The usual Monday medley of anagrams and double and cryptic [some not very] definitions from Rufus.
Thanks to him for a 17dn start to the week.
Across
1 Declared a number was incorrect (7)
AVERRED
A V [5 – number] + ERRED [was incorrect]
5 Person with fancy lace cuff (7)
MANACLE
MAN [person] + an anagram [fancy] of LACE
9 Levels the score and quits (5)
EVENS
Double [?] definition
10 Appearing every second (9)
ALTERNATE
Cryptic definition
11 Not a direct criminal slander (10)
DETRACTION
Anagram [criminal] of NOT A DIRECT
12 Further chaos in Laos (4)
ALSO
Anagram [chaos] of LAOS
14 Overrates it as a medicine (11)
RESTORATIVE
Anagram [as] of OVERRATES IT
18 Evocative of not long ago, when short skirts were in (11)
REMINISCENT
MINIS [short skirts] in RECENT [of not long ago]
21 Draw blood in prison (4)
NICK
Double definition
22 Grave positions one may end up in (10)
CEMETERIES
Cryptic definition
25 Transport for gang going out in new boots (9)
TOBOGGANS
Anagram [going out] of GANG in an anagram [new] of BOOTS
26 Appear to act? (5)
ENTER
Cryptic definition
27 England’s first two trees? Nonsense! (7)
EYEWASH
E [England’s first letter] + YEW ASH [two trees]
28 The French cry “Attack!” (4,3)
LASH OUT
LA [the French] + SHOUT [cry]
Down
1 Corrects the final part in a script (6)
AMENDS
END [the final part] in A MS [a script]
2 Passes out at college (6)
EXEATS
Cryptic definition – I liked this one
3 Place to eat with others — atmosphere and half pint provided (10)
RESTAURANT
REST [others] + AURA [atmosphere] + [pi]NT – I liked this surface
4 Plan to have a drink, say (5)
DRAFT
Sounds like [say] ‘draught’ [drink]
5 Underground goblin heard marking time? (9)
METRONOME
METRO [underground] + NOME [sounds like – heard – ‘gnome’ {goblin}] – this reminded me of a ‘Round the Horne’ [I think] joke: [In a monastery kitchen] ‘Are you the fish friar?’ – ‘No, I’m the chipmunk.’
6 Annoy an informer (4)
NARK
Double definition
7 Comedian once holding a clerical appointment (8)
CHAPLAIN
[Charlie] CHAPLIN [comedian once] round [holding] A
8 Inspect damaged roses for blemishes (8)
EYESORES
EYE [inspect] + an anagram [damaged] of ROSES
13 Stockholders? (6,4)
CATTLE PENS
Cryptic definition
15 An Englishman in Scotland (9)
SASSENACH
Cryptic [?] definition
16 A dark girl‘s true bent, perhaps (8)
BRUNETTE
Anagram [perhaps] of TRUE BENT
17 Cordial or strong mineral accepted (8)
AMICABLE
ABLE [strong] round MICA [mineral]
19 A bar across the channel? (6)
BISTRO
Cryptic [?] definition
20 Wit of a turbulent priest (6)
ESPRIT
Anagram [turbulent – nice!] of PRIEST
23 One means of support for an artist (5)
EASEL
Cryptic definition
24 Drag race around site of Shah Jahan’s mausoleum (4)
AGRA
Hidden in drAG RAce
I didnt think exeats was a cryptic def.
The trouble with cryptic definitions is that often more than one answer is possible to the same clue. I had CATTLE CARS for 13d which then left me stuck on 26a.
Apart from that, this was enjoyable. 18a was a nice clue. And I agree that “turbulent” was a great anagram indicator in the context of 20d!
Thank you Rufus and Eileen.
A pleasant Monday morning start to the week. My favourite clues were those for RESTAURANT and METRONOME, loved Eileen’s added comment!
Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. I knew SASSENACH thanks to the TV show (The Outlander) but only knew EXEATS (in the singular) as a rarely found stage direction, not in its college sense. Fun, as usual.
That’s very interesting, ACD – thank you. I’d never come across EXEAT as a stage direction. It isn’t in [my] Collins or Chambers but I find it’s the first definition in my SOED: ‘a stage direction: later EXIT’.
Thanks Rufus and Eileen.
Had to guess 15d from the crossers as have not heard the term SASSENACH before.
I too liked 5d METRONOME and Eileen’s addition. “Also” enjoyed 12a ALSO, 21a NICK, 22a CEMETERIES, and 7d CHAPLAIN.
I only got EXEATS 2d as I think it was in a reasonably recent puzzle in which I got stuck due to a lack of familiarity with the British schooling system.
The previous appearance of ‘exeat’ in a Rufus crossword was twelve weeks ago (no. 26867). The example of usage given by Chambers (‘esp. for a student to be out of college for more than one night’) is oddly over-specific. My only experience of exeats was at a day school, where they rarely covered more than half a day’s absence.
Thanks both,
13d held me up as I’ve been boiling up bones for soup this morning and was fixated on pots and pans. It took a long time see how ‘enter’ was the answer to ‘appear to act’. It’s the stage direction, I presume, and the counterpart of exeat. There don’t seem to be any other stage related clues to constitute a theme.
Found this a little trickier than Rufus can be – EXEATS was only familiar because Rufus has used it before and it took me a while to see ENTER and BISTRO mostly because I’d written the wrong second word in 13d – there are just too many places you can hold your stock. Liked EYEWASH and METRONOME
Thanks to Rufus and Eileen
Thanks to all, including Rufus. This puzzle made me chuckle a bit more than Rufus usually does (usually, I don’t get his wit). “Passes out at college” was funny; I also liked the “chaos in Laos,” along with the Metro gnome (one of my earliest favorite terrible puns, which I inflicted on many music teachers.)
I knew EXEAT from the last puzzle it was in (and since then, the word turned up in a novel I read that was partly set at an English public school). I did not know SASSENACH.
Got stuck on the NW corner with AVERRED and EXEATS. Both of which are well clued so the fault was mine.I didn’t see the surface for RESTAURANT until some time after writing it in, which was also nicely clued. Still, it’s hot today and I’ve been cutting hedges.
Thanks Rufus.
Eileen @5. Yes, by the 1580s (when the stage vocabulary began to stabilize) “exeat” had disappeared in favor of exit, but “exiturus” survived (most notably in George Chapman’s plays) as an alternative to the widely used “offers to go.” Also widely used were manet/manent in lieu of “remains” and, of course, omnes. Some dramatists created their own formulas. Philip Massinger, for one, made regular use of “exeunt omnes praeter … “
I had to examine all likely combinations of E*E*TS as my state school at least (despite its pretensions) made no use of them. It’s in the same category as going ‘up’ to university, surely? I was surprised to learn EXEAT was last used by Rufus just twelve weeks ago – I’ve checked back, and it happened to be a day I was away, so I missed out on my learning opportunity.
I’m still trying to work out in what way SASSENACH is cryptic.
Thanks again, ACD @12. I was familiar with manet/manent [which are, curiously, in Chambers but not SOED] but not the interesting ‘exiturus’.
Trailman @13
I originally wrote ‘I can’t see anything cryptic here’ in the blog.
EXEATS yes, it was cryptic. But it was ungettable for me because I didn’t know the word, even with the crossers. Usual bland fare, but okay.
Thanks to Eileen and Rufus.
EXEATS – I still don’t know what it means; but then I take the view that if I have to look it up it’s too obscure for me so take a beating like a man(that’s public school stuff isn’t it?). Loved RESTAURANT’s surface also. Also ALSO took a while to click: nice surface I thought. And ALTERNATE – reminded me of the time I corrected someone who asked how many alternatives there were; that didn’t wash then and probably not now.
I enjoyed this. There are a lot of very nice clues, but the one for SASSENACH was disappointing, unless we are all missing something about it. I too only knew EXEATS from the earlier Rufus puzzle, not having gone to the relevant kind of school. As directions to leave the stage, I only knew “exit” and “exeunt”, so thanks for the added information, ACD @12.
Thanks, Rufus and Eileen.
Thanks Rufus and Eileen
Pretty much what we expect from a Rufus puzzle. EXEATS was my LOI and favourite.
SASSENACH had a little cryptic character, as I took several seconds to think of it; METRONOME is a very old joke, though!
METRONOME reminded me of another old chestnut. What does coup de grace mean?
lawnmower
Was my non-public day school really the only one where the word exeat was in common usage in 1960s London? The teacher who dealt with such matters had a stock of exeat forms (the size of petty cash vouchers) which could be issued to pupils who were granted official permission to leave the school premises during classes for non-medical reasons. If you needed to leave the premises for medical reasons you asked the same teacher to give you an aegrotat form. I imagine equivalent forms (essential for logging authorised absences during the school day) are in use throughout the school system today under non-Latin names.
John @21
I was at a state school in early 1960s Surrey where I’m sure the two Latin terms for special leave of absence were not in use. I did know both terms though (exeat and aegrotat) from a humorous book I read around that time, but I can’t remember the title.
One of the Molesworth books, perhaps?
John E: Everyone has long since moved on, I’m sure. But here in the US, I’m confident that even the posh schools call those things “permission slips.”
John @22
Yes! Probably Down With Skool (as any fule kno).
As any fule kno, you can never unlearn all of your ‘O’ level Latin, even after decades of disuse. What has really being nagging away at my subconscious all along is the illogicality of using exeat (a subjunctive form) as a stage direction rather than the indicative form ‘exit’. Caveat lector!
John E @25
Well remembered! – and no need to unlearn your [jussive] subjunctives. It’s surely perfectly logical to give a stage direction in this form: ‘let him / her go out’?
Eileen @26. Yes, I suppose it just seems wrong when we have used the descriptive form for so long (‘exit, pursued by a bear’ has to be one of the most memorable stage directions of all time). I know absolutely nothing about Roman dramatic texts (not on the ‘O’ level syllabus!) but would not be surprised if their stage directions used the subjunctive.
Thanks Eileen and John for your further contributions. I left much of my Latin behind at school, but I know a subjunctive when I see it and it’s nice to see this point raised and explained.
Exeunt omnes, snubbed by a gerund:
http://9gag.com/gag/ay0eYDy/grammar-nazis-a-gerund-snubs-a-gerundive-ronald-searle
Thanks Rufus and Eileen.
I make it 4 x DDs and 8 x CDs representing 40% of the clue fodder.
I’ve done Rufus puzzles for long enough to hold back on entering the (an) answer until I have all the crossers – although in this case my initial answers proved to be the correct ones.
But nevertheless, my last 3 were the crossing CATTLE PENS, BISTRO and ENTER for that very reason.
I thought that Rufus had used EXEAT(s) quite recently so thanks to John E for confirming that.
I had met exeat somewhere, probably in reading about that sort of school. Shreds of Latin have followed me through years of singing church music, but I’ve never heard of the jussive.
Valentine @31
Church Latin is very user-friendly (the grammar takes care of itself if you have a basic grasp of the vocabulary).
Thanks Rufus and Eileen
This was going to be my fastest ever solve for a Rufus until I came to the E-E-T- at 2d. Certainly in my part of the colony we didn’t have such notes, let alone one called by a Latin name. Had to make use of a word finder to eventually track it down. The twelve week ago usage has turned into a 6+ month gap which would have well and truly got into the ‘forgetful zone’.
Originally wrote in CATTLE YARD at 13d which caused some ugly overwriting in that part of the grid.
My fourth late message for you, Eileen, as you’ve blogged the last four Guardian puzzles that I’ve done!