You don’t usually see me in these parts but scchua is away travelling so I am standing in for him. I found this to be a straightforward solve, with a variety of devices, which is just the way a Quiptic should be.
Thanks Hectence.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PRAGMATIC | Sensible for Queen’s annual meeting with retired volunteers to be captured in photo (9) |
| R (Queen) AGM (annual meeting) TA (volunteers) reversed (retired) all in PIC (photo) | ||
| 6 | STUD | Boss of horse-breeding establishment (4) |
| double def. | ||
| 10 | ELGIN | Play with Nigel’s marbles? (5) |
| an anagram (play with) of NIGEL to give these marbles | ||
| 11 | POLYESTER | Cut back on young trees pulped for fabric (9) |
| LOP (cut) reversed (back) Y (young) plus an anagram (pulped) of TREES for a synthetic fabric | ||
| 12 | HATCHET | Dislike carrying companion to last seat in chopper (7) |
| HATE (dislike) around (carrying) CH (companion [of honour]) [sea]T (last seat) for a type of axe or chopper | ||
| 13 | BUFFOON | Clown‘s gift is entertaining upper-class fellows (7) |
| BOON (gift) around (is entertaining) U (upper-class) FF (fellows) for someone who sets out to amuse others | ||
| 14 | REINFORCEMENT | Check for mortar support (13) |
| REIN (check) FOR CEMENT (mortar) | ||
| 17 | EAU DE TOILETTE | Perfume‘s smell reportedly can get extremely tiresome (3,2,8) |
| a homophone (reportedly) of ‘odour’ (smell) TOILET (can) T[iresom]E (extremely tiresome) for a lightly perfumed liquid similar to cologne | ||
| 21 | DERIDED | Made fun of a bit of a blunder I’d edited (7) |
| a hidden answer in ‘blunDER I’D EDited’ | ||
| 22 | BENEFIT | Welfare payment‘s been adjusted to suit (7) |
| an anagram (adjusted) of BEEN plus FIT (suit) | ||
| 24 | GRAVY BOAT | Briefly serious at chasing boy having broken part of dinner service (5,4) |
| GRAV[e] (briefly serious) plus AT after (chasing) an anagram (having broken) of BOY | ||
| 25 | TENON | Saw return of missing web access? (5) |
| a reversal (return of) of NO NET (missing web access) | ||
| 26 | SKEW | Bias knitting’s initially held by stitch (4) |
| K[nitting’s] (knitting’s initially) in (held by) SEW (stitch) | ||
| 27 | TARANTINO | American director managed to penetrate French director’s new circle (9) |
| RAN (managed) in (to penetrate) TATI (French director) followed by N (new) O (circle) for this American director | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PIE CHART | Diagram analysing each trip (3,5) |
| an anagram (analysing) of EACH TRIP | ||
| 2 | ANGST | Leaderless gang on street causing fear (5) |
| [g]ANG (leaderless gang) ST (street) | ||
| 3 | MONTH OF SUNDAYS | Thirty days of rest can be a long time (5,2,7) |
| double def. | ||
| 4 | TIPSTER | He gives better advice (7) |
| cryptic def. referring to someone placing a bet on, say, a horse race | ||
| 5 | CALIBRE | “Boreability“? (7) |
| double def. with the need to split the clue into bore and ability | ||
| 7 | TIT FOR TAT | Make tart fit to give in return (3,3,3) |
| an anagram (make) of TART FIT TO | ||
| 8 | DARING | Reckless of beloved student to drop out (6) |
| DAR[l]ING (beloved with L for student missing (to drop out)) | ||
| 9 | BEEF WELLINGTON | Complain with Sir John about fish dish (4,10) |
| BEEF (complain) W (with) ELTON (Sir John) around (about) LING (fish) for a joint of beef covered with paté, wrapped in pastry then baked | ||
| 15 | INEBRIATE | Lush popular song to be taken up by first two tenors (9) |
| IN (popular) plus AIR (song) BE reversed (taken up) followed by TE[nors] (first two tenors) for someone who has a penchant for alcoholic beverages | ||
| 16 | WENT INTO | Investigated novel set-up to put by money (4,4) |
| NEW (novel) reversed (set-up) TO after (put by) TIN (money) | ||
| 18 | ENDMOST | Last in a series of “Doctors” goes beyond finish time (7) |
| MOS (doctors) after (goes beyond) END (finish) plus T (time) | ||
| 19 | ORBITER | Spacecraft has alternative grip to hand (7) |
| OR (alternative) BITE (grip) R (hand) – rh or RH is the more usual abbreviation for right hand and the references I have to hand do not give simply R but I expect it it used in some context or other | ||
| 20 | ADAGES | Proverbs for modern times? (6) |
| AD AGES (modern times) | ||
| 23 | FUNGI | Joy to have pigs’ heart served up on mushrooms (5) |
| FUN (joy) [p]IG[s] (pigs’ heart) reversed (served up) – so we’ve now had ‘taken up’, ‘set up’ and ‘served up’ as a reversal indicator in a down clue | ||
Yes, ta to Hectence and Gaufrid.
24, I think you meant GRAV[e] not GRAV[y]!
4, is pretty literal as a Tipster does not necessarily bet, but does give advice on bets.
There’s a standard answer to the use of L and R, and I have an image of said letters embossed on something in my mind’s eye, but I’m damned if I can remember what! It must be my age!
Hi Derek
Thanks, error corrected. It was rather early in the day and I was distracted by other problems associated with the site and so didn’t proof read my post as thoroughly as I should have done.
Regarding 4dn, I could have worded my comment more clearly. My aim was to explain why it was ‘better’ in the sense of a betting person rather than ‘better’ as a comparative of good.
Like you, I’m sure I’ve seen L and R somewhere but I cannot remember it relating to ‘hands’.
An enjoyable Quiptic, and as far as I could tell there wasn’t anything quibbleworthy in it. WENT INTO was my LOI.
WENT INTO was my LOI too (more or less together with 25ac).
I did not find this an extremely easy Quiptic. There was a lot of cleverness (ie good constructions) going on here.
Sometimes I ask myself “what is a Quiptic”?
A cryptic that be done quickly?
But then, so are many Monday or Tuesday dailies.
Or is it just a name for an accessible on-line crossword?
Is there any vision behind the idea “Quiptic”?
In the meantime, many thanks to Hectence.
Nice impeccable* puzzle, could easily have been a (well appreciated) daily! [in my opinion]
*ps, well, ‘impeccable’? I am one of those that don’t like “last seat” for T or “first two tenors” for TE.
As a pianist, I might write ‘L’ or ‘R’ onto the music when a note is to be taken by the other hand reaching over.
But it didn’t help me parse that clue when doing the crossword!
Sorry I’m a touch late to the party but I just wanted to agree with deWaverley about hands in music. My example was the issue of “sticking” in percussion but it’s the same thing. I suspect (but cannot prove) that it’s quite general in contexts where space and/or time rule out using LH and RH.
Thanks to setter and blogger both.