Guardian Cryptic 27,365 by Rufus

by

Thanks Rufus – I especially liked 18ac, 25ac, 4dn, and 19dn.

There’s an odd clash at 24ac and 22dn…

Across
1 GOATHERD His job involves looking after the kids (8)
cryptic definition – kid as in a young goat
5 BUST-UP Row caused by an underwired bra? (4-2)
an underwired bra might hold a BUST UP
9 BADINAGE Banter may become hurtful in time (8)
BAD=”hurtful”; plus IN; plus AGE=”time”
10 SIGNAL Remarkable way to communicate (6)
double definition
12 OPTIC Looker for work has a twitch (5)
=an eye
OP[us]=”work”; plus TIC=”twitch”
13 TENON SAWS Wants one’s restored tools (5,4)
(Wants one’s)*
14 PARADE GROUND It has many stamps on it (6,6)
cryptic definition, as in feet stamping
18 DRUG PEDDLERS Speed merchants? (4,8)
cryptic definition – Speed as in amphetamine
21 CHAIN GANG Prisoners closely linked at work (5,4)
cryptic definition
23 LEASH The French male remains in control (5)
LE=”The” [in] French, and male as opposed to ‘la’ for female; plus ASH=”remains”
24 THINGS Objects to nights being disturbed (6)
(nights)*
25 ANCESTOR An odd escort for an older person (8)
AN; plus (escort)*
26 DONATE Give fruit on entering (6)
DATE=”fruit” with ON inside
27 LEANED ON Gangly English teacher put under pressure (6,2)
LEAN=”Gangly” plus E[nglish] plus DON=”teacher”
Down
1 GIBBON Ape a historian (6)
double definition: the historian is Edward Gibbon [wiki] famous for his account of the decline and fall of the Roman empire
2 AUDITS Searching investigations, by all accounts (6)
cryptic definition, as in financial accounts
3 HANDCLASP Assistance to get to grips with an American’s greeting (9)
=US term for a handshake
HAND=”Assistance”; plus CLASP=”get to grips”
4 RIGHT HAND MAN Presumably he can be relied upon for dex­terity (5-4,3)
cryptic definition – dexterity originally referred to right-handedness
6 UNION Harmony in marriage (5)
double definition
7 TANTALUS Mythical king who never quite got what he wanted (8)
see [wiki] – Tantalus was tormented in the afterlife by things just outside of his reach
8 PALISADE Friend with new ideas for making a defence work (8)
PAL=”Friend”; plus (ideas)*
11 INTELLIGENCE Military wit? (12)
reference to ‘Military INTELLIGENCE’
15 RURAL DEAN Sort of ruler and a clergyman overseeing several parishes (5,4)
(ruler and a)*
16 EDUCATED Taught to be literate (8)
double definition
17 DURATION Length of time around it varied (8)
(around it)*
19 HALTED Bluff king and his little successor brought to a stop (6)
“Bluff king” HAL was a nickname for Henry VIII; with TED=Edward VI, his sucessor
20 CHARON Greek ferry operator taking late arrivals (6)
The Greek ferryman of the dead, i.e. “late”
22 NIGHT Strange thing, but it’s time for bed (5)
(thing)*

56 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,365 by Rufus”

  2. Thanks Rufus and manehi

    OK, not very interesting. I liked ANCESTOR.

    I can only think that the NIGHT/THING(s) is deliberate, though misjudged, as otherwise surely it would have picked up by the editor?

  5. Muffin, I’m not so sure!

    Perhaps heartlessly, I’m going for a re-used clue (one or the other) not being checked against the clue-list.

  7. Well, it’s Monday; it’s Rufus; I wasn’t expecting an Araucaria-level challenge, but I would have liked to be diverted for a little longer. I may have to buy another paper now.

    I did like ANCESTOR, GOATHERD and PARADE GROUND, though TANTALUS is barely cryptic as far as I can see. I agree, the NIGHT/THINGS coincidence was odd, especially as they share a G.

  8. Thanks Rufus and manehi.

    Fairly straightforward; I only stumbled by putting in shepherd instead of GOATHERD at first, silly me!

    I did enjoy PARADE GROUND among others. The TANTALUS clue looked just like GK to me.

  10. Thanks manehi.

    The strangely repeated NIGHT/THING gag is doubly weird since they are exactly in-line in the PDF version.

    Tea still too hot to drink before this was over but enjoyed BUST-up.

    Thanks, Rufus, nice week, all.

  11. [Military Intelligence featured in a 60s radio programme – was it The navy lark? When phoned, a voice always responded, gruffly, “Intelligence ‘ere”.]

  12. [muffin @ 11 It was the Navy Lark, but my memory is that it was also “Intelligence speaking” in a very unintelligent sounding voice (Ronnie Barker’s)]

  13. One of Rufus’s easier options. I hope the THING/NIGHT both ways thing was deliberate…

    Thanks to Rufus and manehi

  19. Remarkably easy even for a Rufus (speaking as a far from expert solver). All but 27ac done after two canters through the clues, though I did have to change dope in 18ac to drug when I got 17d at the 2nd attempt.

  20. Not much to add. Pleasant enough and about as straightforward as it gets. BUST UP was good.
    Thanks Rufus.

  21. New record for me: seven minutes. Typing in the answers is what slowed me down so much.

    Nothing to add substantively.

  22. Thanks to Rufus and manehi. Enjoyable as usual. Yes, HANDCLASP may be listed as an American usage, but I can’t recall ever hearing it spoken. My favorite encounter with military INTELLIGENCE was in a post graduate class where a West Point officer in our Ph.D. program was giving a report, used the term, and quipped: “No, that’s not an oxymoron.”

  23. I think people are far too polite about Rufus. I agree that there should be a mix of difficulty levels in the Guardian but write-ins like this do not belong here. If we must endure Rufus, can the editors at least occasionally give us a challenge on Mondays, please?

    Thanks Manehi.

  27. I did this in 5 minutes while waiting at the airport. Barely a challenge. And the two ‘THING/NIGHT’ jobbies was a little odd. Also – I tried to log on at the airport through their WiFi, and it said Fifteensquared.net was PORN and wouldn’t allow me in. I can only assume it’s because it contains the fraction ‘teens’ – good grief!

  28. It is not snobbery to express an earnest opinion. As for providing a way in for beginners, there are other papers and sites where people to learn the basics. I merely ask for an occasional challenge on Mondays.

  29. I agree that today’s offering must have been an easy one because, unusually for me, I completed it. It does give me a warm feeling of satisfaction, however, so I hope that Grandpapatee@23’s comments will not be acted upon. It may be tedious for expert finishers to rush through a puzzle at a breakneck speed but it’s not too stimulating, either, to stare for hours helplessly at a half- or less-completed grid.

  30. Many thanks to Rufus and Managing. I respect all the above blogs, but must agree absolutely with Mike. For me the balance of crosswords offered is about right.

  32. Granpapatee, I could just as well say there are other papers and sites to find more challenging crosswords. I like the fact that the Guardian has a mix of difficulties. As a relative beginner, I often struggle with crosswords later in the week. I always look forward to the Monday Rufus to get the brain in gear for the rest of the week. Why should the needs of beginners not be catered for as well as the needs of more advanced solvers such as yourself? After all, you have the Azed, the Prize, and the Genius as well as the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cryptics.

    Oh and thanks to Rufus and Manehi.

  34. @Aqua Having a Rufus almost every Monday isn’t balance, it’s a tradition. I’m not against tradition, though as it happens nor am I a big Rufus fan, certainly not such a fan that I can embrace the tradition. Nor do I find Rufus particularly easy. He is his own man, I’d say. It can take me longer to finish one of his than it can a toughie Paul. All to do with wavelength and taste.

  35. I think this is a little unfair on grandpapatee, as The Guardian features a Quiptic puzzle to help beginners find a way in.

    I share his view that Rufus is too easy for a regular daily slot: often it is EASIER than the Quiptic!

    Anyway, peace and love. Sorry for being another snob.

  36. Methinks it is time to end this stream. All opinions are valid. Please note the word I used was occasional. As in an occasional break from Rufus.

  41. I have no conceptual difficulty with the level that Rufus sets at, nor with the ideas that (a) the Monday puzzle should offer a gentle start to the weekand (b) there should be a range of difficulties within any given week.

    But I do query the trope that Rufus is ideal for beginners.

    As the blogs so often state, his puzzles consist in large degree of cryptic & double definitions, which means that if you don’t see where he’s coming from you have no wordplay to fall back on to assist your solve. That’s hardly preparing a novice for the convolutions and leaps that are par for the course from other setters.

    My nominee for a good setter for a beginner would be Chifonie in his various guises, or possibly Brendan in gentler mode.

    I repeat, I’m not attacking Rufus, or those who love him, at all.

  45. Simon, I agree with you that there are other setters who write better beginner material than Rufus does. He has some stylistic tics that it takes some getting used to; the military and nautical references, the dated turns of phrase, the somewhat affected cryptic definitions, and the sheer number of the latter are all things I had to get used to before I truly could call him easy to solve. Plus, of all the regulars, he’s by far the most British–in part due to all the cds and dds, he has more entries than anyone else that baffle sneakers of non-British forms of the language.

    I’d add Nutmeg’s easier end to your list of good setters for beginners too.

  46. Just Another Manic Rufusday. I agree that this one seemed to be on the easier end of Rufus’s offerings — not that there’s anything wrong with that. I assumed the NIGHT-THINGS thing was 100% intentional, the artist’s prerogative, even if it was sure to hit a sour note with many solvers. Echoing ACD @22, I was surprised to see HANDCLASP clued and explained as an American term for handshake — in my experience, the word used here in the US for handshake is handshake. My favorites today included RIGHT-HAND MAN, BUST-UP, ANCESTOR, and CHARON. Many thanks to Rufus and manehi and commenters.

  47. I agree with Mike, Aqua, Alison and all the others who have rallied to defend Rufus. All setters have moments which make us groan – one or two have even made me swear – but for me, the Rufus cryptic is one of the things that makes Mondays bearable. Those who find his frequent wit, smooth surfaces and erudition too easy for them, can always head for other places. Where, presumably, they’ll find like-minded souls who share their exacting demands for clues that would leave us mere mortals miserably staring for days at unfinished crosswords….

  48. I enjoy an easier puzzle now and then so that I can feel smarter than I really am. And I still didn’t know what a RURAL DEAN was.

    I too was confused by the description of HANDCLASP as an Americanism. If someone were to have asked me where that term was used, I would have started listing every Anglophone country but the US.

  49. I’ve just been catching up with this debate, having been out all day. I’m a Rufus fan on the grounds that he provides a gentle start to the week, but that aside, what a pleasure for once to read a closely-argued online debate, with both sides expressed cogently and politely, and where people had clearly actually read, thought about and responded to other people’s comments. There must be something about cruciverbalists!!

  50. Well I admire Rufus, well, for being Rufus with a distinctive style. of course, he aspires to setting puzzles that are accessible to many. The things that make me smile are when I go “only Rufus….”

    The clues that always get me are the two word cd’s disguised as a dd.

    Thanks Rufus and manehi

  51. I am a novice cryptic crossword fan and have been for several years. The path to being able to ‘write in’ a puzzle like today’s Rufus will be a long one for me as I couldn’t finish today’s puzzle. Rufus is the only setter in The Guardian that I can get a good start with and usually the Quiptic is too weirdly baffling for me. You could argue that seeing as The Guardian only caters for the likes of me one day a week it should concentrate on the more expert solvers like most of you guys. That would be a shame.

  52. I enjoy a Rufus on a Monday, if only because I know I’m going to finish it without recourse to this blog or AnyAnswers, although Chambers does till come in handy on occasion. If the odd one turns out to be a write-in, so be it, I have other things I can do once I’ve finished. I don’t quite so much enjoy those setters whose work is best approached on a basis of “guess the answer, then parse the clue afterwards” although it is still very satisfying to complete one of those. I guess my favourite puzzles are those which look quite difficult to begin with but gradually reveal themselves as your brain tunes in to the setter’s wavelength – Paul these days, and of course the much-missed Araucaria.

    I’d also point out that if you still buy the physical newspaper like I do, the quiptic doesn’t really impinge on your consciousness. If I were trying to teach someone cryptic crosswords from scratch, I might use The Sun for the basics and move them on to Rufus ASAP 🙂

  53. Something that no-one has mentioned. I generally find that I need to “check” my Rufus answers much more often than with other setters, with whom I’m more confident that the answer I’ve arrived at is right (not so much with this particular one, though). The reaction “can it really be that?” is far more common with Rufus than anyone else that comes to mind.

  54. I love Rufus puzzles for the number of times I laugh – or groan – when the penny drops and I see through his clever surfaces. There was one of his puzzles a couple of months ago which was superb – and a couple of Mondays without him… Thank you all very much. This is a go to place for someone for whom a completed puzzle is an occasional shared achievement. We’re often looking for answers and explanations.

  55. I’m happy to have a Rufus puzzle once a week – it makes Mondays stand out from all the other days! There’s no doubt that he’s a one-off. I’m absolutely on the side of those who can get to grips with his puzzles, but for whom the Vlads and Qaoses are just too hard to ever finish. Long live Rufus!

  56. I just want to agree with others who do not recognize (or would you prefer recognise?) handclasp as an Americanism. Thanks to Rufus and manehi.

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