I thought this hit the spot for a Quiptic. Good variety in the cluing; nothing too obscure; and where the wordplay was a little complicated, clear definitions.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Salmon got decapitated by bird
PARROT
A charade of PARR, for a young salmon, and [G]OT.
4 Take drug from girl’s house for artist
CEZANNE
Well, you have to know that CHEZ is used in French – among other things – to denote ‘house’ or ‘place’. So CHEZ ANNE would be ‘Anne’s house’. Take H for heroin or ‘drug’ out of that, and Robert est votre oncle.
9 Complete article on church statement
UTTERANCE
A charade of UTTER, AN and CE.
10 Leave during piece by racist
BIGOT
An insertion of GO in BIT.
11 Fund from death of first wife
ENDOW
A charade of END, O for the first letter of ‘of’ and W.
12 Speak about brave isle
VERBALISE
(BRAVE ISLE)*
13 Restrain Frenchmen caught in bomb alert
TRAMMEL
Hectence is inviting you to put MM for two lots of ‘Monsieur’ in (ALERT)* The anagrind is ‘bomb’.
15 Mace head has jewel from the East
NUTMEG
A charade of NUT and a reversal (‘from the east’) of GEM. Also, of course, one of our regular Quiptic setters.
17 Moaned about crank report
WHINED
A homophone of ‘wind’ for ‘crank’.
19 Flipping police! Holding rock star is harsh
DRASTIC
The ‘police’ are the CID. That needs to be reversed (‘flipping’) and then (STAR)* needs to be inserted. The anagrind is ‘rock’.
22 Old comedian has whiplash joke
WISECRACK
A charade of Ernie WISE and CRACK.
24 Suggest just going topless
IMPLY
[S]IMPLY. It’s just/simply not good enough.
26 With flags laid down for quiet prayer to dead
PAVED
A charade of P, AVE and D. The prayer, I presume, is the AVE MARIA, which I’ve never heard of referred to as just AVE. In the same way as Father John would never tell you in the confessional to say five Hails and two Our Fathers to rid yourself of your sins.
27 Slip favourite old top into attic jumble
PETTICOAT
A charade of PET and an insertion of O in (ATTIC)* PET for ‘favourite’? Think ‘teacher’s pet’.
28 Make out record by Queen’s new
DISCERN
A charade of DISC, ER and N.
29 Out-of-sorts university students adopt new scheme
UNWELL
An insertion of (NEW)* in U and LL for two ‘students’.
Down
1 Careful with president’s saucy books!
PRUDENT
A charade of P, RUDE and NT for New Testament or ‘books’.
2 Gave an opinion of building trade
RATED
(TRADE)* with ‘building’ as the anagrind.
3 Rower‘s rig was maroon
OARSWOMAN
(WAS MAROON)* with ‘rig’ as the anagrind.
4 American car’s not allowed piece that’s v-shaped
CHEVRON
The ‘American car’ is a CHEVROLET and ‘allowed’ is LET. Take the latter from the former and add N for the abbreviation for Knight, a chess ‘piece’.
5 At heart grizzly bear may be a different animal
ZEBRA
A charade of Z for the central letter of ‘grizzly’ and (BEAR)* I think you’d have to take ‘may be’ as the anagrind and then ‘a different animal’ for the definition.
6 Sending information back and forth in bright surroundings is careless
NEGLIGENT
Slightly complicated wordplay, but the definition is pretty obvious, so fair enough. ‘Information’ is GEN: if you send it ‘back’, you’ll get NEG; then if you send it ‘forth’ in LIT for ‘bright surroundings’ you’ll get NEGLIGENT.
7 Admire some of Trieste emphatically
ESTEEM
Hidden in TriESTE EMphatically.
8 Cry for the wines in France to make a comeback
SNIVEL
A reversal of LE and VINS for the French words for ‘the’ and ‘wines’. I know it should be LES VINS, but it’s cryptic and not French grammar that we’re following.
14 Bonds with a man on last legs in seedy bars
ADHESIVES
A followed by HE and S for the last letter of ‘legs’ in DIVES.
16 Briefly, business on Italian island’s working as it’s always been done
TRADITION
A charade of TRAD[E] for ‘business, briefly’, IT for ‘Italian’, I for ‘island’ and ON for ‘working’.
18 Late father’s name reveals nothing
DEADPAN
A charade of DEAD, PA and N.
19 State records contain no problems arising
DAKOTA
An insertion of a reversal of OK in DATA.
20 Clear way to see the future?
CRYSTAL
A dd. CRYSTAL CLEAR and CRYSTAL BALL.
21 Cleaned up after son lashed out
SWIPED
A charade of S and WIPED.
23 Bum died in prison
CADGE
Nice surface. D in CAGE.
25 In favour of regular beer research!
PROBE
A charade of PRO and the odd letters of BeEr. Most cruciverbalists I’ve met like a pint, so I’m sure they’d all be in favour of that.
Brava, Hectence.
Thanks Pierre
Regarding your comment about 26ac, Chambers does have “ave (noun) a recitation of the ave Maria” so I think to clue it via simply ‘prayer’ is fine.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.
I think that this puzzle is, once again, tougher than today’s Rufus in the paper, and I feel that Pierre is being a little generous to the setter as some of the clues seem to me rather shaky. For example, dictionaries may prove me wrong, but, for me, adhesives allow bonds to be made and are not, themselves, bonds.
For an entry level cryptic crossword, I think that clues like 4d are too convoluted, and I consider that the puzzle in the paper and the Quiptic could advantageously have been reversed.
Thanks, Gaufrid and Muffyword. Never come across that use of AVE, so fair enough.
George, I’m always cautious about offering an opinion about the level of difficulty of a Quiptic, but usually do so on the basis that others can disagree if they wish. Rufus’ puzzles can be ‘easy’, but they are usually dd and cd heavy, which is not always every improving solver’s cup of tea. Each to his or her own, I guess.
I found this marginally more difficult than today’s Rufus. Having said that, I had a distinct sense of deja vu regarding iffy geographical clues. DAKOTA is not a state, North Dakota and South Dakota are. I had a similar gripe in an old Rufus puzzle when Carolina was defined as a state. CADGE was my LOI after WISECRACK.
Very enjoyable and about right for a Quiptic.
Thanks Pierre; I only got tripped up over piece=N and failing to see the forward GEN in NEGLIGENT.
I did enjoy DAKOTA despite the reservations above. There is DAKOTA State University and ‘the Dakotas’ is used, so why not one of them even if it is not strictly a state? Adhesive=bond is in both Bradford’s and Chamber’s Crossword Dictionaries.
I also enjoyed SNIVEL, PRUDENT and DRASTIC.
Thanks to Hectence and Pierre. The Dakota quibble rang a bell for me too. Speaking of which,
Happy Presidents Day from the colonies!
Cheers…
Hi grandpuzzler – happy Presidents’ Day – I might even have a glass of wine this evening to celebrate!
In fairness, we do shorten states like that. In James Taylor’s mind, he was goin to Carolina, you know, and the professional Panthers (NFL) and Hurricanes (NHL) both are simply called Carolina. The Jersey Shore, too.
“Dakota” is a bit odder, but I don’t really see a problem with it. As noted, the Dakotas are states, so why can’t a Dakota be a state?
Interestingly, unadorned “Carolina” seems to always mean North. When college sports people talk Carolina, they mean the Tar Heels, not the Gamecocks, for example–that’s pretty well understood.
Just what Pierre said up top (and thanks for the blog).
Very satisfying solve. Not for the raw beginner but perfect as a challenge for the developing solver – regulars too.
Harder/easier than Rufus? A shade harder maybe today but prolly mainly a wavelength thing.
Thanks Pierre,
It’s a bit late to comment now as I did this last night but I’d just like to say what a good puzzle it was.
There were so many great surfaces and misdirections. Commenters rarely seem to give credit where it’s due
and just pick up on small details.
I didn’t even know the connection between mace and nutmeg, I was thinking of the old weapon with a spiky
metal ball, thus 15a became quite mysterious. My LTI (new acronym) were SNIVEL and VERBALISE where I missed
the anagram completely until the ‘V’ from snivel appeared.
Many thanks Hectence.