings for ‘tabling’ an item of business. But I didn’t.
Cookie @12
Thanks for the reminder!
Coby @13
I thought that was what my blog said.
I was busy today so I started this very late- straight after a trip to the dentists-so the level was just about right for me. Actually, I though this rather a good Rufus. I had to look up ‘cruse’ and I didn’t know what MAGIC SQUARES were but otherwise no problems. I did know the meaning of TOSSPOT- unsurprising really!
Nice puzzle.
Thanks Rufus..
I took 3d as just a cryptic definition, with PIKESTAFF being the “standard” that plain things are measured against.
Like Cookie @5 I thought 9a BLACKCAP was great. To me, the phrase ‘just some bird’ makes a reference also to ‘bird’ meaning jail time [from ‘bird lime’ in rhyming slang] – something less severe than a death sentence. I liked this clue the best, followed by TABLET.
Thanks Rufus and PeterO.
I do not want to start a discussion on Rufus’ puzzles and their quality (or the lack of, for some).
Today’s crossword was another example of his, in my opinion, unique style or as PeterO calls it (@11) ‘distinctive’ style.
But because a couple of posters mentioned ‘the editor’, I would like to say something in respect of that.
Recently, I attended a talk about (Guardian) crosswords in Brighton.
On that occasion, Hugh Stephenson made explicitly clear that he is on Rufus’ side as he thinks that there are many solvers who look forward to his puzzles.
And that the naysayers shouldn’t underestimate this.
I do agree.
At my previous job, hardly anyone did crosswords but some immediately came up with Rufus as the one who should ‘lose gracefully’.
As a blogger of nearly all Dante puzzles (i.e. his alter ego in the FT), I have learnt to appreciate a good cryptic definition while his puzzles also helped me – one with English as a second language – to get a better understanding of, in particular, idiomatic expressions.
True, Rufus is certainly not my favourite setter but he does have ‘something’ that most other setters do not have.
He can spot simple things in the English language that may perhaps lead to simple clues but can be oh so effective.
If your antenna’s sensitive enough to pick them up, that is.
I think mine is.
I know, not everyone will agree but as I said before, let’s not start a (pro/anti) discussion.
Sil @ 21 – I agree with you. Rufus’s clues are often rather clever, although generally at the easy end of the spectrum. I enjoy his puzzles. Like many others, I wouldn’t rate him my favourite setter, but as part of a varied diet he’s great.
Well said Sil & drofle
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I didn’t know 14a so put in BASIC SQUARES in the absence of any help from the clue.
26@ KISMET always reminds me of the alternative to one of its songs – “Lovely tune but its borrowed from Borodin” as indeed were all the others. If you don’t know it the 2nd string quartet is full of singalongable melodies.
I enjoyed this and appreciate the supportive comments for Rufus and the variety in level of difficulty and often elegant simplicity he brings. Today’s yielded steadily rather than easily, apart from the NW corner which held me up until Mrs W questioned FLAGSTAFF and overwrote TOSSPOTS which meant 1d and 9ac went in and PIKE replaced the erroneous flag – and thanks Eileen for making my mistake legitimate – and for the blog.
Silly me. I entered LATIN instead of MAGIC. Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I always worry that it will not be Rufus on a Monday and then I always smile when I see his name at the top of a puzzle.
New words for me were cruse, tosspot, blackcap and pikestaff but as they were all very fairly clued I was able to solve with the help of a dictionary to check that the words actually exist!
Thanks to Rufus and Peter O. Like Chrissy, I’m quite new to the world of cryptic crosswords and would like to add my voice in support of Rufus. I think that the Guardian should continue to offer a broad range of crossword setters 🙂
19d There is a charity which helps poor widows which was called Widow’s Cruse. This was based on a story in the Old Testament about a widow who helped the prophet Elijah. God blessed her cruse, or oil jar, so that it never ran out.
However, people nowadays are less familiar with the Bible, and started asking the charity why they wanted to send widows on sea trips. As a result they revised the name and it is now called Cruse Bereavement Care.