Guardian 27,329 / Rufus

40 comments on “Guardian 27,329 / Rufus”

1. I hesitate to pre-empt BNTO’s inevitable rant, but we need an editor who actually checks the puzzles…

   Thanks to Rufus and Eileen

2. Thanks Rufus and Eileen

   I quite enjoyed this, but was baffled by ABRUPT until I saw the suggestion of this misprint on th Guardian site. Favourites were CATASTROPHIC, NEGLIGENT and BARGAIN.

   I agree with you about the wrong position of the E in STAMPEDE. EXCEPTED has to be one of the easiest anagram ever”

3. [BH @1
   I think BNTO ignores Rufus puzzles]

4. Yes I wondered about POP and PUB. Also 17D looks like an error unless someone can explain ‘about’ a quarter.

5. Oh dear. I don’t often comment on a Rufus, since I just keep saying the same thing: each to his own, but I like him and enjoy the cd and dd elements of his clues; others don’t.

   There is some loose clueing here this morning, though, and I agree with all your niggles, Eileen. As for the typos and lack of editing, other folk will rightly complain about them, but experience shows that it’s a waste of breath.

   Thanks for the blog (to which I think Muphry’s Law does not apply) and thanks to Rufus for the puzzle.

6. muffin: I curiously clicked on your name and it comes up with a warning message. Are you aware of this?

7. I can’t help wondering whether the clue for ABRUPT wasn’t halfway between the PUB ART anagram and something involving IRN BRU, which is a “form of pop”

8. [pex @6 – thanks. It tries and fails to find my Email address, which, for some reason, appears in the “Website” box. Despite assistance from Gaufrid, I haven’t been able to get rid of it.]

9. Thank you Eileen, you confirmed the errors which I’d assumed.

   Like K’s D @5, I’m generally a fan of this setter. It’s a hell of an achievement to have have produced so much output for so long. However, even I have to say that this offering is patchy. The clues seem to range from the excellent surfaces of GUARDIANSHIP & SANDHURST at one end, via some glaringly telegraphed (no pun intended) anagrams at EXCEPTED, GYMNASIUM, CHAINS etc, to the barely cryptic ANTICLIMAX at the other.

   Still don’t see how AS IT WERE or STAMPEDE work but perhaps responsibility should lie with the checker rather than the setter.

   Hey-ho, Rufus fires the starting gun on another week of enjoying this bizarre hobby.

   Nice week, all.

10. Thank you Rufus and Eileen.

    What fun, a theme, as it were, of CATASTROPHIC GUARDIANSHIP on the crossword site (not to mention that on the chess site).

11. Despite the loose cluing, an enjoyable Rufus as ever. Took a long time to get ANTICLIMAXES and GUARDIANSHIP. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen.

12. Cookie hits the nail on the head or does the theme require ‘on the toe’? Such puzzles could come with instructions ‘Several clues, randomly distributed, require modification before they can be sensibly solved’.

13. I got completely stuck on the NE corner until I realised ABRUPT might be the answer. I thought the clue for SANDHURST was great.

    Thanks Rufus and Eileen. I think birch for ‘form of punishment’ is OK; school kids used to be given ‘the birch.’

14. P.S. The typo in 11 reminded me of this.

15. Hi Robi @14 – me too.

    I wasn’t querying the definition for BIRCH: I didn’t express myself very well.

16. While we’re having a general moan, can I chip in with 2d? Strictly, given that the phrase makes sense with or without the ‘a’, then the ‘a’ here is misleading – when I see a construction such as ‘a girl’, I’m looking for A + [girl’s name].

    Well it’s only a crossword I suppose.

17. Eileen – as usual you’ve stated your observations and opinions with good grace and kindness. I’d echo William@9 and I liked PLEDGE. I also didn’t parse IDEAL. If I was the editor I’d be reluctant to engage in debate given some opinions expressed in the past on this blog – but I might offer a mea culpa for today’s shortcomings.
    Thanks Eileen and Rufus – let’s see what the rest of the week brings.

18. Thanks Eileen and Rufus

    As a non-UK solver I had no problem with Sandhurst. But, then again, I am familiar with West Point and Duntroon as well. I must be missing something but I fail to see the connection between pub and pop in 4a.

19. As it were is just an anagram of ‘it was’ followed by ‘ere’ (before). But poor puzzle on the whole.

20. As I said, Ian W @19 – but the definition is not right.

21. This puzzle seems to have lowered the temperature but 12 reminded me of:

    There was a young man from Chichester
    Who watched all the saints in their niches stir.
    ‘Twas the amorous delights
    Of those mediaeval knights
    That made them and the thing in their breeches stir.

22. Thanks both,

    @21 trenodia – I’ve used a version of the limerick to prove to non-believers that ‘niche’ can/should be pronounced ‘nitch’ rather then ‘neesh’.

23. muffin@2: re easiest anagrams ever. I had a student job in a warehouse where the only newspaper was The Sun. I’ve never forgotten their three sporting anagrams that appeared one day – sennit, bootfall and nookers!

24. Mark @23
    What can I say?
    btw for anyone who hasn’t done so, I’d recommend looking at today’s Quiptic. 4a is arguably clue of the year, including Guardian cryptics too!

25. I didn’t look online so I wasn’t aware that that typos existed. I tried to make something of APPORT for 5ac,but I couldn’t make that work. I then saw it had to be ABRUPT and thought I was missing something. I wasn’t at all sure about NICHE,but I couldn’t think of anything else. Not much of a clue though. I couldn’t believe that 25ac was EXCEPTED. It was so easy that it became difficult, if you see what I mean!
    I did like SANDHURST, however.
    Thanks Rufus.

26. I think William @9, particularly in his penultimate paragraph, states it nicely. I appreciate Rufus’ amazing output as a setter, and I enjoy the challenge of solving his puzzles to kick off most weeks, even if there may be a few clues in each of them that could ideally be improved upon (such as the “barely cryptic” ones like ANTICLIMAXES today).

    I enjoyed CATASTROPHIC for the anagram and TREETOPS for the surface, and my favorite was GUARDIANSHIP.

    Like Eileen and others, I was convinced that 5ac must contain a typo (even more egregious than “eduction” and “to to”, because it affected the wordplay) — I thought surely the clue should have been “Quick form of pub art”. So, I went onto the Guardian website to see if there was an update / typo correction in the definition, but instead I saw the comment that I believe muffin @2 alludes to — that “pop” in the wordplay was intended to be parsed as the *abbreviation* “pop.” for “popular”, to be solved as the abbreviation “pub.” for “public”, thus providing the anagram fodder of pub+art for ABRUPT. While others may consider this parsing too attenuated, it gave me a chuckle. I hope it is *exactly* what Rufus intended. It’s pretty tricksy! I will file that one away in my solver’s memory bank in case it ever comes up again in a puzzle by Rufus or any other setter.

    Kathryn’s Dad @5 — I don’t know if your spelling of “Muphry” in your last line was intended, but it gave me a laugh – the perfect place for a typo!

    Many thanks to Rufus and to Eileen, and to other commenters.

27. DaveMc @26
    “Muphry’s Law” is that any post that points out a typo will itslef contain a typo.

    (That wasn’t deliberate, but I decided to leave it in anyway!)

28. Weak clue simply because ‘as it were’ cannot mean ‘used to be’. But always enjoy Rufus’s witty puzzles.

29. muffin @27
    Thanks for the explanation – I thought it was likely intentional. (and haha to your comment on “itslef”)

    David Robson @28 et al.
    I agree. I would have enjoyed 27ac more if it had been clued “It was reconstituted before, so to speak”.

    Cookie @10
    I meant to give you props (as the kids say) in my earlier post — it was amusing (and topical) when you slipped “as it were” into your comment.

30. I haven’t done a Rufus puzzle since I discovered this site (no longer having to buy Monday’s Guardian for the answers to unfinished Prizes), so I was excited to find a Guardian down the cafe. What a disappointment, though. This was nothing like the brilliant Rufus puzzles I used to enjoy. However, having come here for the parsing of ABRUPT and NICHE (thought that must be a double definition and wondered why it meant “standing still”), I’m heartened to learn that this is an exception.

    Is it possible this was knocked up in a hurry at the last minute, which would explain the typos too? Just popped over to Big Dave’s and it seems the Tele’s Rufus was excellent, putting paid to my fears that the master of the cryptic definition is “losing it”.

31. DaveMc (2 above)

    And what do the kids mean when they say “props”, please?

32. Tony @31
    Haha, I didn’t know what this term meant myself, until I had heard it too many times, and I looked it up. It is a slang (chiefly here in the USA, I believe) term, short for “propers”, i.e., proper respect or recognition due to someone.

33. Perhaps not Rufus’s finest – not helped by the typos.

    Tyngewick @22
    The pronunciation of NICHE (at least for Americans) is confirmed by another piece of verse, sometimes ascribed to Dorothy Parker:

    Upon my honor
    I saw a Madonna
    Standing alone in a niche
    Above the door
    Of the glamorous whore
    Of a prominent son of a bitch.

34. Ah, thanks, Dave. Props to you.

35. Could 17d be TAMPED and SE? South-East for quarter seems neater than East.

36. I don’t think ‘tamp’ means ‘impress’ – and the clue indicates that the ‘impress’ is round the ‘quarter’, not vice versa.

37. Thanks to LowerFlower for clarifying that “E” means East which is a quarter, that wasn’t clear to me. Have to request that someone explain to me how Pledge fits the clue 20d, just cannot see it. Many thanks for all the comments, have to say I was stuck on 5 ac. Never mind.

38. Can anyone help me with the cryptic definition of “Pledge” in 20 down, just don’t get it. Appreciate if someone could enlighten me on the reasoning. Many thanks.

39. Hi Martin @38 – it’s a reference to the pledge of abstinence [‘staying dry’] signed by members of the Band of Hope – see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_UK

40. Hi Eileen, many thanks for the reply, have to say I have never heard of the Band of Hope, as they say, every day’s a school day.

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