Guardian Cryptic 27,125 by Rufus

40 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,125 by Rufus”

1. I parsed 2d as CO = “company”, LOSS = “deficit”, and US = “states”…

   Nice for the early hours of a Monday morning – thanks Rufus, and manehi (especially for explaining 6d!)

2. An enjoyable solve, so thank you to Rufus.

   I tended to agree with Trismegistus on the parsing of 2d COLOSSUS – at least that is how I eventually parsed it, though embarrassingly I toyed with whether COLOSSUS might have an alternative spelling COLOSSOS, which would have enabled OS (as in oversize as in large) to be the last two letters. [Someone under 40 just taught me about emojis so I am wondering whether there is a red-faced one.]

   Favourites were 25a PATIENT (can’t believe it was my LOI as it is so bleeding obvious now), 19d EXPOSURE and 24d EIFFEL.

   Thanks also to manehi for an interesting blog.

3. PS I thought only of the blood bank for 9a “kept in banks” but quite liked your subtle overtone with the suggestion of “blood money”, manehi, which is just one example of finding your blog interesting. Still not sure if that nuance was intended by Rufus.

4. I parsed COLOSSUS in the same way as Trismegistus @1 and like Julie @3 I was thinking of blood banks.

   My favourites were ETERNITY and BLOOD.

   I needed help to parse 6d and 28d.

   Thank you Rufus and manehi.

5. Thanks Trismegistus, Julie and michelle – I agree with the LOSS/US parsing. On 9ac I agree that the cryptic parsing is about blood [banks] – I was pointing out the intended misdirection in the surface.

6. Re COLOSSUS parsing: It has to be as Trismegistus @1 says; the ‘-lossus’ part is not a homophone of ‘losses’. 11 across, clue for EXONERATE, is not really cryptic at all.

7. A very typical Rufus. For some unaccountable reason EXONERATE took me ages (just a mentalk block remembering the word – I agree it is barely cryptic), and CAMERA was last in – both should have been as straightforward as the rest…

   Thanks to Rufus and manehi

8. Nice gentle start to the week. Favourites were the riddle-like PATIENT and CAMERA.

9. Thank you Rufus and manehi.

   Doable on the commute, which is always a good start to the week.

   CAMERA was LOI, and I failed to parse it until I saw this blog.

10. Thanks Rufus and manehi

    Enjoyed my first one back after a break, with NIGHTWEAR, COLOSSUS, FEES and (my LOI too) PATIENT as particular favourites.

    I didn’t think any reference to money was intended in BLOOD; it works well without it.

    Two I didn’t like. “Reflection” doesn’t work literally – at least some of the letters would be changed wherever you put the mirror; HAVANA is weak, as the cigars are named after the place.

11. Oh, and why “Three” in 3d? It isn’t included in the “hidden”. I know one could argue that it is needed for the surface, but I doubt if anyone has used three-speed gears on a bike in 40 years (and they certainly wouldn’t give the advantage over modern gears!)

12. muffin: plenty of three-speed bikes on the market, and here’s a site that explains the pros and cons.

    https://www.purecycles.com/blogs/bicycle-news/96200007-gears-and-shifting-101-3-speed-vs-8-speed

13. Thanks, manehi.

    Muffin @11 we’ve had this debate a few times. I take the view that words in the clue additional but not necessary for the hidden segment, but needed for the surface, are a little clumsy. On this occasion, however, ‘three-speed’ is hyphenated so I thought it was fair enough. Personally, I’d have gone for ‘3-speed…’ but that’s just choice.

    Many thanks, Rufus, nice week, all.

14. Couldn’t get 6d, having seen the crib, I understand why. Surely the sloppiest of clues: there are plenty of bouts that end inside the 1st round.

15. William @13
    Yes, “3-speed” would have been better.
    Rog @12
    Interesting link – thanks. What I remember from the 70s was when a 3-speed went wrong, it was a b***** to repair!

16. muffin @11, my three speed gears always give me the advantage at the traffic lights, hardly anybody in France drives a car with automatic transmission, and my first generation Nissan Micra gets off to a flying start leaving all the other cars behind.

17. [Cookie – thanks for re-posting my comment on the Picaroon Prize a couple of weeks ago.]

18. Thank you Rufus and manehi.

    Good start to the week. I was tempted to enter MONEY at 1a, but was suspicious. PATIENT and CAMERA were my last in and I failed to understand ROUNDABOUT, my favourit now.

19. On the three-speed thing: I remember reading, way back when I was first learning how to solve cryptics, a book on the art form by one of the better American setting teams (Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, long-time setters of the puzzles in the Atlantic Monthly). Their comment on this was that you could hide HERA (the goddess) in one word (like therapy), across two (giving an example I forget), but “in OVER THE RAINBOW? Maybe in Oz, but we wouldn’t recommend it in Kansas.”

    On the puzzle–It went well, with the exception of ROUNDABOUT. I’m pretty sure we call that playground ride something different here.

20. Thanks to Rufus and manehi. No surprises here. I too had trouble parsing ROUNDABOUT but otherwise proceeded smoothly – and enjoyed the process.

21. Didn’t help that I wrote in wreathing at 30ac and neutrinos at 11ac. But once I realised that other more certain crossers didn’t fit I gradually got going. Quite a pleasant Rufus only spoiled for me by the terrible clue at 7d.

22. I found this a little harder than usual for Rufus. Not that there’s much wrong with it. I liked RETAINER and BLOOD- I think there’s a reference to “money”and this was my first thought- and a number of others. LOI was CAMERA- which I thought rather a good clue.
    Thanks Rufus.

23. All very straightforward. No alarums. Suits me.

24. muffin @10
    Welcome back!
    I think Rufus was indeed trying to misdirect us in 9a BLOOD (as manehi said in his edited blog), hoping we would think first of the figurative meaning of circulate (as in money circulating) before the literal or physical one. Very Telegraph-ish, I thought – remembering my solving experiences from a long time ago. We can only speculate whether Rufus intended, or even saw, the ‘blood money’ overtone (with reference to Julie’s comment @3).

    9a BLOOD, 26a DRILL, 13d AT SEA and 24d EIFFEL were my least favourite clues. I particularly liked 25a PATIENT, 30a NIGHTWEAR and 2d COLOSSUS – also 1d OBOE, which is indicated in the clue as the player rather than his/her instrument, and 28d INCH, in which the setter avoided a definition using the measure.

    Thanks to Rufus and manehi.

25. Nice and steady toddle through Rufus’ humorous and clever surfaces this lunchtime. Enjoyed it very much and thanks to everyone.

26. [Thanks, Alan B @24]

27. Thanks for the blog, manehi. This was mostly a quick and satisfying solve although I did put a question mark beside the definition “smart girl” for CUTIE. I needed your help to parse ROUNDABOUT and my last ones in were ELABORATE and EXONERATE where I stared for a good while at all those crossing e, a and o letters! Thanks to Rufus also.

28. Thanks, manehi.

    My only quibble is with the definition in 17a. Sushi is a rice dish, but not necessarily a fish dish.

29. Here’s more on the ‘three-speed gears’ EDGE business. In one of life’s little coincidences, I’ve just started Puzzle 62 in the Telegraph ‘All New Big Book of Cryptic Crosswords 3’. 14 across reads: “Some three-speed gears give one the advantage (4)”

30. Median @29
    That may be more than a mere coincidence. Rufus is a prolific compiler and has set puzzles (and for all I know still does) for the Telegraph as well as the Guardian. (From what I remember, compilers’ names are not given in the Telegraph.)
    I’m sure this is more likely a case of Rufus simply remembering either the idea for a clue or even the clue itself.

31. Alan B@30. Or Rufus might just have thought it up without having seen it before.
    muffin@11 I have always preferred bikes with an internal hub rather than derailleur gear system because they let you change while at a standstill and are less likely to need adjustment. When I had to change to a step-over (euphemism for ladies’ bike) a couple of years ago I could only find 3-speed at a reasonable price.

32. Oh, and thanks to Rufus and manehi.0

33. 0 was the Captcha !

34. Was I the only one who saw 9a and immediately wrote in RIVER, and then got stumped for a few minutes with the crossing clues? I think it works as an answer (rivers are kept in, or at least by, banks, and rivers are a part of the water cycle, or ‘circulation’).

    Fairly plain sailing once I realised my mistake, although I simply couldn’t think what 6d might be. Thanks, manehi, for the parsing. I don’t think I ever would have got that.

    Fairly typical Rufus, and not much which tickled my fancy, although I very much like the surface in 30a.

35. As money seems too obvious, another possibility for the misdirection at 9 across is water, hinting at the use of banker as a clue for a river.

36. Alan @30 – Rufus is certainly known to recycle his own clues – there are lots of repeats in the Guardian archive – these ones have been used three times each, and that is just since 1999 – Rufus goes back a lot further than that:
    Rufus 24702: Find company in one churchman or another (6)
    Rufus 24070: Type of porcelain food container (8)
    Rufus 23288: Net adjustment by water board (7)
    Rufus 25719: Stevenson’s better half (6)
    Rufus 26269: Enthusiasts may wax it (7)
    Rufus 26622: Retribution seems in order (7)

37. beery hiker @36
    Many thanks – an interesting result.

38. Thanks to Rufus, and to all contributors above. This is the first time I’ve ever finished (or even got near to finishing) a Guardian crossword, and I really enjoyed the experience.

    The only one I didn’t get was 5d (CAMERA). Having puzzled over it for a long time, I ended up with BAUERA: Painter (Bauer) plus A (first of appeared) with Bauera following as plants Bauer painted.
    OK, I have to admit that when parsed as explained above, CAMERA is better!

39. Thanks to Rufus and manehi.

    I admire the way Rufus always manages to write such succinct clues, scrupulously fair and grammatically accurate.

    Favourite here was OBOE. I’ve become more accustomed to seeing “empty” mean the first and last letters of a word.

40. Happy Birthday Rufus, and thank you for so much pleasure on Mondays.

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