Guardian Cryptic 27,143 by Rufus

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27143.

Along with the usual CDs and DDs, Rufus here gives us almost a study in envelopes.

Across
1 CHAUCER Middle-aged English travel writer (7)
Cryptic definition, the ‘travel’ being to Canterbury.
5 COMPACT Anything but widespread agreement (7)
Double definition.
9 UNDER Not above using two foreign articles (5)
UN and DER (‘two foreign articles’).
10 SQUARE LEG Bribe a cricket side — or just one fielder (6,3)
A charade of SQUARE (‘bribe’) plus LEG (‘a cricket side’).
11 CONSECRATE Vow to re-write scene or act (10)
An anagram (‘to re-write’) of ‘scene or act’. I think the definition is rather loose.
12 INFO News cut short (4)
INFO[rmation] ‘cut short’
14 PARACHUTIST This jumper rides up (11)
Cryptic definition.
18 SPRINGBOARD It assists the diver to go up rather than down (11)
Cryptic definition, for want of a better description.
21 TEND Lean nurse (4)
Double definition.
22 ALLOCATION Assignment requiring a number and place (10)
A charade of ‘a’ plus L (Roman numeral 50, ‘number’) plus LOCATION (‘place’).
25 ELEVATION Face lift? (9)
Double definition.
26 GASPS Short pants (5)
Cryptic definition; GUSTS would fit as well.
27 EPSILON Greek letter varies in slope (7)
An anagram (‘varies’) of ‘in slope’.
28 EMERALD Gemstone dealer, maybe, holds a number (7)
An envelope (‘holds’) of M (Roman numeral 1000, ‘a number’) in EERALD, an anagram (‘maybe’) of ‘dealer’.
Down
1 CHURCH Where one may join the services (6)
Cryptic definition.
2 ARDENT Study painting externally, being passionate (6)
An envelope (‘externally’) of DEN (‘study’) in ART (‘painting’).
3 CORRESPOND Agree to write? (10)
Double definition.
4 RISER Revolting individual seen in flight (5)
Definition, and allusion to a flight of stairs.
5 CRUSTACEA A class made up of hard cases? (9)
Cryptic definition; current biology would not identify the crustacea as a class.
6 MARE Mother gets about on a horse (4)
A charade of MA (‘mother’) plus RE (‘about’). ‘on’ is going spare.
7 ATLANTIC Cat-o’-nine-tails remarkably noiseless in the ocean (8)
An anagram (‘remarkably’) of ‘cat-[o’-ni]n[e]tail[s]’ minus the letters of ‘noise’
8 TUGBOATS They’re not static water towers (8)
Cryptic definition – note ‘tow-ers’ with a short o.
13 QUADRANGLE Prison dispute heard in courtyard (10)
A charade of QUAD (‘prison’) plus RANGLE, sounding like (‘heard’) WRANGLE (‘dispute’).
15 REBELLION A wildcat rising? (9)
REBEL LION (‘wildcat’).
16 AS IT WERE Wear ties knotted oddly, so to speak (2,2,4)
An anagram (‘knotted oddly’) of ‘wear ties’.
17 PRINCESS A royal in Canadian capital surrounded by the crowd (8)
An envelope (‘surrounded by’) of ‘in’ plus C (‘Canadian capital’) in PRESS (‘crowd’).
19 FIESTA Feast set out around Italian capital in celebration (6)
An envelope (‘around’) of I (‘Italian capital’) in FESTA, an anagram (‘set out’) of ‘feast’. I think too incestuous to be a good clue.
20 UNUSED Remaining mint (6)
Double definition – ‘mint’ of stamps.
23 OUNCE Cat to jump off piano (5)
A subtraction: [p]OUNCE (‘jump’) minus the P (‘off piano’).
24 WAIL Complain when one gets involved in law (4)
An envelope (‘in’ – but the word order of the clue is wrong) of WAL, an anagram (‘gets involved’) of ‘law’.
completed grid

36 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,143 by Rufus”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle even though I was unable to parse 10a as I did not know that SQUARE=bribe.

    My favourites were SPRINGBOARD, AS IT WERE.

    Thahks Rufus and PeterO.

  2. I found this even feebler than usual for Rufus, but at least the Quiptic was easy without being feeble.

  3. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

    I had not heard of 23d OUNCE as a type of cat, so this was a guess using POUNCE minus p for piano. Having seen the blog, I googled it to find it is a snow leopard.

    I quite liked 1a CHAUCER the travel writer and 25a ELEVATION for “Face lift”.

  4. Apart from 26a which was another case of the answer being more obvious than the misdirection and 11a which feels wrong, this was another straight forward Rufus – 1a I thought was fun.

    Thanks Rufus and petero

  5. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    Well, it’s Rufus, so the Check button was much in use – 1d could as easily have been CHAPEL for instance. He uses “a number” to indicate a Roman numeral twice (L in 22 and M in 28); I’m not entirely happy with this, as the letters aren’t numbers – they only stand for them? (Though I suppose if this line of thought were taken to extremes it would make writing crosswords rather difficult!)

    I liked CRUSTACEA (despite PeterO’s valid point about “class”), ATLANTIC, QUADRANGLE and PRINCESS. I thought INFO was feeble even by Rufusian standards.

  6. Thanks for help here – could 4dn definition of riser be clarified as a revolting individual – I cant see it – and I suspect a doh moment coming – when explained

  7. Thank you, PeterO.

    Like a batsman who has endured a torrid time at the wicket through demon spin (this weekend’s Enigmatist, for example) I now have difficulty spotting an innocent straight ball – refusing steadfastly to enter CHURCH at 1d or COMPACT at 5a until forced into it by all crossing letters!

    It’s this variety of style and complexity that makes the Graun the best crossword around IMHO.

    Thank you Rufus (et al), nice week, all.

  8. Tyro@6: A person involved in a rising (revolt) is a riser, and a riser is a part of a flight of stairs. Does that help?

  9. I usually do Rufus on autopilot but today’s was somehow different-and enjoyable. ATLANTIC was excellent by anyone’s standards.And well blogged of couese.

  10. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    I think both parts of 13 are soundalikes, as the prison version is generally QUOD not QUAD.

  11. Haha – I enjoyed this, particularly CHAUCER, GASPS, CRUSTACEA and PARACHUTIST. Quite tricky in parts. Many thanks to the indefatigable Rufus and PeterO.

  13. Not too challenging for a Monday, which is what you need to start the week. It did take me a while to click on tugboats though. Cheers Rufus.

  14. It’s entirely plausible for 22a to be IMPOSITION, so that’s what I wrote. Also, never heard of prison as QUAD. So a few more tricky things had to be sorted than is usual for a Rufus.

  15. I thought 24d was fair – “gets involved in” is the anagram indicator and I+LAW is the fodder, surely?

    Nice to see that cat back at 23d. It used to be a staple of cryptic puzzles many years back, but not having seen it for a long time, I thought it had become extinct.

    Agree that there are some weak clues – I didn’t like 11a at all. But there was enough to enjoy, especially 1a and 5d (in spite of the latter being technically wrong!)

    Thanks Rufus and PeterO

  16. An enjoyable and relatively undemanding start to the week which I think is what we have become accustomed to. My personal favourites were CHAUCER and RISER and I thought ATLANTIC was superbly clued. How does a setter come up with such a left-field anagram? Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  18. An enjoyable enough puzzle, though perhaps not one of Rufus’s best. 12a is weak and surely 6d would work equally well without “about”. 7d is very clever; however, purists might object there should be an additional indicator to show the letters of “noise” need rearranging before extraction.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  20. I don’t think this was feeble, even if some clues were better than others. I thought this a little trickier than some by this setter.ATLANTIC was good and I liked CRUSTACIA, which was my LOI, despite the quibbles. Nice to see OUNCE again.
    Thanks Rufus.

  21. Unless my brain was completely addled by the protracted struggle with Enigmatist, this was a little tougher than Rufus usually is, therefore more entertaining. INFO was last in.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO

  22. Trismegistus @15

    What do you see as the function of that little word ‘in’? If Rufus had clued 24D (as well he might have):

    Complain when one gets involved with law (4)

    then I would agree with you.

    Cookie @ 17

    Thanks for the link, which justifies the definition, even if it is a less than common meaning.

    gofirstmate @18

    I agree that in 6D either ‘about’ or ‘on’ can indicate RE, and the former can be omitted without harming the surface (and, while we are about it, ‘a’ might also be jettisoned). In 7D, I think it is quite fair to read the clue as indicating an anagram of ‘cat o’ nine tails’ to give ATLANTIC NOISE, and then rendering it ‘noiseless’.

  23. While I normally go okay with Rufus’s dds and cds today I struggled to get on his wavelength, though I did finish eventually. CHAUCER was my favourite clue/pun today. Thanks, PeterO for explaining ATLANTIC and thanks to Rufus for a tougher than normal workout!

  24. Enjoyed this liked SPRINGBOARD (where I first thought of a scuba diver), and I thought ‘face lift’ and REBEL-LION were great.

    Thanks Simon S@10, I was scratching my head trying to understand why QUAD=prison.

    Many thanks Rufus and many thanks PeterO

  25. @22 PeterO – well, I was thinking that “involved with” would probably be a (slightly) better clue in that it would indicate the “correct” interpretation more accurately. But I don’t think “involved in” is fundamentally different.

    “I” involved in “LAW” is a straight anagram. I don’t think the “in” refers to embedding at all.

    Also, there seems to be a tendency among setters these days to be deliberately vague, in order to make things artificially difficult and therefore “more interesting”. “Involved in” rather than “involved with” fits that trend somewhat!

  26. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I found this puzzle more difficult than usual for this setter, though I did, for once, get the cricket reference in SQUARE LEG. I too had trouble deciding between GASPS and Gusts and was slow to spot TUGBOATS-tow-ers.

  27. Trismegistus @25

    I would agree that Rufus appears sometimes deliberately vague (as opposed to misleading), but it is not something I would applaud, nor do I think it common amongst other Guardian setters.

    Simon S @10

    The clue to 13D certainly allows both parts as soundalikes, but Chambers at least lists QUAD as a variant of QUOD in this sense.

  28. PeterO @ 27

    Curious…I checked my eChambers (c2014), and it didn’t, hence my post. Which version are you using?

  29. PeterO @27:

    Rufus, I would say, is one of the setters who is not deliberately vague. Straight clueing, usually, which is why (I think) some people seem to find a Rufus puzzle “too easy”.

    The same goes for the “Everyman” puzzle on Sunday. I cut my teeth on Everyman in the Observer back in the 60s and 70s…

    I think today’s Rufus shows signs of trying to emulate other setters who want to inject an element of “difficulty”, and end up injecting obscurity. I hope the more straightforward setters (including Rufus and Everyman) are not tempted to follow this trend very far
    !

  30. FWIW I took ‘vow to’ to be the definition in 11ac. 20dn is barely a DD – ‘unaccustomed mint’ would be better.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  31. Simon S @28

    Hard copy, 11th and 13th editions.

    Trismegistus @29

    We seem to ave different ideas of vagueness.

  32. The COED gives quod Brit. slang prison. I am getting too tired defending setters to have the energy to comment further on their puzzles, I hope that they will excuse me.

  33. I’m with those who found it one of Rufus’ more challenging puzzles and there was lots that I enjoyed, most of which have been mentioned. I also liked the two word clues for 28a and 20d.
    And it was decidedly uplifting after the deeply depressing Enigmatist when I felt that all the progress I’ve made over the last few months was for nought. Whoever gets this one to blog deserves all the appreciation they get if they are still sane enough to recognise it as such!
    Thank you Rufus and PeterO.

  34. Simon S has reason, I should have included in my comment @32 that the COED states that QUOD dates from the 17th century, and that its origin is unknown.

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