(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) An enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Hectence. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Quiet time of fasting is followed by year of abundance (6)
PLENTY : P(abbrev. for “piano”, musical instruction to play softly) + LENT(the period of fasting prior Easter) plus(is followed by) Y(abbrev. for “year”).
4 Doubts Queen’s charity (6)
QUALMS : QU(abbrev. for “queen”) +ALMS(charity to the poor or needy in the form of money or goods).
9 Thank heavens there’s some sign of enduring life (4)
ANKH : Hidden in(… there’s some) “Thank heavens “.
Defn: The symbol for eternal life as used by the ancient Egyptians, appearing in, eg. the name Tutankhamen.
10 Don’t forget to support home care (4,2,4)
BEAR IN MIND : BEAR(to support a load) + IN(at home) + MIND(to care;to tend to).
11 CIA hit’s ruined by Chinese exercises (3,3)
TAI CHI : Anagram of(…’s ruined) CIA HIT.
12 Broadcast awful record of speech (8)
DIALOGUE : Homophone of(Broadcast) [ “dire”(awful;terrible) “log”(a record of events) ].
13 Notice after dark there’s a lot of accidents here (5,4)
BLACK SPOT : SPOT(to notice) placed after(after, in an across clue) BLACK(dark).
15 Party to start off in pub (2,2)
IN ON : The 1st letter of(start) “off“ contained in(in) INN(a pub).
16 Hard on old boy with nothing being a tramp (4)
HOBO : H(abbrev. for “hard”) plus(on) O.B.(abbrev. for an “old boy”, an ex-pupil of a school) plus(with) O(letter signifying 0;nothing).
17 Delish gin cocktail giving superficial confidence? (9)
SHIELDING : Anagram of(… cocktail) DELISH GIN.
Defn: Of a protective outer;superficial layer giving the confidence that one will not be harmed, eg. a tortoise’s shell.
21 Affected by walkout, council leader’s in with Unison at last (8)
STRICKEN : [ STRIKE(a walkout;an industrial action) containing(…’s in) the 1st letter of(… leader) “council“ ] plus(with) the last letter of(… at last) “Unison“.
22 Anger about state of ruin (6)
RAVAGE : RAGE(anger) containing(about) VA(abbrev. for the US state of Virginia).
24 Dog clubs, for example, do what the others are doing (6,4)
FOLLOW SUIT : FOLLOW(to dog;to tail) + SUIT(in a deck of playing cards, an example of which;for example, is “clubs”).
25 Scream at seeing mouse after first recognising smell (4)
REEK : EEK!(a scream of fright, at seeing, say, a mouse) placed after(after, in an across clue) the 1st letter of(first) “recognising“.
26 To coerce former lover’s wrong (6)
EXTORT : EX(short for a former lover, or spouse even) + TORT(a wrong for which the wronged party may sue for compensation via a civil suit).
27 A little volume cured ten of stress (6)
ACCENT : A + C.C.(abbrev. for;a little “cubic centimetre”) + anagram of(cured) TEN.
Defn: A vocal emphasis given to a particular syllable, word, or phrase.
Down
1 Tommy’s game to join dance (7)
PINBALL : PIN(to join or fasten parts together with a sharp or a slender cylindrical implement) + BALL(a social dance).
Defn: Reference to the The Who’s album “Tommy”, subsequently adapted to stage and film.
2 Analyse the Channel Islands’ elevated principles (5)
ETHIC : Anagram of(Analyse) THE + reversal of(… elevated, in a down clue) CI(abbrev. for the Channel Islands).
3 Cruelly beat sibling after throwing fish away to cats (7)
TABBIES : Anagram of(Cruelly) [“beat sibling“ minus(after throwing … away) “ling”(any of various elongated food fish) ].
5 Wee place in old city popular with nearly everybody? (6)
URINAL : UR(the biblical city) + IN(popular;fashionable) plus(with) “all”(everybody) minus it last letter(nearly).
6 Made fun of a politician locked in toilet by little boy (9)
LAMPOONED : A + MP(abbrev. for a Member of Parliament) contained in(locked in) LOO(slang for a toilet) plus(by) NED(short for;little boy’s name, Edward).
7 Skin inflammation upset new massage students (7)
SUNBURN : Reversal of(upset, in a down clue) [ N(abbrev. for “new”) + RUB(to massage) + N.U.S.(abbrev. for the National Union of Students) ].
8 Girls helping with wedding cakes? (5,2,6)
MAIDS OF HONOUR : Double defn: 2nd: Small tarts with an almond filling.
14 Jaguar, for one, grasps panache with which the French produce a convertible (9)
CABRIOLET : CAT(the family of carnivores, a big example of which;for one, is the jaguar) containing(grasps) [ BRIO(panache;verve;flair) + LE(French for “the”) ].
16 Hello article about decoration struck a chord (3,4)
HIT HOME : HI!(hello!) + THE(the grammatical article) containing(about) O.M.(abbrev. for the Order of Merit, a decoration;an honour given by the monarch).
18 Unpredictable blunder by a jerk (7)
ERRATIC : ERR(to blunder;to go wrong) plus(by) A + TIC(a jerk;a spasm of a muscle).
19 Injure leg caught in trap by carelessness (7)
NEGLECT : [ Anagram of(Injure) LEG + C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores) ] containing(in) NET(a trap).
20 Pierce Brosnan has heart set on week playing Romeo (6)
SKEWER : The central letter of(..heart) “Brosnan“ placed above(has … set on, in a down clue) anagram of(… playing) WEEK + R(the letter represented by “Romeo” in the phonetic alphabet).
23 Extremely brief victory’s given English spirit (5)
VERVE : “very”(extremely;to a high degree) minus its last letter(brief) + V(abbrev. for “victory”) plus(…’s given;contraction of “is given”) E(abbrev. for “English”).
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thank you Hectence and scchua
I think I spent a bit longer on this puzzle than the Rufus today.
My favourites were URINAL, SKEWER, ERRATIC, DIALOGUE, PINBALL & REEK (LOI).
I needed help to parse 7d SUNBURN.
Thanks Hectence and scchua
Enjoyable. URINAL was “Pauline”!
Very enjoyable – some nifty wordplays for a Quiptic.
Many thanks S&B.
Thank you Hectence and scchua.
I found this fun but harder than today’s cryptic, and could not parse DIALOGUE, HIT HOME or VERVE.
I liked TABBIES, LAMPOON and CABRIOLET among others
Thanks Hectence & scchua.
Some nice clues, but some past Quiptic standard in my view. Why would Hectence put an obscure word like ANKH in a Quiptic, when INCH could have been used? ‘Tommy’s game’ is also pretty obscure unless you know much about The Who.
I enjoyed it but the level was too high in parts for this spot.
In what part of the English speaking world is dialogue pronounced “dire log”? This has to be the worst homophone ever.
Gasman jack @ 6
Well, in this part for a start. I’ve always pronounced ‘dialogue’ as ‘dyer’ plus ‘log’ so works for me.
…..although the ‘R’ is all but silent.
Thanks, scchua, for blogging.
Like Robi, I think ANHK is out of place in a Quiptic. INCH would have done nicely.
Gasman Jack, if you think DIALOGUE is the worst homophone ever, then you haven’t been doing crosswords very long. I’ve seen (or heard) much, much worse (and I haven’t been doing crosswords that long either). For her gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II these would certainly be homophones.
Thanks to Hectence too (but no more ANHKS, thanks).
Oh, and URINAL was good. Since there will be little overlap between the two sets of solvers and the puzzle is more than a week old, I will share here a clue from Eimi’s Independent puzzle earlier this year:
Terribly insular? They’re taking the piss (7) Made me laugh, anyway.
Thanks scchua,
I found this very entertaining but I’m not sure how Quiptic it is. On first reading of the clues, I didn’t get anything
but it did unravel slowly. I think the puzzle would be more suited to the Cryptic slot. Of many great clues. I’ll select
SKEWER as my favourite. Regarding DIALOGUE, how else would you pronounce it but direlog ?. If you look up dialogue in
dictionary.com and click on the sound symbol, the pronunciation is indistinguishable from direlog. Thanks Hectence.
Regarding homophones: many of us wouldn’t regard dialogue and dire log as being equivalent because we actually pronounce the ‘a’ in the former differently from the ‘r’ in the latter, but the crossword is apparently edited by people who don’t, so we just have to accept this regionalism.
I thought this was mostly spot on. The SE did stray a bit outside the brief; and I suppose ANKH, but then Hidden Word clues are so easy they are allowed to be slightly obscure in my book.