Guardian 26,532 – Rufus

by

I found this a little harder than usual for Rufus, getting a bit stuck towards the end in the SE corner, perhaps partly because of the unhelpful grid, but also enjoyed it more than some of his puzzles, probably because of the unusually low number of cryptic definitions – only three of them. Thanks to Rufus.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
7. VINDICATE Only a small number show support (9)
V (5 – a small number) + INDICATE (show)
8. AESOP A reflective attitude taken by a storyteller (5)
A + reverse of POSE
9. YEARNINGS Hankerings for last of daily bread (9)
[dail]Y EARNINGS (money, bread)
10. NIGHT When to see the moon near the end of August (5)
NIGHT + [augus]T
12. SORBET Globe covered in solid ice (6)
ORB in SET
13. EXPOSURE International trade fair certain to get publicity (8)
EXPO + SURE
14. ESTELLE Is she French? (7)
EST ELLE = “is she” in French, &lit. Very easy, but I liked it
17. PRECEDE Take the lead but quietly drop back later (7)
P + RECEDE
20. MOREOVER Rome collapsed in excess, may I add (8)
ROME* + OVER (in excess)
22. DEATHS The sad gatherings for bereavements (6)
(THE SAD)*
24. SPOON Club that has lofty aims (5)
Cryptic definition – a spoon is a old type of golf club, named from its shape and used for “lofting” the ball high
25. JAM-PACKED Conserve in jar, perhaps, right to the top (3-6)
JAM (preserve) + PACKED (in jar?) – rather a weak one, I thought
26. SNAGS Wives nag sometimes about unexpected difficulties (5)
Hidden in wiveS NAG Sometimes
27. VICTORIAN Two men of a bygone age (9)
VICTOR + IAN
Down
1. CICERO Classical orator upsets Eric in company (6)
ERIC* in CO
2. ADORABLE Girl outwardly competent and very charming (8)
DORA in ABLE
3. SCRIPT Paper with lines on it (6)
Cryptic definition – a script has the lines of a play on it
4. STAGGER Walk unsteadily at different times (7)
Double definition, though really “at different times” would define “staggered”
5. GENIUS One in biology class is very bright (6)
I in GENUS (biological classification in the Linnaean taxonomy)
6. BOTHERED Be hot, turning crimson and irritated (8)
(BE HOT)* + RED
11. SPUR Incentive to knock time off sprint (4)
SPUR[T]
15. SHOPPING Giving away recently purchased goods (8)
Double definition
16. LOVE Care for nothing (4)
Double definition
18. CHANCERY Court awards fortune to railway (8)
CHANCE + RY for the former Court of Chancery
19. ERRATIC Wayward boy about to betray one’s trust (7)
RAT (betray) in ERIC
21. ENOUGH To have one return a casual hug is sufficient (6)
Reverse of ONE + HUG*
22. DEPOTS Wrongly posted to headquarters (6)
POSTED*
23. HEE-HAW An asinine utterance? (3-3)
Cryptic definition – asinine literally means “like an ass”

39 comments on “Guardian 26,532 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and Andrew
    I got stuck on the NW puzzle rather than the SE one. ESTELLE and VICTORIAN were my favourites.
    I confidently wrote in WEDGE for 24a – actually a more accurate answer than SPOON, as the spoon was approximately a 3-wood, so doesn’t hit the ball anything like as high as a wedge.
    I don’t see what “Only a small” contributes to the clue for 7a. SCRIPT was a bit feeble, and it’s unfortunate in 5d that “class” is actually a different (higher) level in the classification system than “genus”.

  2. Good morning everybody and thanks Rufus & Andrew.

    Hate this grid and wish it was reserved for Ninas for which it is eminently suited.

    Took ages over the SW corner as I was being thick about ERRATIC. VICTORIAN & JAM-PACKED.

    Could VINDICATE really describe support? I haven’t a dictionary to hand so perhaps someone could check.

    Liked ESTELLE but think we’ve seen it before haven’t we?

    Smooth work from our Monday Man this morning, nice week all.

  3. Muffin@1 Being no golfer I always had a mental picture of a spoon as a high-lofting iron of some sort. I suppose most old clubs were wood, though?

  4. Not being a regular completer of crosswords, I like Rufus. I finished this (unusual) and could parse all the clues without waiting for the blog (almost unheard of). Yes some of the clues will probably be picked apart as not being 100% accurate. I don’t care, I enjoyed it. So thank you Rufus.

  5. Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

    I enjoyed this, especially ESTELLE, SHOPPING and CHANCERY.

    4d, “put the running events at different times or the competitors will be too tired, “stagger the running events or …”, does this work?

    5d, muffin, to me the clue implies that genus is in the class.

    typo 10a, NIGH + [augus]T

  6. Don’t think my proposal for 4d works.

    OCED, VINDICATE v.tr. 1 clear of blame or suspicion. 2 establish the existence, merits, or justice of (one’s courage, conduct, assertion etc.) 3 justify (a person, oneself, etc.) by evidence or argument.

  7. I had a similar experience to muffin @ 1 and dropped in to mention the same points re 24a and 5d. Cookie @ 5, I think GENUS has to be indicated by “biology class” rather than “One in biology class”, otherwise “One in” does double duty. That doesn’t seem like Rufus’s style.

    I really liked SHOPPING, once my faulty wedge was swept away by a Check All.

  8. I also found this a bit harder than usual. Some nice clues: VICTORIAN, ESTELLE, ADORABLE. Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

  12. Cookie @6 thanks for that. Do you think any of those defs would lead to “support”? Seems a bit of a stretch to me.

    {Captcha 1+1=2…my sort of maths}

  13. Biological classification was defined by Ernst Mayr as “The arrangement of entities in a hierarchical series of nested classes, in which similar or related classes at one hierarchical level are combined comprehensibly into more inclusive classes at the next higher level”. A class is defined as “a collection of similar entities”. (Note that the word ‘class’ is used quite separately for one of the levels of biological hierarchy.)

    If Mayr can do it, I guess Rufus can.

  15. Cookie @ 13
    I originally said “unfortunate” rather than “wrong”, and I think the Mayr’s use of class is unfortunate as well – too much possibility of ambiguity when one of the “classes” is “Class”. Why didn’t Mayr say “divisions” or “categories”?

  17. Thanks for the blog Andrew. I always seem to have the reverse experience to you with Rufus in that the fewer DDs and CDs there are, the easier I find him.

    It’s curious that 27a has the equally correct answer EDWARDIAN – until crossers rule it out. I’m used to homophone or reversal clues that require crossers to give the correct answer but I’m not sure I’e ever seen this before. This is an observation, not a criticism – though I did start doubting some of my answers 🙂

    ESTELLE was my favourite today. Short and sweet.

    Thanks Rufus.

  18. Thanks Andrew and Rufus.

    Hi Claire @17 – I went for EDWARD initially, too. Quite a lot of names today, with DORA, ESTELLE [nice one!]and ERIC – twice!

  19. All fairly straightforward and enjoyable as we’ve come to expect on a Monday. Last in was PRECEDE, liked AESOP and GENIUS.

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew

  20. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    Enjoyed this more than a lot of his recent puzzles and did find more of a challenge in it as well. Last few in were VINDICATE, SORBET and SCRIPT (which took a little while to drop that it was the lines of a play). Liked ESTELLE which I thought was quite clever – haven’t seen it before.

    I went down the WEDGE path but quickly put it in doubt when working through the ENOUGH clue.

    Haven’t seen too many hidden answers such as SNAGS in a Rufus puzzle.

  21. I too had to correct 27a, not because of Edward, but Hector! It’s sort of plausible, and funny how the two more obvious names eluded me until I finally decided it must be something different if 19d was to be solved.

  24. ClaireS @17 (and others) – for 27, I also went for Edwardian at first. Before changing it to Arthurian.
    Really liked ESTELLE and SORBET.
    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

  25. I found this much harder than Rufus usually is. I couldn’t get SPOON despite dimly remembering that it was a golf club.The rest of the clue meant nothing to me. I got the rest with only slightly more trouble than usual. Can’t say I liked VINDICATE much.
    Still, thanks RUFUS.

  26. [muffin @15, I think it unfortunate that Linnaeus used the word class, after all the word is often necessary when using the term classification. This probably came about as he divided each of the kingdoms into classes, and then they in turn into orders, families, etc. Since then phyla (or divisions) have been placed above class, and this has caused the confusion.]

  29. Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

    I didn’t think this particularly difficult. As a biologist I agree that to use class for genus is not right. Like others I liked ESTELLE, VICTORIAN, AESOP and SORBET.

  30. Thanks Rufus & Andrew.

    I agree with William @2 that this is rather an unfriendly four-in-one grid.

    I don’t think we need to get too hot under the collar about ‘genus.’ Perhaps ‘biology’ was a bit loose, but from Collins, ‘genus’: ‘a class, group, etc, with common characteristics.’

    I liked SHOPPING & ENOUGH.

  31. I am with Peter @25; it took me ages before the nw corner suddenly became clear and I never got spoon, although I have heard of the club

  32. Robi @30
    It always irritates scientists when precisely defined scientific terms are used more loosely in everyday usage. A biologist would say that Collins’s definition is just (mostly) wrong. (Epicentre or catalyst, anyone?)

  36. Rufus is revolting. 😉

    Well if we are to believe the “Easy Monday” dictat!

    This puzzle had a few teeth and fewer DDs and CDs than usual.

    I liked ESTELLE, VICTORIAN, AESOP and others.

    Bravo Rufus.

    Quite a nice workout but still had time to finish this before Uni Cnallenge!

    Thanks to Andrew and Rufus

  37. Thank you Rufus and Andrew

    Definitely not a breeze: the upper half took me a lot longer than than the lower half.

    Perhaps in 4d,’walk’ could be used in both definitions, so ‘walk at different times’ maintains the present tense.

    I smiled at SHOPPPING – it reminded me that my wife energetically argues a difference between shopping (an afternoon) and purchasing (15 minutes)

  38. muffin @32; well, I’m a scientist to boot (molecular biology/biochemistry) but genus is used in other disciplines such as logic, which is why I said that ‘biology’ was a bit loose.

  39. Hi Robi
    I see what you mean – “Biology” was probably the error.

    Genetics, me – though admittedly some time ago.

Comments are closed.