Guardian Cryptic 26736 by Rufus

by

Quick and fun, with the usual Rufus mix of clues. Favourites were 10ac and 20dn – thanks, Rufus.

Across
1 OPPOSITE
It comes in to resist on the other side (8)

IT inside OPPOSE=”resist”
5 LOADED
Rich and having the power to fire (6)

double definition
9 TURNPIKE
American way to spoil fish (8)

=a motorway with a toll in the US. TURN=”spoil” plus PIKE=”fish”
10 MISSUS
American beauty queen is married (6)

MISS US=”American beauty queen”
12 CRAWL
Stroke fawn (5)

double definition: a swimming stroke; or to behave obsequiously
13 POMPADOUR
Splendour pursued by a grim French mistress (9)

Madame Pompadour was mistress to Louis XV. POMP=”Splendour” plus A DOUR=”grim”
14 CHAIN LETTERS
Do they establish links between correspondents? (5,7)

cryptic definition
18 MATTER OF FACT
It’s strictly true but unimaginative (6,2,4)

double definition, or possibly a cryptic definition
21 RACONTEUR
Artist to recount strange anecdotes? (9)

R[oyal] A[cademician]=”Artist” plus (recount)*; &lit-ish definition
23 SALVO
Ovals? Possibly rounds (5)

(Ovals)*
24 LAPDOG
Friend back with pet — a pampered one (6)

PAL reversed=”Friend back”, plus DOG=”pet”
25 CUP OF TEA
One drink that refreshes but another is a different matter (3,2,3)

double definition: =something that one enjoys; but ‘another cup of tea’=”a different matter”
26 ANTHEM
Music sets worker on edge (6)

ANT=”worker” plus HEM=”edge”
27 LEISURED
This class is certain to be kept in idle fashion (8)

SURE=”certain” in (idle)*
Down
1 ON TICK
Working, get correct mark, attaining credit (2,4)

=accumulating credit, e.g. on a tab. ON=”Working” plus TICK=”correct mark”
2 PARIAH
Dad locks up an outcast (6)

PA=”Dad” plus HAIR reversed=”locks up”
3 SEPULCHRE
Lush crêpe put round burial place (9)

(Lush crepe)*
4 TAKE PRISONER
Catch fighting? (4,8)

cryptic definition
6 OUIJA
Board in which French and German concur (5)

OUI and JA are ‘yes’ in French in German
7 DISCOVER
Detect Diana’s disguise (8)

DI[ana]’S plus COVER=”disguise”
8 DISTRESS
Stride about ship in trouble (8)

(Stride)* plus SS=”ship”
11 SMALL FORTUNE
Lots of money but little luck (5,7)

SMALL=”little” plus FORTUNE=”luck”
15 TUCK SHOPS
Robin’s favourite stores providing food for pupils (4,5)

I think this is Friar TUCK is “Robin [Hood]’s favourite’ plus SHOPS=”stores”
16 UMBRELLA
It’s always used up when needed (8)

Cryptic definition
17 STOCKPOT
Keep drugs in the kitchen? (8)

STOCK=”Keep” POT=”drugs”
19 SLATER
A top man in the building trade (6)

cryptic def – a SLATER works on the top of buildings
20 COWARD
One that would be a drawback to the commanding officer? (6)

DRAW is reversed back (“draw/back”) onto C[ommanding] O[fficer]
22 NOOSE
Loop line quickly going north, then east (5)

SOON=”quickly” reversed (“going north”), plus E[ast]

34 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26736 by Rufus”

  2. Fun way to coax the befuddled brain into the week ahead – agree with you about MISSUS and COWARD.

    Thanks both.

  3. All pretty straightforward and pleasant enough – took me too long to see my last in UMBRELLA.

    Thanks to Rufus and manehi

  6. Thanks Rufus and manehi
    Enjoyable but mostly straightforward, as you say, though I was held up for a while by putting ROOFER for 19d. Favourites were MISS US, LEISURED and OUIJA (I must have seen this before, but I can’t bring it to mind).

  7. muffin @6 – I thought the same about OUIJA, it has been used before but not as often as I thought (only 2 since 2007). Previous appearances in the Guardian are:
    The other sideboard (Bunthorne 21931)
    Board has positive answers from two European states (Rufus 22012)
    Sounding bored with remote access? (Sehd 22247)
    Board has no alternative to the French and the Germans (Rufus 22804)
    European agreements on board (Araucaria 23249)
    Board involved in European agreements? (Paul 23620)
    Once used in jest about tips for spirited communicator (Taupi 24080)
    Board’s Franco-German affirmations? (Paul 26051)
    Board agreement expressed in two languages (Otterden 26217)

  8. Thanks Rufus and manehi.

    Just right to start the week. I did like TURNPIKE, MISSUS, UMBRELLA, STOCKPOT and COWARD – is this the first time Rufus has used this technique, draw/back? Probably not.

  10. Thanks, BH. I would say of all the Rufus ‘yes’ clues for OUIJA, today’s is the most pleasing. My favourite would be the superb Bunthorne’s, however.

  11. I thought I would ask BH about OUIJA but it seems I got up too late. Ah well.

    Surprised myself a bit by getting the cds without much trouble, though I was briefly worried by UMBRELLA. LEISURED, PARIAH and COWARD the favourites.

  12. Just actually read BH’s list. Bunthorne’s was indeed an absolute cracker. But has anyone ever tried to clue ORIXA, which appears to be some sort of African spirit god?

  13. Thanks Rufus & manehi.

    Straightforward, enjoyable solve. Did anyone else think of French letters for 14? Oh no, I forgot it wasn’t Paul today.

    I liked MISSUS & UMBRELLA.

  14. Thanks Rufus and manehi

    Enjoyable and just the right difficulty after having a very busy weekend. Finished this well inside the train trip home with UMBRELLA the only one to put up much resistance ! It was among the last in, along with LEISURED and COWARD.

  16. A pleasing Rufus puzzle to start the week. I stared at UMBRELLA for too long, but otherwise straightforward.

    Roger @5: yes, it is AND LIT, short for AND LITERALLY SO.

  18. Interesting about UMBRELLA causing difficulty. I always like to solve clues that give me first letters first, and I wrote this one in directly. Of course, the clue could only be a Rufus one!

    I think I was reminded of the old riddle “what can go up a chimney down and down a chimney down, but not up a chimner up or down a chimney up?”

  20. Thanks to Rufus and manehi. I got UMBRELLA early on but was slowed down by the “tuck” in TUCK SHOPS (a term new to me) and the “tick” in ON TICK. Lots of fun.

  21. once I saw “locks up” for ‘riah’ I rather hoped for some sort of Polari theme, but Rufus’s nautical references go only so far, I suppose . . .

  22. Another ROOFER here – probably because I’ve just had one sorting out my guttering. But in isolation, it fits as well as the other one. I did like UMBRELLA.

  23. I’m afraid, roger @5, you don’t know what ‘&lit’ means.
    Both 27 and 20 are not &lits, even far from being one.
    That said, glad you liked the clues.

    ROOFER was my first one in, suits the clue perfectly well but it’s a crossword, isn’t it?
    Words that cross. SALVO (23ac) woke me up.
    One I particularly liked was 25ac (CUP OF TEA).
    UMBRELLA (16d), however, was not my cup of tea.
    This is the kind of cryptic definition one can only find when knowing crossers (like the essential M, or the A at the end).

    Overall, another enjoyable Rufus.
    Solving this puzzle took me about just as long as finding 5 solutions in today’s Quiptic by Anto.
    Nowadays, the old Everyman setter (Allan Scott) focuses mainly on the FT.
    Today, we had a Prize Puzzle there which would have been the perfect Quiptic.
    Meanwhile, Rufus soldiers on.

    I liked it (apart from 4d).

  24. Sil @23
    As I intimated earlier, I can’t agree about UMBRELLA. ON TICK was my FOI; UMBRELLA was my second. It was exactly the sort of clue that Rufus loves, so, taking the compiler into account, it jumped out at me. (The riddle I mentioned at #18 helped, though.)

  25. Thanks Rufus and manehi – I liked this a lot, 27ac and 20dn my favourites.

    The Bunthorne clue listed by Beer Hiker@7 is one to remember the next time someone complains about “unfair” changes to word spacing.

  26. I know, muffin, it’s all about having the right antenna for cryptic definitions.
    16d was clearly one on your wavelength, not one on mine though.
    I have come to like a good cryptic definition (and Rufus can write them as no other – I can’t) but this particular one left me cold.
    As I always say: we’re all different, aren’t we?.
    Fair enough.

  27. Sil @23

    Why so patronising with Roger @5

    I can only assume that you are having a bad day.

    Firstly I assume that Roger meant 21 and 20.

    Obviously 21 is not &lit as anecdotes plays no part in the wordplay. However 20 would be described as &lit by many and partial or semi &lit by the majority.

    To use the phrase “even far from being one” is at best rude and possibly in the case of 20 incorrect as the omission of “one that would be a” makes it a nailed on &lit for me.

    Surely such a comment should at least be followed by a brief explanation of what you consider an &lit to be. Instead we got the even more patronising “That said, glad you liked the clues.”

    If I was Roger I may have responded “And just who the f*** do you think you are?. But I’m not so I won’t. 😉

    P.S. I found this above average for a Rufus with some nice clues which have already been commented on.

    However I’m not one of the “what a nice easy start to the week brigade” so it was as ever too easy!!

    Thanks to manehi and Rufus

  28. Yet again the Monday Cryptic and the Quiptic could usefully have been switched.

    I too initially put “roofer” for SLATER, but CUP OF TEA showed me that it was wrong. Favourites are CHAIN LETTERS (my FOI), MATTER OF FACT, CUP OF TEA, LEISURED, UMBRELLA and COWARD.

    Thanks to Rufus and manehi.

  29. Brendan, I had no bad intentions (as I never have bad intentions).
    But thanks for telling me off anyway.

    Roger @5 was so clear about knowing what an &lit was, then mentioned a couple.
    If someone is so convinced and so wrong, sorry, then I’ll have to reply.

    Despite of what you’re saying, 20d is indeed by far not one.
    ‘One that would be a’ is not part of the wordplay, so there we are.
    What an &lit actually is has been explained here many times before.
    IMHO, it is so simple: everything in the clue is part of the wordplay and the clue as a whole is the definition.

    Who the f*** I think I am?
    I think someone not that bad.

  30. Sil as I said “were you having a bad day?”. You are usually “very nice chap”. You only seem to share one of my faults which is you are sometime a little loquacious. (Unfortunately I have many others!)

    However your reply to Roger did seem a little curt and more than a little patronosing. Also the fact that he was asking how to pronounce &lit was testament to the fact that he wasn’t so familiar with the concept.

    I still disagree with you on 20 if you describe it as “far from being &lit”. Lots of “authorities” on the web would indeed describe it as &lit or at least semi/partial. Some people accept the use of “Whom…”, “One who is..” etc etc in a full &lit whereas others would condemn these clues as “semi/partial”. In fact I suspect that a chap who went inder the name of Ximenes would have described this clue as an &lit.

    Anyway, don’t worry about your reputation as a nice chap. Nobody takes any notice of me anyway 😉 (I wouldn’t have it any other way)

  31. @30
    I agree. 20d is a rather Ximenean &lit. – except for “drawback” of course… Sil obviously doesn’t do Azed. See the Azed competition site andlit.org for countless examples supporting you (they’ve now added the archive from X’s day too).

  32. Indeed, Herb, this person doesn’t do Azed.
    For some reason, I never got drawn in that direction.
    Barred puzzles just do not appeal to me.

    On second thoughts, I can see why you and Brendan NTO might call 20d an &lit.
    Whether I like hat kind of so-called &lit is a different matter.
    To me, it feels a bit like padding.
    If this is a Ximenean &lit, then I think I am less Ximenean than I thought I was.
    Ah well, Ximenean, Libertarian or whatever there is in between, everything I do in life is driven by Intuition.
    And I am happy with it.

  33. loved this one rufus -really my ‘cup of tea’ thanks for continuing to provide puzzles that upon completion give mere mortals like me a real sense of satisfaction x

  34. Thanks manehi and Rufus.

    It may have been a quick solve – marginally slowed by me also putting ROOFER in at 19 before I realised otherwise – but this was much better quality than usual from Rufus.

    On the whole, the CDs in this puzzle (other than 19) were nicely cryptic and individually gettable.

    The only quibble was the second part of TUCK SHOPS which didn’t seem cryptic at all – why not ‘tells on’ instead of ‘stores’ for instance?

    But I did enjoy many including MISSUS, UMBRELLA, LOADED and CRAWL – so good in parts.

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