Guardian 26,161 / Rufus

37 comments on “Guardian 26,161 / Rufus”

1. Thanks Eileen and Rufus
   Generally very entertaining, though I failed on STORM (lovely clue, in fact) and had BIPOD instead of BIPED until it no longer fitted.
   Other favourites were TIP AND RUN (even though it isn’t clearly defined), ISIS, KEYHOLE and INITIATED (nice anagram).
   A couple grated a little. The Archeopteryx (stressed as it is) is singular – an EARLY BIRD, not “birds”. Even less significant but similar – there were at least three English queens called Eleanor, though I suppose any one of them could be regarded as an “English queen”.
   I was also intending to comment on the anagram indicator in 5ac indicating “painter” as fodder rather than “sea mist”, but Eileen’s explanation of “re-presented” sorts that one out.

2. Thanks, Eileen, a pleasant enough Rufus.

   I failed on 16a; the best I could do was IRATE backwards!

   I couldn’t explain SKEWBALD either. There are W and B in there, and almost BLAcK; and I tried to find a reverse anagram (SKEW) of BALD, all to no avail.

   In 4d, how is SLEEPER = RING?

3. Hi Dave @2

   A SLEEPER is [or was when I had it done] a small ring put in immediately after having your ears pierced to stop the hole closing up.

4. Fairly straightforward, I thought, though I entered ‘skewbald’ on the basis that it had to be right rather than understanding the clue, which appears to be barely cryptic.

5. Thanks for the blog Eileen.

   As you say quite a genial start but several made me smile, including 11a – as I know nothing about Archeopteryx any inaccuracy went over my head. Like muffin @1 I too failed on STORM.

   Dave Ellison @2 – a sleeper is a type of earring. Embarrassingly (as I have pierced ears and have worn many over the years), I had to look this up in the dictionary.

6. Thanks Eileen and Rufus

   Very entertaining with some interesting words e.g. sleeper (in this sense) and skewbald which, as I discovered, differs from piebald which is typically black and white.

7. Thanks for the blog, Eileen. Just the right speed for me today, as I’m down with a cold.

8. It took me longer to get my last three answers, SLEEPER, STORM and BIPED, than it did to solve the rest of the puzzle.

9. Enjoyable solve, thanks Rufus.

   Thanks Eileen; I had steam at first for 16, which sort of parses (to=at about), but not really. 🙁

   Some nice anagrams here e.g. for MONTEVERDI and ORGAN GRINDER. I particularly liked ALOFT and KEYHOLE as well.

10. ……. must be having a dyslexic morning, steam doesn’t parse at all!

11. Thanks, Eileen

    I found this straightforward for once (Rufus doesn’t always fall out easily for me!) though, like others, I was looking for more in SKEWBALD than met the eye. Last in was STORM – also my favourite clue.

12. Thanks Rufus and Eileen

    A little bit trickier than normal for me. Didn’t have the problem with STORM, but did get held up with ISIS, having not heard that local name for the Thames until eventually finding it – had tried to make IRIS work beforehand.

    Messed up the parsing for ALOFT by lazily taking A LOFT as the flat … but doesn’t really work. Smiled at KEEP WATCH and thought that SKEWBALD was quite clever.

13. I was OK with STORM too, one of two favourites along with QUOITS. It was the NW that held me up; eventually the P of INSTEP led me to SLEEPER, though I thought that was a stud not a ring. Never having worn one, I’m clearly at a disadvantage.

14. Hi Trailman

    I’m pretty sure it is a stud these days – that’s why I said, “When I had it done”, which was thirty-odd years ago!

15. Not a huge fan of Rufus (I’m sure he’s a very nice chap!) but enjoyed today’s puzzle.

    Storm threw me though and Biped but obvious once it clicked.

    I have composed a couple of crosswords and would love some feedback so if anyone fancies having a go at solving them please e-mail me: tucker_elliott@yahoo.co.uk

    Would love to know what you people think of them

    Thanks!
    Bad Shape

16. There are four CDs. TIP AND RUN and ISIS have ?. EARLY BIRDS and BIPED do not. I think they should.

    SKEWBALD is not a CD. So a ? would be an “unfair” misdirection. So the clue looks like it’s definition and wordplay. But there isn’t any wordplay. It’s just a definition. Is it OK to “hide” a “Quick” crossword clue in a Cryptic? I think not.

    But on the whole “typically genial” is about right.

17. Left out KEEP WATCH, which has ?

18. And ISIS doesn’t. Should have made notes before starting.

19. hey rhotician, how ya diddlin’?

    @16 Is it OK to “hide” a “Quick” crossword clue in a Cryptic? I think not.

    And many would agree with that, but actually there is no rule that says so. Hence we must grin and bear it.

20. not a fan at all of skewbald. impossible to get by fair means (by which I mean only using the dictionary to confirm the results of wordplay rather than exhaustively checking guesses) if you didn’t know the word already.

    not that I do them, but I’d have thought the rules of quick crossword clues were that the words ought to be fairly common since you only get only one, direct, definition. fair enough for cryptics to be as obscure as you like but the quid pro quo is that there are two or more chances to solve ’em.

    no doubt (if anyone’s still reading this) someone will correct me though.

21. I try not to comment on Rufus as I know he has his followers. (I still find his popularity astonishing!)

    There is so much wrong with this that it truly was 18D.

    Thanks to Eileen and Rufus

22. Oh, for goodness’ sake! Get a life, some of you.

    A crossword is a hobby for fun. FUN.

    If they annoy you, don’t do them; otherwise just enjoy them for what they are. Those poor sods who set them – it doesn’t make them millionaires at your expense, y’know…

23. Not irksome at all but a very pleasant start to the week for those of us not quite so particular about rules. Thanks Rufus.

24. Thanks, Rufus and Eileen. Some of these clues are worthy of the more traditionally difficult setters. “Storm”, for instance, is a gem and “skewbald” calls for an esoteric knowledge of differently spotted horses, which, as I just learnt, includes the tobiano and overo. Not the usual “gentle start to the week”, I’m afraid

25. Thanks all
    Would I be totally out of line if I were to suggest that over the past few weeks Monday’s puzzle shave increased slightly in difficulty.

26. Tim Phillips@22 – yes, crossword solving is a hobby that most of us do for fun. However, on the occasions when a setter seems to have forgotten this and provides a puzzle that isn’t much fun to solve there is no harm in pointing this out. Consumer feedback and all that …………

27. Skewball was a racehorse. An early descendant of the Godolfin Arabian. He never drank water, he only drank wine. That bit’s not true.

28. I did not know SKEWBALD, but was able to guess it. Searched for images of skewbald horses and was rewarded with beautiful pictures. Now I know something I did not when I started. Thanks, Rufus. And then Jeff Cumberbatch @24 found “tobiano” and “overo” which led me to more beautiful pictures, and two more new words. So I have learned three things today. Thanks, Jeff. And thanks, Eileen, for blogging the puzzle.

29. Thanks Eileen, I struggled a bit on this one.

    rho & Derek @16 – quite agree about 23ac, SKEWBALD, a Rufus trademark ‘single definition’ clue. I think Rufus atones with the excellent 3dn ALOFT which more than makes up.

    Andy B @8 – I am always fascinated how what is easy to some is obscure to others. SLEEPER, STORM and BIPED were some of my write-ins, yet I struggled to finish elsewhere.

    For Tim Phillips @22 – if the comments annoy you then don’t read them? After all, they are just there for fun!

30. muffin @1 – Archaeopteryx is a genus, so can be thought of as the early birds.

31. Tim Phillips @22

    Oh, for goodness’ sake! Get a life.

    “The purpose of this site is to provide a daily analysis of, and commentary on, the cryptic puzzles……”

    Analysis is as far as I understand it a “critical examination”.

    So this is the place to air thoughts, both good and bad about various puzzles.

    Why don’t you set up a site called “The Joy of Crosswords” where people can only say nice things about crosswords and the fun they bring them. (Perhaps you could ask for donations for the poor setters. I’m sure they would be delighted.) However I believe that most setters do come on here to enjoy the nice comments but also want to see any negative feedback. After all it’s the criticism that helps things get better.

32. [18] Well, two poor clues at least:

    “about” does not indicate a reversal to me. The clue is for a 5-letter girl’s name in which “o” is surrounded by a 4-letter synonym of a sin. I don’t know of one such 🙁 (Cf – which alas I didn’t get, which clues properly. Or )

    Similar problem. The clue as written is for a word ending in -re. “To fall back, soldier’s mistake” would clue the solution although the definition is also a bit of a stretch. I should’ve trusted my instinct on which is a lovely clue.

    Sorry, Rufus: it’s because of you I fork out my £1.60 on a Monday (when I don’t get to Waitrose). And I’ll go on doing so.

33. Oh: the clue numbers disappeared 🙁

    They were 25 and 1

34. Mike – Chambers gives ‘in the opposite direction’ as one meaning for about, so pretty clearly a reversal indicator?

35. Mike Killingworth @32/33

    I disagree with both of those criticisms, and I believe both indications are common in crosswords (“about” for something turned around, as in “about face”, “turn about” etc.; and “by” to indicate that something is to be set next to something else – usually, as here, on the right, although it could I suppose be on either side too). The fact that the indications could be interpreted in more than one way works to the setter’s advantage but that doesn’t make them wrong or unfair.

    Brendan (NTO) @31

    To be fair to Tim Phillps @22, your comment @21 did fail to comment on anything specific in the puzzle at all, so it isn’t really analysis, commentary or “critical examination” by any conceivable definition. You just said there was lots wrong with the puzzle – and ditto Rufus in general – and gave no instances. I think I preferred it when you tried to be more thorough so we could at least see something of what you’d got wrong/right in your analysis and whether you could justify your opinion. After all the opinion in question is pretty extreme.

    E.g. on 25th November you complained (comment 22) when Rufus clued “chop” with “Cut down on meat” (double definition, “cut down on”/”meat”). You specified that what was wrong was that the clue could just as easily have led to “crop”. We could all see that this was untrue and that you had simply made a mistake. But for this puzzle you don’t specify so we can have no idea whether you have a point or not.

    I don’t know if this is what Tim Phillips was reacting to, but for me it’s really the emptiness of your first comment that grates, not the fact that it purports to be negative. It’s obviously not remotely constructive and surely infringes the site policy – “The reason for any dissatisfaction should be clearly indicated”.

36. I read that the “skew” in SKEWBALD is probably a variant of “sky”, and would then relate to the patchy appearance of clouds against the blue.

    Whether it’s that, which would exclude black as the background clour, who knows?

    I thought it was a pleasant, coherent puzzle, with elegant touches.

    Thanks everyone.

37. “Colour” even.

    Re site rules:

    Going longly, down the blogging pathroad, be springlystep and lightfoot, neverly plodfollowing.

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