The crossword may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/quiptic/701.
For no reason that seems very obvious in retrospect, I was slow getting a foothold on this one.
As usual, clue definitions are underlined, single quotes indicate portions of the clue, and uppercase bold letters highlight significant features.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Came to a head, say, and created annoyance (6) | ||
| PIQUED | A homophone (‘say’) of PEAKED (‘came to a head’). | ||
| 5. | Mistakenly, hero to cause alarm (6) | ||
| HOOTER | An anagram (‘mistakenly’) of ‘hero to’. | ||
| 8. | Delight in the tenth rally of the season (7) | ||
| ENTHRAL | An answer hidden in ‘tENTH RALly’, with a bit of padding. | ||
| 9. | Farmer’s ploy: first time, show hesitation (7) | ||
| PLANTER | A charade of PLAN (‘ploy’) plus T (‘first Time’) plus ER (‘hesitation’). | ||
| 11. | Arrange nap, son, to unsettle unwelcome guest (7,3,5) | ||
| PERSONA NON GRATA | An anagram (‘unsettle’) of ‘arrange nap son to’. | ||
| 12. | Time for the class of 2000, for example (4) | ||
| YEAR | Double definition. | ||
| 13. | Gale damages the hedges (10) | ||
| WINDBREAKS | A charade of WIND (‘gale’) plus BREAKS (‘damages’). | ||
| 17. | Viewer to see humour displayed by US agent Eliot (10) | ||
| EYEWITNESS | A charade of EYE (‘to see’) plus WIT (‘humour’) plus NESS (‘US agent Eliot’, famous for his enforcement of Prohibition in Chicago) | ||
| 18. | Penned in, about to go off the older generation (4) | ||
| AGED | A subtraction [c]AGED (‘penned in’) without (‘to go off’) C (‘about’). | ||
| 20. | Artless head has the quality of being clear (15) | ||
| TRANSPARENTNESS | A charade of TRANSPARENT (‘artless’) plus NESS (‘head’). | ||
| 23. | Went on about our hard feelings (7) | ||
| RANCOUR | A charade of RAN (‘went’) plus C (‘about’) plus ‘our’. | ||
| 24. | Conductor’s indications to cheerful old Bob? (7) | ||
| UPBEATS | A charade of UPBEAT (‘cheerful’) plus S (shilling, ‘old Bob’). | ||
| 25. | Spin good yarn, initially to order (6) | ||
| GYRATE | A charade of G (‘good’) plus Y (‘Yarn, initially’) plus RATE (‘order’). | ||
| 26. | Oral agreement to allow a small hole (6) | ||
| EYELET | A charade of EYE, a homophone (‘oral’) of AYE (‘agreement’) plus LET (‘to allow’). | ||
| Down | |||
| 2. | At home, Electra was weaving twine (9) | ||
| INTERLACE | A charade of IN (‘at home’) plus TERLACE, an anagram (‘was weaving’) of ‘Electra’. | ||
| 3. | Originally under pressure, foundation to move away (6) | ||
| UPROOT | A charade of U (‘originally Under’) plus P (‘pressure’) plus ROOT (‘foundation’). | ||
| 4. | Dog for a countryman (9) | ||
| DALMATIAN | Double definition; strictly, Dalmatia is a region of Croatia, rather than a country. | ||
| 5. | Animal‘s joint work setback (5) | ||
| HIPPO | A charade of HIP (‘joint’) plus PO, a reversal (‘setback’) of OP (‘work’). | ||
| 6. | Shade’s extremely rudimentary for the glasshouse (8) | ||
| ORANGERY | A charade of ORANGE (‘shade’) plus RY (‘extremely RudimentarY‘). | ||
| 7. | Former model and artist, an actor (5) | ||
| EXTRA | A charade of EX (‘former’) plus T (‘model’) plus RA (‘artist’). | ||
| 8. | Unhappily, ten pester my parent, whose now childless (5,6) | ||
| EMPTY NESTER | An anagram (‘unhappily’) of ‘ten pester my’. Whose? | ||
| 10. | Enthuses in a musical way (11) | ||
| RHAPSODISES | Cryptic definition. | ||
| 14. | Inaction caused by wayward English dude eating fat (9) | ||
| DESUETUDE | An envelope (‘eating’) of SUET (‘fat’) in DEUDE, an anagram (‘wayward’) of E (‘English’) plus ‘dude’. I think ‘inaction’ is a little loose as a definition. | ||
| 15. | Get garage to reassemble the combination (9) | ||
| AGGREGATE | An anagram (‘to reassemble’) of ‘get garage’. | ||
| 16. | Scattering said to go back to part of Royal Academy, initially (8) | ||
| DIASPORA | A charade of DIAS, a reversal (‘to go back’) of ‘said’ plus P O R A (‘Part Of Royal Academy, initially’. In 25A and 3D, the ‘initially’ or ‘originally’ need only refer to a single word, as the other is a standard abbreviation; but here it must encompass all four words). | ||
| 19. | Sound building (6) | ||
| STABLE | Double definition. | ||
| 21. | No time for loudspeaker to irritate (5) | ||
| ANNOY | A subtraction [t]ANNOY (‘loudspeaker’) without T (‘no time’). | ||
| 22. | Concur that article’s almost Green (5) | ||
| AGREE | A charade of A (‘article’) plus GREE[n] (‘almost’). | ||
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I was unable to parse 24a fully so I appreciate being reminded that ‘bob’ = ‘shilling’.
I agree with you that the word ‘whose’ in 8d seemed unusual.
My favourites were 1a, 2d, 16d, 26a & 13a (last in).
New words for me today were DESUETUDE & Tannoy loudspeaker system.
Moley has given us some good Quiptics in the past, but I found more to not like than to like in this one.
‘Whose’ is not unusual, Michelle, it’s a dreadful howler which I could take from a Year 5 child, but not from a professional crossword compiler. DESUETUDE will not be in most beginners’ passive vocabulary, I fancy, and is therefore not ideal for a Quiptic. And I’m sure TRANSPARENTNESS is a word, but it’s not one I would use when TRANSPARENCY fits the bill perfectly well. And Eliot NESS might be famous, but not in this household.
I did like RANCOUR.
Thank you for blogging, Peter.
I enjoyed this one and found it harder than the Chifonie. I didn’t know DESUETUDE but I trusted the wordplay so entered it, and was pleased to see that it was right when I checked it post-solve.
K’sDad@2
I agree that ‘transparentness’ as a solution was a surprise to me as I would normally think of ‘transparency’ as the answer for that clue. I had to check that the word ‘transparentness’ actually existed (yes, I found it in Collins).
Yeah, I found Chifonie much easier too. As well as the comments above, I can’t say I’m over familiar with the arbitrary jargon of modern sociology. I regard it in much the same light as “business speak”, to be avoided at all possible costs. So 8 was a definite must use a gadget clue.
Thanks for the explanations. Very useful even in 2019.
You’ll be happy to know that in the 2015 collection of 100 Quiptics “whose” has been emended to “who’s” and “countryman” to “someone from Croatia”.
In case someone felt they were crying in the wilderness a bit.