Guardian Cryptic 26754 by Rufus

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26754.

It is not easy to see why now, but I found myself consulting Chambers more than usual for most Guardian crosswords – not so much to check unfamiliar words (the AGIO bit of 24D is the only oddity that comes to mind, and, as I say there, I remembered that from the last time it appeared) but to check shades of meaning, and general background. Only one double definition this time round (30A might well also be counted as such), but a couple of the cryptic definitions are decidedly unusual.

completed grid
Across
9 RIOJA
European agreement on port wine from Spain (5)

A charade of RIO ( … if it’s not Aden, ‘port’) plus JA (‘European agreement’ yes in German or Dutch or Norwegian or ….).
10 DECAMERON
A classic dream once shattered (9)

An anagram (‘shattered’) of ‘dream once’. I took one look at this clue, and confidently answered ANDROMACHE, which suffers from A) not being an anagram and B) not fitting the light. Apart from that …
11 DESERT RAT
Soldier serving in North Africa made to turn traitor twice (6,3)

DESERT and RAT can both mean ‘turn traitor’. In the Second World War, the British 7th. Armored Division and the 8th. Army earned this nickname in North Africa, but they went on to serve elsewhere before the conflict ended.
12 RUMBA
Dance that comes from Cuba and Burma (5)

An anagram (‘comes from’, shared with the definition) of ‘Burma’.
13 CREASES
Folds when credit becomes freer (7)

A charade of CR (‘credit’) plus EASES (‘becomes freer’).
15 EMBASSY
Doctor poor essay about a mission abroad (7)

An envelope (‘about’, with poetic word order) of MB (‘doctor’) in EASSY, an anagram (‘poor’, not the ‘doctor’ preceding it) of ‘essay’.
17 ARSON
The offence of one coming to light (5)

Cryptic definition.
18 YES
No alternative (3)

Not so much a cryptic definition as a double-bluff.
20 BEGUM
Lady of rank shows hesitancy in speech following appeal (5)

A charade of BEG (‘appeal’) plus UM (‘hesitancy in speech’). From the Urdu.
22 MANILLA
Paper obtained for one pound in Asian capital (7)

An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘one pound’) in MANILA (‘Asian capital’). The paper (and envelope) are named after MANILA, the capital of the Philippines, and may be spelled with or without the extra L.
25 HOEDOWN
One who’d organised a dance party? (7)

An anagram (‘organised’) of ‘one who’d’.
26 BATHS
We’re clean out of them (5)

Cryptic definition.
27 ADDRESSEE
A letter opener? (9)

Cryptic definition.
30 WITH A WILL
Resolutely not intestate (4,1,4)

Definition and literal interpretation.
31 SERGE
Prokofiev’s first name might suit you (5)

Double definition (the second more an allusion).
Down
1 PROD
Push money over bar (4)

A charade of P (pence, ‘money’) plus ROD (‘bar’).
2 HOLSTERS
They’re worn with one’s arms inside (8)

Cryptic definition.
3 PAIR
[Match‘s quiet atmosphere] (4)

A charade of P (piano, ‘quiet’) plus AIR (‘atmosphere’). Why the pair of brackets? Have I just answered my question?
4 I DARE SAY
One’s not afraid to speak, probably (1,4,3)

Definition and literal interpretation.
5 SCATHE
She takes in pet that’s hurt (6)

An envelope (‘takes in’) of CAT (‘pet’) in ‘she’.
6 IMPROBABLE
One problem resolved about sailor? Unlikely (10)

A charade of I (‘one’) plus MPROBABLE, an envelope (‘about’) of AB (‘sailor’) in MPROBLE, an anagram (‘resolved’) of ‘problem’. I chose this parsing because it works, and to avoid any whiff of a derived anagram, although a substitution such as I for ‘one’ is fairly common within an anagram.
7 CRIMES
Acts that violate acts (6)

This must go under the heading of Cryptic Definition, but the difficulty is not so much solving the clue as making sense of it: that comes from regarding the second ‘acts’ as parliamentary ones.
8 INCA
Peruvian gets fashionable account back (4)

A charade of IN (fashionable) plus CA, a reversal (‘back’) of AC (‘account’).
13 CHARM
Bad spelling in Daily Mail’s leader (5)

A charade of CHAR (‘daily’ cleaner) plus M (‘Mail’s leader’). ‘Spelling’ as in witches, but CHARM is not solely bad.
14 SINGLES BAR
Where doubles won’t be served? (7,3)

Cryptic definition.
16 YEMEN
Middle Eastern country‘s potential enemy? (5)

An anagram (‘potential’) of ‘enemy’.
19 SCHEDULE
Cryptic clues he’d put in the agenda (8)

An anagram (‘cryptic’) of ‘clues he’d’.
21 GLOSSARY
Boy admits disappearance of pocket dictionary (8)

An envelope (‘admits’) of LOSS (‘disappearance’) in GARY (‘boy’).
23 NOTATE
Write down some music? Not a note! (6)

A charade of ‘not a’ plus TE (‘note’ of the sol-fa)
24 ADAGIO
Commercial fee for money conversion follows slowly (6)

A charade of AD (‘commercial’) plus AGIO (‘fee for money conversion’; a word I vaguely remember from – where else? – some other crossword).
26 BAWL
Shout and dance, say (4)

Sounds like (‘say’) BALL (‘dance’).
28 EAST
Point seat out (4)

An anagram (‘out’) of ‘seat’.
29 EVER
First mate right, as always (4)

A charade of EVE (‘first mate’) plus R (right’).
*anagram

34 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26754 by Rufus”

  2. Thanks PeterO. I didn’t have to write a blog but I agree with your sentiments. Re 31a, was not sure if Sergei and serge are the same.
    Thanks Rufus.

  3. Thanks Rufus and PeterO
    Mostly very easy, but struggled to finish (failed, in fact, as I had DRAMAS for 7d). PROD, BEGUM (new to me) and GLOSSARY were last ones in. I din’t know “agio” either, but ADAGIO had to be wright.

    Favourite EVER.

  5. As I banged the first five in with scarcely a pause for thought, I was beginning to think this was a bit too easy even for me. I slowed down after that though, and got stuck for quite a while in the mid-west. Ironic then, that HOLSTERS was my last one in: it was also my favourite of the day. (I love a clue that makes me groan when I finally see it.)

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  7. Thanks Rufus and PeterO.

    This seemed to me to be one of the easiest Rufus’s. LOI was GLOSSARY after I had to think for a while to get BEGUM. AGIO was unknown but the answer was pretty obvious.

    I liked HOLSTERS.

  8. Thank you PeterO.

    Enjoyed HOLSTERS and BIFD in YEMEN without out spotting the neat anagram.

    Still don’t quite see what’s going on with CRIMES and did not know that a GLOSSARY could be described as ‘a pocket dictionary’.

    Not sure why CHARM is ‘bad’ spelling, but I suppose it’s OK.

    BEGUM & AGIO were new to me and I enjoyed looking them up.

    This compiler is incredible for his output week in, week out.

    Thank you, Rufus.

    Nice week, all.

  9. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    My most prolific setter for generating errors – this time, as with muffin, it was DRAMAS. Wasn’t 100% comfortable with it to be fair and when I see the correct answer, CRIMES, I tip my hat to the setter who got me fair and square with a subtle but very clever clue. William, CRIMES are acts that violate an act of parliament (or law if you will).

    Didn’t find this one on the easy side for Rufus at all, taking a lot longer than normal to mop up in the bottom left with WITH A WILL, BAWL and BATHS (where I was looking for a phrase ‘out of’ something to mean clean).

    Good one Rufus that’s two out of the last three where you have beaten me !

  10. No alternative = YES. This could only be Rufus!!

    All good stuff, although I couldn’t get HOLSTERS despite desperately looking for another meaning of ‘arms’. Silly me. Hadn’t heard of ‘agio’. Liked GLOSSARY, EVER and CHARM. Many thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  11. I had DRAMAS and thought it pretty poor but I’m rather red faced now! I didn’t know AGIO but ADAGIO had to be right- and, it emerges, AGIO is perfectly fine. I thought SERGE a bit dodgy but I entered it with no hesitation so-.
    I liked HOLSTERS too.
    Thanks Rufus.

  12. Must admit to having guessed ADAGIO rather than parsing it – apart from that a pretty standard Rufus with CHARM last in.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO

  13. I had to come here to check two parsings – ADAGIO, like everyone else, and MANILLA, but that’s only ‘cos I thought MANILLA was a capital. Other than that, I had the reverse experience of brucew@aus @9 – last week I was floundering with three left uncompleted, this week I had change out of a quarter-hour.

  14. [I’ve just noticed that if you find the Captcha sum at the bottom too difficult, you can click on the circular arrows and get a different sum!]

  15. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. Like others I needed help parsing the second use of “acts” for CRIMES but I did know “agio” from previous puzzles. HOLSTER was my last in (and much appreciated when I spotted it). Did anyone else notice that an article in today’s Guardian suggests that the name Gary (as invoked in GLOSSARY) has lost its one-time popularity?

  16. Thanks all
    Technically this defeated me since staring at dramas and crimes failed to persuade me to enter either.
    So I came here for help and was surprised to need to go as far as @9 so thanks to Bruce.

  17. I thought this was easy today, even for a Rufus. He is the master of clever puns and twists on words and meanings, although because all his tricks were easy to see through today the puzzle was easier than almost any ‘straight’ (non-cryptic) crossword puzzle that you might pick up at random.

    I was and still am puzzled by the pair of brackets in 3D. True, the brackets are a ‘pair’, but I think the clue is better without them.

  18. Sometimes Rufus’s c.d’s resemble nothing so much as the riddles in christmas crackers, e.g.” We are clean out of them. what are they? ” Or “What do you wear with your arms inside? ” Quaint, tho.

  20. I’m dead surprised at how many clever solvers didn’t know AGIO. It used to be a pretty common crossword word, though admittedly I haven’t seen it much lately. It’s a sort-of crossword brother of AVISO (which might be clued “Letter boat visual aid is nothing”)

  21. I found this easier than many Monday Rufus puzzles but no less enjoyable, favourite clues being HOLSTERS, CRIMES and CHARM. I did wonder about Serge being equivalent to Sergei (like ilippu @2), but can it be a shortened/familiar form?

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  23. jennyk @21

    That is how I took 31A SERGE when writing the blog. Serge Prokoviev is a common French rendering of the name; in English you may also see Sergey.

  24. Although SERGE is apparently the English version of the name SERGEI I still feel that 31A is at best dodgy.

    I also toyed with CRIMES and DRAMAS. Although I entered CRIMES the more I think about it DRAMAS is almost as good if the clue is a DD. “Acts that violate” and “acts” both can be “DRAMAS”. This is probably slightly more obtuse than the CRIMES CD but where in crosswordland does it say that if a clue has two possible solutions the most plausible one is correct? (It doesn’t)

    This is often the case with Rufus CDs or DDs. We are left with a choice and have to guess!

    Not R’s finest hour IMHO.

    Thanks to PeterO and Rufus

  25. As well as being the world’s most prolific crossword compiler [Wikipedia and other sources], Rufus is probably also the world’s fastest. I think if he devoted more time to each puzzle his Guardian output would be more challenging, but most of us seem to know and acknowledge that when you see his name you can expect to get an easier puzzle.

    I am astonished nonetheless at the consistent level of clarity and accuracy in Rufus’s clues, and I give him due credit. I doubt that the crossword editor ever looks at his puzzles, and today’s is typical, having no typos and no obvious technical errors that I can see.

    Which brings me to 31A (SERGE) and Brendan’s post @24. I wouldn’t call this clue ‘at best dodgy’, although it doesn’t quite make it.

    First, the name Sergei has to be transliterated from the Cyrillic script, and although Sergei is more usual in English the variant Serge is normally used in France (where Prokofiev spent some time) and common throughout western Europe. Indeed, my earliest memory of a Prokofiev (vinyl) record has his name written as Serge Prokofiev.

    However, PeterO rightly describes the second part of 31A (‘might suit you’) as ‘more of an allusion’ than a definition, and I think he’s right, and Brendan has a point. To make this a DD you should probably have to write something like

    Prokofiev’s first name – it might suit you (5)

    but perhaps Rufus didn’t have the time!

  27. I dunno about technical errors, but there are one or two less than satisfactory moments, and I guess that’s what Brendan is going at. Someone else usually lists these, but I haven’t seen him comment on a Monday puzzle for some time. Other commitments, hh?

  30. took a bit longer than the average Rufus for me
    top left took a while to parse and I failed to spot ‘adagio’…

    still not seeing 31a). How does Serge = ‘suits you’? I had this in place without understanding this connection.

  33. Thanks PetetO and Rufus.

    An atypical Rufus with fewer than normal dodgy DDs and CDs – although many still got caught out at 7dn (unusually I didn’t).

    I toyed with DRUGS at 26ac (perhaps I should claim not to have inhaled!) but knowing Rufus held back thankfully.

    I have a stray pair of square brackets in my pdf print of the clue for 3dn as well. Did the editor think this weak and then not do anything about it?

    Elsewhere, NOTATE was limp.

    But

    I learned a new word AGIO, and thought SINGLES BAR was quality.

    Ying and Yang!

  34. PeterO thanks for the Sergei explanation I didn’t follow the reasoning until you very kindly said about suiting material. Didn’t get the crimes clue, still don’t, but will now Google it!
    Thanks Rufus.

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