Guardian 26,472 – Rufus

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I’m short of time this morning, so please excuse the rather brief explanations below. A very Rufus-y Rufus today, with six double and eight (!) cryptic definitions: some of the latter rather obvious, others less so.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. COMMON ENTRANCE Exam taken with customary charm (6,8)
COMMON (customary) + ENTRANCE (charm). The Common Entrance exam is used for entry to British Public Schools
8. OUGHT Should duck? (5)
Double definition
9. ELEPHANT It has a thick skin, rougher than peel (8)
(THAN PEEL)*
11. ENTRIES Competitors making records (7)
Double definition
12. TANGIER More tasteful port (7)
Double definition
13. GREAT Leading gangster about and at large (5)
G[angster] + RE + AT
15. PHENOMENA Wonders when phone exchange changed name (9)
PHONE* + NAME*
17. AMPERSAND Short and in character (9)
Cryptic definition
20. TEETH Consumer items that are cut and polished (5)
Cryptic definition
21. HURDLER He takes obstacles in his stride (7)
Cryptic definition
23. NEEDFUL Short of the necessary (7)
Double definition
25. UNIVERSE Creation of poetry at university? (8)
UNI[versity] VERSE – the universe/university echo is a bit unfortunute – perhaps “.. at college?” would have been better
26. ITEMS They may be printed in Guardian and Times puzzles (5)
TIMES*
27. FOLLOW-MY-LEADER Game requiring action replays (6-2-6)
Cryptic definition
Down
1. CHOREOGRAPHY Routine arrangements for trippers (12)
Cryptic definition – trippers = dancers
2. MIGHT Russian fighter gains height and power (5)
MIG + HT
3. OUTFITTER Tradesman explaining how he hopes to leave hospital? (9)
He hopes to get OUT FITTER
4. EVENS UP Makes things balance and quits to eat late meal (5,2)
EVEN (quits) + SUP
5. THEATRE Heart transplant completed without half the team in surgery (7)
HEART* in TE[am]
6. ASHEN An embrace for Lady Grey (5)
SHE in AN
7. CENTIPEDE Many members naturally support it (9)
Cryptic definition
10. BREATHALYSER Its appearance may mean a blow for the motorist (12)
Cryptic definition
14. ESPERANTO Not one’s mother tongue but could be pater’s one (9)
(PATER’S ONE)*
16. ON THE SIDE In a team as an extra occupation (2,3,4)
Double definition
18. AIRCREW High-flyers at work? (7)
Cryptic definition
19. DENSELY Studies cathedral closely (7)
DENS + ELY
22. LEVEL Disinclined to use a palindrome? (5)
“Disinclined” as in “not inclined”, and of course it’s a palindrome
24. FIELD All the runners seen going cross-country (5)
Double definition

62 comments on “Guardian 26,472 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and Andrew
    Entertaining, though without the “Check” button it might have been frustrating (although all the ones I checked were in fact correct).
    LOI was AMPERSAND, which is nearly a great clue, but the “in”, required for the surface, slightly mars it, I think.
    Other favourites were OUGHT (so good that I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before), ELEPHANT, CENTIPEDE and ESPERANTO.

  2. Thanks for the blog. I didn’t get 3d despite having all the crossers 🙁

    I think 17a works fine for me. The clue splits as “short AND” and “character” so “in” just joins the two definitions in the surface reading.

  3. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    I think 17A is fine too: I see ‘in character’ in the same way I would see ‘in Spanish’ (for example).

  9. Thank you Andrew.

    My turn to be thick, I see how teeth can be “cut” but why teeth “polished”. Anyone?

    Loved AMPERSAND.

  15. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    Dunno whether I enjoyed this as much as others by him – some ho-hum clues like UNIVERSE, ELEPHANT and CENTIPEDE (which I had to use a word finder to get it).

    There were some other really clever clues – AMPERSAND and OUTFITTER.

  17. Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

    Ampersand caught me out, a super clue. Had forgotten that OUGHT = 0 = duck in cricket.
    Went wandering in the wrong direction for a while trying to find an E to insert in CHOROGRAPHY.
    I also liked TEETH, OUTFITTER, LEVEL and DENSELY.

    captcha 9 x nine = ?

  18. I’m sure we had a puzzle recently that used “ought” = “nothing”, with some discussion as a result, but I can’t remember when, or who the setter was (or even which paper); searching for “ought” gives a lot of false positives! Does this ring a bell with anyone?

  20. Very difficult for an easy puzzle! That’s the problem with CDs and DDs, of which this puzzle is mostly composed. There’s a sort of ‘could be anything’ element to some of this, that’s why it’s so hard.

    I liked the ‘action replay’ idea, but I can’t pick a clue out as great.

  21. Thanks Rufus & Andrew.

    Andrew @18; look at this one.

    Despite all the dd/cds I enjoyed this one. I liked CHOREOGRAPHY, OUTFITTER, BREATHALYSER, ELEPHANT ‘&’ AMPERSAND.

  22. I can’t see why there’s a problem with AMPERSAND or indeed any of the others. Clearly I’m on Rufus’s wavelength because all of these went in quite easily. My LOI was ITEMS which wasn’t at all difficult. I loved OUGHT and thought this quite enjoyable.
    Thanks Rufus.

  23. I’m the one who first mentioned AMPERSAND. To clarify, I too thought that it was a very good clue; only the “in” (in my opinion) stopped it from being a really great one.

  26. Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

    Was pleased to see OUGHT, which reminded me of my father, who used in the mathematical sense. I don’t know that it is regional
    but rather old-fashioned these days.
    Teeth polishing is a regular part of a visit to the dental hygienist.

    Giovanna x

  27. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

    On 18d I got stuck on the idea of pilots (correct idea) but took an age to find the right answer.

  28. Failed to find a copy of the paper so far today due to a combination of a late bus and a sold out shop at lunch time, but this was a quick but enjoyable solve online. Last in was AMPERSAND, liked CENTIPEDE.

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew

  29. As Andrew says, very Rufusy (Rufusian / Rufusesque / Rufusish) but most enjoyable nonetheless. I particularly liked TEETH, AMPERSAND, ELEPHANT and ESPERANTO. Thanks to both.

  31. Umm? Is there some confusion here? There are two distinct words in my native dialect, to whit “owt” and “nowt” which are merely variants of the standard “ought” (alternative “aught”) and “nought” respectively. The former means “anything”, the latter means “nothing”, as clearly seen in the stereotypical “tha don’t get owt for nowt”. Obviously, ought/aught/owt does not mean “nothing”, and hence not duck/zero.

    I do hope no-one from the south will presume to “know about” a dialect they have never seriously used.

  33. beery hiker@30 – Yes, I think rufous is pretty apposite. It sounds as though it would be used to describe someone who is slightly rough at the edges, and definitely won’t change his or her spots.

  34. The dental hygienist will generally do a scale and polish. Liked AMPERSAND, ESPERANTO and TEETH made me smile.

  35. When I was a girl in NZ we always said “nought” for “nothing” (do people use zero more often now?
    I have not lived in an English speaking country for over 40 years). However, the OCED does give

    “ought n. (also aught) colloq. a figure denoting nothing; nought [perhaps from an ought for a nought].”

    “aught n. (also ought) (usually implying neg.) archaic anything at all.”

    OUGHT at 8a seems fair enough.

  36. “Aught” (with an A) is familiar to me as an old-fashioned word for zero. Last century, that’s how years were said during the first decade, as in, “Back in aught-six, when I was a lad…” (No, I’m not that old, but I see it in a lot of writing from or of the times.)

    Not sure on the grammar of “Heart transplant completed without half the team in surgery”. It seems to me that “without” has to mean “outside of,” which means that we should find scrambled HEART outside of TE, not the other way around. Someone explain how to torture it to make sense.

    Also, in today’s transatlantic cultural note: in the US, we play “follow THE leader.” Never heard of “follow MY leader.”

  37. mrpenney @36, the OCED points out that the “n” in “naught” has probably got dropped through “a naught” being said “an aught”. A similar thing could happen with the “n” “in naught” being said “in aught”.

    A classical example is “adder”, Old English noedre: “n” lost in Middle English by wrong division of
    “a naddre”. The same thing has happened with apron, auger and umpire.

  38. Mr Penney @ 36

    I see 5D as a straightforward ‘Heart transplant’ [anag] ‘completed’ [followed by] ‘without half the team’ [‘team’ truncated]. I think it would work equally well as ‘Heart transplant completed *with* half the team…’

    hth

  40. Exactly the point: “with” is an antonym of “without,” just as “within” is an antonym of “without.” You either mean one or the other. Here, he means “within”; whyever did he say “without”?

  41. cookie@35 An alien landing in the Chavannes Centre across the border could be forgiven for thinking it had landed in an English-speaking country.

  42. [NormanLinFrance @41, I haven’t visited it since the Sauverny Bridge was out. By the way, in Chavannes des Bois there are often fields of hemp. Not long ago I saw an American tourist standing gobsmacked in front of one, he could not believe his eyes. Wished I’d had a camera, it made a Norman Rockwell picture]

  44. mrpenney @ 36…..

    I think 5D works OK if you use pauses (or implied punctuation) in breaking down the clue e.g. ‘He wore a t-shirt, outside he had on a thick jacket’. Not particularly elegant English but it is what some people would use in spoken language.

    So ‘Heart transplant completed, without half the team, in surgery’

  46. From Wiki:

    “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”

    From Wikiquote:

    “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

    Anyone got an original??

  47. Usual Rufus fare with an overabundance of DDs and CDs (I really don’t see how these puzzles are supposed to help beginners as they are so uncharacteristic of a “normal” cryptic puzzle.)

    17A however was a good clue and I don’t understand the objections. A perfectly good CD with a smooth surface and lots of misdirection. The “in” is not extraneous as a long representation of the clue could be “A short way of representing “and” in one character.”

    Thanks to Andrew and Rufus

  48. Heart transplant completed without half the team in surgery (7)

    We might try anag of HEART completed (by) TE, i.e. ‘without half, the TEam’. That would provide HEART/TE*. I don’t think it’s intended as a container/ contents clue. Ought (!) to be ‘with without’ etc really, I guess. But look what that does for the surface.

  49. So we are all trying to say that ought means both nothing and anything then? How does that work? Would you accept black means white?

    Also nought becomes spurious if that is true.

  50. Derek @49 – looks like you’ll need a chat with Mr Dickens (not, as far as I know, a man with a regional dialect or writing about anyone other than southerners).

  53. Hi Derek @49
    “So we are all trying to say that ought means both nothing and anything then? How does that work?”

    I know you have an aversion to Chambers so I will refer to Collins, which gives: ought, an alternative for aught, anything. It also gives ought as an alternative for nought, nothing. Believed to come from a misreading of ‘a nought’ as ‘an ought’ in the 19th century, as Cookie indicated earlier.

    There are a number of words in the English language that have opposite meanings, for example ‘cleave’.

  54. Dickens uses nought in Great Expectations, Chapter 6, fourth paragraph, about Mr Wopsle, “but, as he had no theory, and no coat on, he was unanimously set at nought..”

    Ought is just nought that has lost the n.

  55. Sorry, I crossed with Gaufrid. As he points out ought can mean anything or nothing. In the David Copperfield quote of Mr Micawber ought is just nought that has lost the n.

  56. Teeth = consumer items? Birds don’t have teeth, but they do consume. If the idea is that *most* animals consume and have teeth, it could be argued that legs = consumer items too.

  58. AdamH @56

    A bit of a spurious argument I think.

    SOED says

    1 A person who or thing which squanders, destroys, or uses up. lME.

    (my italics)

    In this case the teeth are the consumer.

  59. Adam is a bit pedantic, but he makes a point about ‘Rufusness’ that is worth noting I think. It’s just all a bit loose. That’s why it can be hard, because you cannot actually be completely sure that you are right without crossing letters.

  60. hedgehoggy @59 – I agree! I think what sets Rufus apart is that because of such issues, once you reach a certain level of competence, you never really get any better at solving them, which can be a bit frustrating…

  61. Well, I wasn’t entirely being serious. It’s, as hedgehoggy appreciates (thanks!) that quite often the clues aren’t on entirely stable ground.

  62. beery hiker @ 60 “I think what sets Rufus apart is that because of such issues, once you reach a certain level of competence, you never really get any better at solving them, which can be a bit frustrating…”

    I agree completely, but they are enjoyable nonetheless.

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