Guardian 26.042 / Rufus

48 comments on “Guardian 26.042 / Rufus”

1. Thanks, Eileen. I think 20d is easier than you do: it’s MINE (hole) in an anagram of TEN.

2. Thanks Eileen and Rufus

   Much as usual. I also came to Brian’s @1 conclusion.

   I liked 19a, 27a, and 18d.

   12 seemed weak, despite being strong.

3. Some of you might remember me from a year ago and some of you might recall objecting when I frequenntly complained that some puzzles were too easy (especially Rufus)
   Since then I have had a stroke and although physically things are steadily improving mentally I am still struggling: strangely my ability to solve cryptics provides a very accurate measure of progress I have gone from 99% success at the daily and almost 100% Azed to a failure to manage much moore than a few clues.
   However, I have managed to complete two puzzles including today’s and must therefore thank the G. for supplying puzzles suitable for all, however damaged, through the efforts of Rufus.
   And offer my apologies for past comments.

4. I find 24a a bit unsatisfactory, as there is a golf club called a driver, but it’s not an iron. To me ‘driver on course’ clues the word ‘wood’, not ‘iron’.

5. Thanks, Eileen and Rufus and my sincere wishes for you improved health,RCW. The answer for 1AC has a typo. I also parsed 20d as Brian did.

6. Great to have you back RCW @3 – I did wonder why your sometimes barbed comments ( with which I agreed 90% of the time) ceased.

   But with regard to the difficulty levels, I do think there should be variety. Your rather drastic change in circumstances demonstrates that we don’t all have the capacity to give a puzzle our full attention every day. I know many will dash off a Rufus in 20 minutes, but it will take me at least an hour, but usually in one go. The more challenging setters’ efforts will see me taking the entire day; popping back to fill in a couple of clues now & then, sandwiched between other tasks & paid work!

   But the very best wishes for a full recovery. Time will heal, & I look forward to a few withering remarks in the future.

7. Thanks Rufus and Eileen.

   I particularly liked 11a, 17a, 3d, 9d, 5a, 26a, 28a and my favourites were 19a ATTENDANT & 1a SHERBET (last in).

   I parsed 20d in the same way as Eileen.

   RCW@3, I’m happy to hear that you finished this puzzle, and wish you all the best in recovering your health. I remember your kind comments on 13 February when I got a bit of a bashing on this blog!

8. Hi RCW

   Who could forget you! 🙂

   Glad you are still around and best wishes for continued progress. The warm generosity of your comment is impressive.

9. Best wishes RCW, it will be good to have you back.

   Rufus is often a blind spot for me, but enjoyed this, despite or because it was for me quite a quick solve (Stratford to Chelmsford today). Particularly liked SHERBET, which took me some time to get, because SHER*** habitually leads me to SHERGAR, on which one might have bet of course.

10. Thanks for comments – and enlightenment re 20 [I’m not keen on either interpretation of ‘hole’].

    Very best wishes for your continued recovery, RCW, and thanks for your magnanimous comment. Keep on doing the crosswords – and commenting!

    Thanks, Tom_I @4 – I’m not a golfer, so wouldn’t know.

    Typo at 1ac corrected now [thanks, Jeff C @5]. That spelling came naturally when I wrote it, by analogy with Herbert, I suppose, but I should have spotted it!

11. Thanks, Eileen

    Like Trailman, I often find Rufus curiously opaque in parts, but this one didn’t hold me up for long. Typical Rufus clues: succinct and well-formed, with good surface readings. I couldn’t see anything particularly cryptic in 23a, and 12 (as tupu says @2) is paradoxically weak.

    Welcome back RCW – glad that you’re back and may the recovery continue to proceed well. (I hope the CVA hasn’t destroyed all traces of that endearing curmudgeonliness).

12. Thanks Eileen and Rufus. I liked six-footer = ant. Is this original or a well-worn trick that I hadn’t noticed before?

    And welcome back RCW. Best wishes for your continued recovery.

13. Thanks to Eileen for her usual very comprehensive blog.

    Many thanks to RCW for his comments, with my very best wishes for a speedy recovery.

    Re Tom_I at 4. The crossword editor and I had some discussion re the clue for 24 ac. It was finally decided that with “DRIVE” having the definition in most dictionaries of “Sport: to hit a ball very hard and straight”, one doing so, cryptically, could be a DRIVER. A Driver, a wood, in golf is only used on the tee, hence the golfer “on course” would be using one of the 9 iron clubs for his approach shots.

14. I parsed 20dn as MINE in TEN*. I also couldn’t see any kind of cryptic definition in 23ac.

    I don’t have a problem with the clue for 24ac because I would certainly use a 2-Iron or a 3-Iron to drive a golf ball. At least I would if I still played the game.

    RCW’s reverse-ferret about the relative merits of Rufus’s puzzles made interesting reading. Nice to read that he is on the road to recovery.

15. Enjoyable Monday ride.

    Thanks Eileen (& Rufus); Chambers also comes to the rescue for ‘driver:’

    ‘A golf club with a metal or wooden head used to hit the ball from the tee.’

    Welcome back RCW; glad to see that you can enjoy a Rufus puzzle.

    I particularly liked GREENPEACE and ENGAGED.

16. I see Rufus beat me to it regarding the use of “driver” in the clue at 24ac.

    I didn’t realise Rufus read the blog.

17. Thanks Eileen and Rufus.

    Best wishes to RCW: I hope you can make rapid progress and return to livening up the blog with your comments.

18. Andy B @16

    Rufus used to comment fairly regularly on the blog but hasn’t done so for what seems like a long time. Sticking my neck out, I’d guess that he might have got fed up with constantly having to defend his sticking to his brief to provide an ‘easy’ Monday introduction to the week’s puzzles. 😉

19. Thanks Rufus and Eileen.

    I don’t come here very often on Mondays, mostly because by the time I get round to it everything worth commenting on in the puzzle has invariably already been said, but very glad I did today:

    Lovely to hear from you, RCW; very glad to know that your recovery continues. I’m sure that Swindon’s thrashing of Crewe on Saturday will have helped!

    PS: I thought the same as Tom @4 regarding “iron” not really being the same as “driver” in the golfing sense – thanks to Rufus for dropping by with a justification. Not sure I completely agree – I think in golf one only drives off the tee, whereas a subsequent or approach shot is never referred to as a drive – but I understand where you are coming from. The solution was clearly gettable anyway, and for me that is the most important point.

20. You can argue the IRON, but why is ‘put’ there?!

21. Enjoyed this. Wasn’t bothered by “driving’. #1 irons were originally for driving but there are more modern driving irons too.

    Welcome back RCW. I too used to get grumpy about any G puzzle which wasn’t tailored to my exact requirement for level of difficulty, cluing style, time to solve etc, but I increasingly appreciate the policy of variety which HS inherited from his predecessor (John Perkin) and wisely maintained.

22. @Rowland. It’s an instruction to the solver – you’ve written down IRON – now put I C.

23. Thank you Jolly, but is is unecessary really. ‘DSarcastic driver on course, in charge’ works okay, and it is unusual to have the ‘imperatival usage’ . If it had added, well fine, but you could chop it and still have a fgood sense.

    Cheers
    Rowls.

24. Thanks to Eileen for the blog.

    Welcome back RCW. One improvement in your health shows up as correct spelling. The last entry I saw from you, several months ago, had lots of spelling mistakes. I am happy to see that you can now appreciate the various different difficulty levels in the Grauniad’s puzzles. I wish you continued health improvement.

    I am another who thinks that a driver is a wood!

25. Thanks to Eileen for the blog, Rufus for the puzzle and dropping by — and to RCW for his generous comment. I wish you all the best with your recovery.

26. Yeah, nice to have yer here again RCW. Missed the dust ups, you were good at those!

27. Oh please let us not have any more of that.

28. Thankyou all for your kind thoughts.
    Chas you have an excellent memory and observational skills.
    I do so hate making errors so my posts will remain infrequent for a while longer:I do find it very exhausting. Now I think about it I suspect that it as much lack of persistence which holds my solving back.
    Thanks again.

29. Good to hear from you again RCW.

    Thanks Eileen, I agree with your summary. Ironically, I though 27ac was the best clue, so not such 27ac after all.

30. Hi PeeDee

    As I said – so did I!

    [I’ve blogged so many Rufus puzzles that I’ve run out of variations on ‘the usual gentle start to the week / combination of double / cryptic definitions and anagrams / elegant, witty surfaces’, etc, so was grateful for the alternative from the man himself. 😉 ]

31. Did I miss the usual nautical reference?

    I know I missed RCW!

32. Enjoyed the puzzle, thank you to Rufus and Eileen.
    Welcome back RCW, I’ve missed your contributions.

33. Thanks Rufus and Eileen – I agree 27ac is excellent (and is Rufus, perhaps, teasing some of us commentators, with our various sniffs and airs about various setters/puzzles?

    RCW, I’d wondered where you were, and hope you continue to recover. I was touched by your apology – and think I understand both your previous impatience with and your current appreciation of variety of difficulty!

    I think the persistence thing is critical, and that’s a matter of energy as much as anything else – my capacity to solve a particular crossword bounces dramatically according to my level of weariness or alertness, sometimes from solving none at all to cracking them all in one go! Good luck.

34. Sorry Eileen, I didn’t get as far as reading the whole post, I just read your intro. I remember Diet of Worms from schooldays too, still makes me snigger a little bit even now.

    I think Rufus takes the shot gun approach to dd and cd clues: he produces enough that some hit the target. Sometimes they are brilliant, sometimes they are barely cryptic at all. I think we have to take the rough with the smooth.

35. Mum and I have only just finished. We did some with coffee, more with lunch and the final ones (SE corner) after tea. We had 23ac as CLUBBING for a while and took some time to decide that DIET (and yes we did discuss the Diet of Worms) was the correct solution. Finally the penny dropped down the hole that was the MINE for EMINENT, which was our last in.

    Since my Mum’s stroke affecting the left field of vision in both eyes (leading to difficulty reading, coping with the grid and some hallucinations, with no improvement likely) Rufus is the only cryptic setter that she will occasionally tackle on her own and she is confined to the Quick Crossword unless I am visiting. We are very grateful for Mondays’ puzzles. A bit late in the day, but our best wishes to you RCW.

36. The nice Monday workout. Possibly easier than usual but nothing too contentious. Eileen has already mentioned the not so cryptic defontions but I’m inured to them now 😉

    Just to add more confusion to the “iron” debate. I don’t believe either the editor or Rufus can be golfers as your comments on drivers, woods etc are inaccurate.

    First of all the tee is “on the course”.

    Secondly a driver is usually a wood but can be an iron. (See later) Woods come normally in 4 variieties 1,2,3 & 4. All of these can and are used on the tee, the fairway and in the rough!

    Here is the “later”. Irons actually come in ten varieties 1-10 however some golfer would call the “10” iron a “pitching wedge” (Even though it’s not a wedge). Most golfers would not carry irons 1 to 10 as they are not all necessary and the rules only allow 14 clubs in one’s bag! So a common bag would be Irons 3-10 (or a subset thereof), putter, woods 1 & 3 and a wedge.

    But here is the salient point. (finally). The most uncommon iron is the 1 iron which has the lowest elevation and is the longest of the irons. This is the longest hitting iron and is often dubbed the “driving iron”. It is only favoured by golfers who can’t control a wood which can more easily send a ball in a wayward direction. So a “driver” could be an iron! 😉

    Thanks to Eileen and Rufus

    And welcome back RCW.

37. What is the sound of a hair being split?

38. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. Welcome back, RCW! Agree with BNTO as I used a One Iron off the tee.

    Cheers…

39. All strength to you RCW. I’ve appreciated your single-mindedness in the past- and admired your persistence in your occasional posts over the last year, despite obvious vulnerability. Touching humility too – a lesson to us all. Wishing you well.

    Thanks to Eileen & Rufus

40. Pull yourself together, Whiting.

    Regards

41. Rufus is VERY helpful for newcomers like me. The Guardian gets harder as the week goes on, and I’ll be pleased to get three, maybe four clues a day. I have to cheat using this site to get started or make progress each day. My dependency on these pages by the end of the week is akin to that of a hopeless alcoholic.
    Having said that, I’ve never heard of a “press stud”. Keep ’em coming, Rufus!

42. [13] The tee is on the course. It’s just not on the fairway. I only know this because I was made to caddy for my parents over 50 years ago & I still have the resentment… Of course I don’t play golf myself anymore than Rufus, or the X-word editor or any of the rest of you do.

    I remain to be convinced that “stud” is a synonym for “boss”, come to that.

43. Hi Mike @42

    Enough has been said about the golf question, I think, but re ‘boss’:

    Unless you’re fairly new to crosswords, I’d be surprised if you haven’t met this before – or, if you’re as old as you imply, maybe you’re past being convinced. 😉

    For what it’s worth:
    Chambers: boss² – a knob or stud
    Collins: boss – a knob, stud or other circular rounded protuberance
    SOED: boss – a metal stud

44. [43] Thanks, Eileen – I couldn’t lay my hands on a copy of the SOED at the time I wrote.

    There is always an issue with technological and/or obsolescent words/phrases. I suspect different crossword editors have different policies. These days there is no excuse for a paper’s policy not to be on its website…

45. To go back to RCW’s comments starting at 3 I just want to poke my head over the parapet as someone who has hardly ever managed to complete a cryptic crossword in his life but enjoys (sometimes) the challenge and the elation of getting a few clues correctly answered. Sudokus, Killers and all the other number based puzzles seem much easier.

    Rufus is the most straightforward of the Guardian’s setters and I came close to completing this one. The posters on this site clearly find crosswords relatively easy but there are some who don’t and they enjoy the Monday puzzle’s less obscure clues.

46. rho
    Thanks for helpful comment, although it does seem out of line from the other40+.

47. Late to the party but glad I dropped in.

    So nice to hear from you again RCWhiting, and your typing has improved greatly. Ah, difficulty levels… I could write a book. But then everyone would hate me. Around the time I found the Grauniad puzzle, when it became “free”, I also used to do some Heralds. In 15 minutes. I stopped doing “quick” crosswords when I could solve the Boston Globe and NY Times Sundays as quickly as I could write the letters in. That’s not a puzzle, it’s a race. I like the G’s levels of difficulty – there is almost always a challenge. I completely finish a few on my own resources. Many others I get down to two or three missing words and don’t mind using “tools” like OneLook to crack them before coming here. So many others I only 1/2 to 2/3 solve, and just keep in this ever growing stack in front of me in case I run out of fresh puzzles to work.

    Persistence is the only tool I have on most of them. I think the ease with which you used to solve the dailies put you in the habit, perhaps, of expecting to run through all the clues, getting 2/3 on the first pass and then the rest from the crossing letters. Done before the second cup. For me it is much more of a battle – looking for the first two or three I can solve from a blank grid, then working with their checked letters to build.

    I think Rho’s comment was classic British encouragement, by the way.

    Back to the puzzle… as usual lots of pencil due to the ambiguity of DD and CDs and barely CDs. I liked 24 a lot.

    I penciled in “DUES” at 27 and I stand by it. Dues are the fare one pays to attend a convention. This is the problem with CD/DDs – the answer could be something else and there is no way from the clue to “prove” the answer. Oh, I liked the structure of 2 as well.

    I just realized that Tiger Woods name is hilarious. There’s a guy in my neighborhood who runs an auto parts shop, named Carswell. A few other locals I forget in that vein, too.

    IRONIC perfect? No. Solvable? Eminently.

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen, and the puzzle – and especially for stopping by – to Rufus.

    Oh, and a PS to RCW. Your sentence structure has also repaired to a level of complexity that gives me great hope for a slow but almost complete recovery of your former acuity. But I am not a Doctor.

    Peace to everyone.

48. I know a week after the event this will be seen by Eileen and almost certainly no one else but it wouldn’t be appropriate to post out of context so apologies, Eileen, for the clogging up of your inbox and thanks for the blog, which I am still referring to at this late stage, having got behind.

    RCW, welcome back and all the best for your further recovery. I really appreciate your comment at #3 because I for one never find any crosswords “too easy”, almost never get anywhere near 100% and do get rather annoyed at all the “too easy” cries because it is very demoralising. Thanks for the important reminder that there are all levels of solvers here, with a vast diversity of reasons for differences in ability. I hope your return to form is as rapid as it can be.

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