Guardian 25,958 / Rufus

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An even more Rufusian Rufus than usual, if such a thing is possible, with, by my count, 7 cryptic definitions, 8 double definitions and 9 straight anagrams. A few nice moments along the way – a silly pun made me laugh, and 22d was ingenious – but apart from that very lightweight Bank Holiday fare.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. REGISTRAR Not-very-cryptic definition (I guessed ARCHIVIST first, which I think fits the clue just as well)
6. PICA PIC + A. Pica is a size of type.
8. ENDORSED DOERS* in END (object)
9. AMAZON Double definition
10. CHANGE Double definition
11. ACID TEST DICTATES*, and litmus paper can literally be used to test for an acid
12. CRUSOE COURSE* – “of” as an anagram indicator? Hmm..
15. ENTOMBED TO in MEN* + BED (plot) – an unusually involved construction compared the rest of the clues
16. BAD DEBTS Cryptic definition – bad debts are recorded in a company’s accounts
19. CHANTS SNATCH*
21. BROADWAY Double definition
22. COLONS Double definition – “organ pipes” for the parts of the digestive tract, and punctuation marks or stops
24. IN TOTO Yes, IN TOTO is Latin for “completely”, so another not-very-cryptic one
25. INTEREST Double definition
26. VEIN Cryptic definition
27. MONASTERY (ARTS MONEY)*
Down
1. RANCH Cryptic definition – “stock” referring to the cattle from ranches
2. GROUNDS Double definition
3. SUSIE ISSUE*
4. RADIATE (A TIRADE)*
5. REALISTIC (ARTICLES I)*
6. PHANTOM HAMPTON*
7. CROW’S FEET Cryptic definition
13. REARRANGE REAR + RANGE, with “arrange” and “score” used in their musical senses
14. ELBOW ROOM Cryptic definition – you need elbow room to do “arm-y” manoeuveres. A real groaner but it made me laugh
17. DRAGOON Double definition
18. STYGIAN STAYING*
20. AT LARGE Double definition
22. CITES Homophone of “sights”, which can be landmarks, or eyesores: “you look a sight!”, and to cite someone is to name them
23. NASTY ST in NAY

15 comments on “Guardian 25,958 / Rufus”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle with my favourites being 16a, 13a, 15a, 7d, 8a & 22a (last in).

    New word for me today was STYGIAN.

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I needed your help to parse 14d or 23d.

  3. We agree – a pleasant, but fairly easy start to Bank Holiday Monday. Went through pretty much in order, finding “vein” surprisingly difficult, and putting in “colons and “nasty” last. I am ashamed that we got “elbow room” without noticing the hilarious meaning of “arm-y”. There was a profusion of anagrams, but several of them were rather delightful. Does anyone know why we have to do the sum before submitting?

  4. Thanks Andrew.

    In 22d, cites is also a homophone of sites. A foreign friend once wrote to me to say he was coming to England to do some “siteseeing”. It makes perfect sense.

  5. Thanks, Andrew.

    Well, I thought it was pleasant enough and I enjoyed ELBOW ROOM.

    However, I found several questionable quality clues, in addition to the ones others have suggested. Extra words “set in” in 6ac (yes, I know they are there for the surface); and “of” in 19ac; and “giving” in 2d. “in” in clue and in answer in 24a. And I did wonder if 7d CROW’S FEET was cryptic at all.

  6. Thanks, Andrew. I thought your description of this puzzle as ‘even more Rufusian Rufus’ was spot on.

    I thought that the CDs at 1ac, 1dn and 26ac were barely cryptic, particularly 1ac.

    But I really enjoyed CITES, NASTY and ELBOW ROOM. And I thought MONASTERY was a lovely clue, neat and elegant.

    Apple Granny @3 The sum or ‘captcha’ is to prevent the site from unwanted non-human comments.

  7. ‘It’s completely in Latin’ for IN TOTO is interesting. The obvious reading is not cryptic at all. Another reading simply asserts that the whole answer is Latin. This is not cryptic either, it’s just descriptive. So what we have is not a double definition but a sort of a lit&lit thing.

    Rufus as Dante used this clue in FT14259 in March, so he must like it.

    It reminds me of another Rufus clue from nearly a year ago in 25689. ‘Infantile converse’ gave ADULT. This was derided as not at all cryptic, here and in the other place. Thomas99 tried to defend it, apparently on the grounds that ‘converse’ could be read as ‘talk’ in which case it was a nice misdirection. However the clue would only be cryptic if the answer were something like BABY TALK or GOO GOO.

    Harsh words were exchanged. Most entertaining.

  8. I quite enjoyed this one. If a setter other than Rufus had clued VEIN in that way I would have given the clue more thought, but I typed it straight in.

    I chuckled at the ELBOW ROOM clue. For a while I didn’t notice that I had mistyped PHANTOM as phantoN so I wasn’t able to get ENTOMBED until I saw what I had done ………

  9. Thanks, Andrew. As you say, typical Rufus, but then regular solvers will know what to expect. I quite like tackling Rufus’ cds and dds, but it’s not everyone’e cup of tea. But then there are five other puzzles in the Guardian week which won’t be clued like this one.

    I solved this online, and there is only one clue that takes up more than one line. So if conciseness of clueing is your bag, Rufus is your man. I liked COLONS today, as well as CROWS FEET, which is cryptic, because ‘eyelines’ means something different.

  12. The bulk solved in between chopping veg for Bank Holiday roast, the rest straight after eating the meal. No great problems, the clever VEIN being last in.

  13. Thanks Rufus and Andrew; I thought this was easier than the Quiptic.

    I don’t really like bank-er as river, but I suppose it is often used. ELBOW-ROOM raised a smile.

  15. Grumble grumble, @ K’d Dad @9, I’ll enjoy the cryptic puzzles set for the other five days.

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew, and the “effort”, Rufus.

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