A typical Rufus medley of some nice anagrams, together with the usual sprinkling of double definitions, some of which I thought were rather close in meaning, and cryptic definitions – some more so than others. All pretty straightforward, apart from 17ac, perhaps. Thank you, Rufus – I particularly liked 5ac, 12ac, 28ac, 7dn and 20dn.
Across
1 I should note friend with a perfect manner (7)
IDEALLY
I’D [I should] + E [NOTE] + ALLY [friend]
5 Gets messing about in boats (7)
OBTAINS
Anagram [messing about] of IN BOATS – a reference to Ratty’s assertion in ‘The Wind in the Willows’: “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” – something that Rufus likes doing, I think.
10 Bird able to speak, surprising many (4)
MYNA
Anagram [surprising] of MANY
11 Studies hijacking plot (10)
CONSPIRACY
CONS [studies] + PIRACY [hijacking]
12 An opinion to contradict loudly (6)
BELIEF
BELIE [contradict] + F [loudly]
13 No longer minded being drawn out? (8)
EXTENDED
EX [no longer] + TENDED [minded]
14 A hole in one, perhaps, for mariner’s dependant (9)
ALBATROSS
Double / cryptic definition: an albatross in golf is a score of three under par [see here] – so a rather ‘rare bird’ – and in Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ the mariner has a dead albatross hanging [‘dependant’ – lovely!] round his neck.
16 Stop up for the end of play (5)
CLOSE
Double definition
17 In short, a form of school punishment (5)
IMPOT
An abbreviation [in short] of ‘imposition’
19 It’s not acceptable to make money on a game (9)
BADMINTON
BAD [not acceptable] + MINT [make money] + ON
23 Taken for granted (8)
ADMITTED
Double definition?
24 Such a cleaning brush will be barely used (6)
LOOFAH
Cryptic definition
26 Their members were bound to work under strict supervision (5,5)
CHAIN GANGS
Cryptic definition
27 Pedestrian walkway? (4)
GAIT
Cryptic definition – a way of walking
28 Alarming decay in toxic substance (7)
CYANIDE
Anagram [alarming] of DECAY IN
29 Door of opportunity? (7)
OPENING
Double definition – literal and metaphorical
Down
2 Healthy accommodation for a prisoner charged with battery (3,4)
DRY CELL
DRY [healthy] + CELL [accommodation for a prisoner]
3 Hand-operated computers (5)
ABACI
Cryptic definition
4 Devil of a match! (7)
LUCIFER
Double definition
6 Rarely taken walk (6)
BYPATH
Cryptic definition – on our walks we very often take bypaths
7 It’s released when one is agitated and in real trouble (9)
ADRENALIN
Anagram [trouble] of AND IN REAL – a lovely &littish clue
8 The heart of the matter is that uncle is out to get us (7)
NUCLEUS
Anagram [out] of UNCLE + US
9 Getting compassionate (13)
UNDERSTANDING
Double definition
15 End of the act? (9)
ABOLITION
Cryptic definition, referring, perhaps, to the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act
18 Openly took advantage of the sunshine? (4,3)
MADE HAY
Cryptic definition, referring to the saying, ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ – in the open air
20 Inadequate man produces a lower output at work (7)
MILKSOP
MILKS [produces a ‘lower’ output – groan!] + OP [work]
21 Eggs turn into cheers (7)
OVATION
OVA [eggs] + anagram [turn] of INTO
22 Put on weight, looked older (6)
STAGED
ST [stone – weight] + AGED [looked older]
25 Musical journal? (5)
ORGAN
Cryptic definition, relying on two meanings of ‘organ’
Thanks Eileen
I usually enjoy Rufus as an easy start to the week, but I didn’t like this one. A lot of the clueing was so loose that I “checked” the answers to convince myself that they were right (one of them – GATEWAY for 29ac – wasn’t, though in this case the actual solution was well-clued).
Why does “dry” = “healthy”, except in a very general sense?
Sorry, muffin – ‘dry’ slipped through the net: I entered it as the obvious parsing and meant to come back to it to look it up. As it was the first entry, it got missed. I can’t find a definition that satisfies me – anyone?
I can remember having lots of pots in my schooldays which helped me get impot which I’d never heard before. If you subscribe to the ‘alcohol is terrible in all forms’ creed, then dry = TT = healthy I suppose.
I had come across the idea of 17ac, but we always spelled it IMPO (which makes more sense, really, though Chambers only has IMPOT)
Re 2d I took “dry cell” (cryptically) to be the opposite of “damp cell” (= unhealthy accomodation for prisoner)
Re 15a I had Abolition (thinking of the slavery act), then noticed that Avolition (the state of not being able to do anything, basically – hence “the end of the act?”) seemed to work better – so I changed it. Abolition is the answer after all – and it turns out avolition isn’t in Chambers (whole page in wikipedia though).
I found this generally strange and dificult. I only got 17a after noticing comments on the Guardian site about how people hadn’t heard of it, which sent me to the dictionary. Thanks for the blog.
I suppose a dry cell is healthier than a damp cell for a prisoner. Had much the same experience as muffin. i put in ‘laid out’ for 18d which seemed to fut the clue. I wish rufus might one day be given a chance to do a prize crossword. At his best he is excellent.
Oh Herb got in while I was typing!
And of course I mean fit not fut at 6. The type is so small on this i-pad I can hardly see it. My excuse anyway.
Thanks, herb and xjp – that works for me.
[And, of course, DRY CELL was not the first entry – it was the first down one – so I had no excuse for missing it.]
Thanks, Eileen. I thought the top half was a doddle, whereas the lower half was trickier in places. IMPOT beat me and I don’t fully accept ADMITTED as a double definition.
BTW, 26 is CHAIN GANGS (plural).
Didn’t know ‘impot’ but guessed that it was an abbreviation for ‘imposition’ so wrote in ‘impos’ as I would rather have a stab at the answer and get it wrong than resort to the dictionary. Got the rest right though, but considered a number of the clues rather weak.
At 6d, I presume that ‘rarely taken’ is an indication that the solution is an uncommon usage.
Checking in Chambers, I now see that ‘bypath’ is defined as a little used route. When I type ‘bypath’ into my iPad it wants to split it into two words.
I also pondered whether 23A might also be addicted – clueing here was also rather loose.
Thanks for blog
Thank you, Median @10 – corrected now.
I am familiar with ‘imposition’ (not that my school teacher gave me that punishment).
Few Indians would think of ‘lines’ – another word that Rufus and others have clued in crosswords – but I have never heard it or seen it in writing here in India.
Impot is rare and schoolboys’ slang. How it can be an abbr. of ‘imposition’ beats me. If it were just ‘impo’ I can understand, for I use ‘anno’ for annotation!
At 24a I had the answer but I couldn’t enter it immediately because of the spelling variants (loofa/loofah).
Qn: Where there is a spelling variation, should clueing make it very clear which one is intended?
For crossword setters in India entering Indian words in the grid is a great problem because of spelling variations that abound.
I have just scrolled up and seen that muffin too has it as ‘impo’.
Now I remember. In school we had ‘compo’ for ‘composition’. These abbreviations did not wait for the age of texting or SMS.
[P.S. These small sums still keep us in the days when we went to the elementary school, don’t they?]