Provis appears to be a brand new setter, who has started with a well-judged Quiptic, with nothing too hard for improving solvers.
Across
1 Worries over the French game (8)
FEARLESS
Worries or FEARS go ‘over’, or round, LES (‘the’ in French), yielding a word meaning brave or ‘game’.
5 Sex information about red (6)
GENDER
GEN is information, followed by RED taken ‘about’ or backwards.
9 Impulse to sin when drunk can end in court (8)
INSTINCT
‘SIN when drunk’ suggests an anagram: INS. A ‘can’ is a TIN, and the answer should ‘end in’ CT, an abbreviation for ‘court’: INS TIN CT, an ‘impulse’.
10 Brags about vessels without topsails (6)
BOASTS
BOASTS means brags, and to make it BOATS or ‘vessels’ are taken ‘without’ (i.e. outside of – as in ‘without a city wall’) S. This is a rather weak clue as it seems to rely on S meaning ‘topsails’: but ‘topsails’ doesn’t mean ‘the top of SAILS’ and even if it did, this is not a down clue, so there is no reason for ‘top’ to mean the first letter.
11 Detective’s labourer? (8)
HERCULES
HERCULE Poirot is the famous fictional detective, and HERCULES (Herakles) in Greek mythology was compelled to carry out twelve labours, so we have HERCULE’S HERCULES. Note: Thanks to Coby in comment #1 for pointing out the detective is HERCULE, not HERCULES as I originally wrote.
12 Without principles, a doctor comes across really oddly (6)
AMORAL
A + doctor = MO (medical officer) + RAL – the odd letters of R(e)A(l)L(y) or, as you could say, ‘REALLY oddly’. ‘Comes across’ usually means ‘includes’ in crossword speak, but here it just means juxtaposition.
14 Satisfactory, organised, capable etc (10)
ACCEPTABLE
The letters of CAPABLE ETC are organised to get this anagram.
18 Freshly dawned fair everywhere (3,3,4)
FAR AND WIDE
The letters of DAWNED FAIR are taken ‘freshly’ – in a fresh order.
22 Some send earrings to win affection (6)
ENDEAR
The word is ‘some’ of sEND EARrings.
23 Doctors detain me for insanity (8)
DEMENTIA
The word ‘doctors’ or adjusts the ordering of the letters of DETAIN ME.
24 Dip into crowd when Democrat ousts Republican (6)
DABBLE
A crowd is a RABBLE, but if a D=Democrat ousts the R=Republican, the result is DABBLE (in) or ‘dip into’.
25 Tedious repetition of single unvaried sound finally changed (8)
MONOTONY
The ‘final’ letter of MONOTONE (a single unvaried sound) is changed to get this tedious repetition.
26 Has great fear of wild adders (6)
DREADS
The ordering of the letters of ADDERS has gone ‘wild’.
27 Rudolph and friends said it was wet ‘ere (8)
REINDEER
In fact they said it ‘rained ‘ere’!
Down
1 Retreat from strong glare (6)
FLIGHT
F = forte = strong, LIGHT = glare.
2 Suck in stomach muscles or bulge at the front (6)
ABSORB
ABS are stomach muscles, OR is written straight in from the clue, and B is the ‘front’ or first letter of ‘bulge’: ABS OR B or ‘suck in’.
3 Bedridden student has help at university (4,2)
LAID UP
L is a crossword staple standing (on a car) for Learner, in other words ‘student’. AID is help and you go UP to university, giving L AID UP or ‘ bedridden’.
4 They cannot be criticised for left-wing scares following short dismissal (6,4)
SACRED COWS
SACRED COWS are beyond criticism. To get them, we take RED (left-wing) COWS (scares, frightens) and make it follow SAC, which is the SACK (dismissal) made ‘short’ by chopping the last letter off: SAC RED COWS.
6 Minor, yet possibly an atrocious crime (8)
ENORMITY
The letters of MINOR YET could ‘possibly’ give you this word if you put them in the right order.
7 Give details of French writer (8)
DESCRIBE
DE (‘of’ in French) SCRIBE (writer).
8 Decided to back loser against current Labour leader (8)
RESOLVED
LOSER is read ‘back’: RESOL. V = versus = against, and ED is Ed Miliband, the current Labout leader.
13 Interfering half-time director led me so astray (10)
MEDDLESOME
‘Half-time’ is half of TIME – in this case, the second half, ME. (Setters more usually ask you to take the first half.) D=Director, and then the letters of LED ME SO go ‘astray’ to give DLESOME. The result is MEDDLESOME or ‘interfering’.
15 After a zero score girls finished upset (8)
OFFENDED
O stands, at least in crosswords, for zero, or here (rather loosely) ‘a zero score’. I don’t really agree with Provis that FF can represent ‘girls’ but the idea is probably that F = female = girl. (This is rather indirect – it would be better to say ‘females finished upset’.) Finally ENDED means finished, giving O FF ENDED or ‘upset’.
16 Plausible that cheddar rind can be eaten (8)
CREDIBLE
The ‘rind’ of Cheddar (or anything else) is the outside part, so we take the outside letters C(hedda)R, and something EDIBLE can be eaten. (Technically, for EDIBLE, the wrong part of speech is clued, but the answer is easy enough.)
17 Was sick after enrolled nurse started treatment required (8)
ENTAILED
An EN is an Enrolled Nurse. T is the start of ‘treatment’ (not ‘started treatment’, but never mind), and after all that, ‘was sick’ means AILED. The result is EN T AILED = ‘required’.
19 Fame is these days welcomed by non-Western architect (6)
RENOWN
NOW = these days, ‘welcomed by’ (contained within) REN, the architect Christopher (W)REN with a missing W=Western.
20 Swimming style is a cause of brain damage (6)
STROKE
A double definition.
21 Judge could become weary with Latin (6)
LAWYER
This LAWYER ‘could become’, if the letters were rearanged, WEARY L, with L standing for ‘Latin’.
Poirot is actually Hercule, not Hercules, hence Detective’s.
Very nice – perfect for the spot.
10a I don’t have any trouble with “topsails” for S irrespective of orientation. Collins gives (#9) “beginning” – also in music the top is the beginning – D.C. (da capo) is simply Italian for “from the top”.
“about” may be more problematical – one reading gets the preposition, the other doesn’t. Maybe you have to read “about” as a link meaning approximately – then it’s OK. Sailed straight past all that at the time myself.
Many thanks both.
Coby @1: Good point – I’ve corrected the entry accordingly.
JS @2: Yes, the ‘about’ is also problematical, as you say. Thanks for your comments about ‘top’. I’m not totally convinced this can work for a word (or ‘topsail’ indicate it), but I am reminded of an anecdote about some famous pianist, who was playing in a concert with a page-turner unknown to him who turned out to be an incompetent klutz. The page turner kept putting his hand at the right-hand edge of the page when turning, obscuring the pianist’s view. Eventually in exasperation he hissed, ‘From the top! From the top!’ – and watched in horror as the page turner flipped back to the start of the piece.
Agreed, a very good and appropriate puzzle, with a good variety of clues, ranging from the basic 26a to the slightly more demanding to parse 19d, which was, nonetheless, readily accessible from the definition. Well judged for the Quiptic in my view.
An enjoyable first puzzle from Provis, although I’m not convinced that using “topsail” for S in the clue for 10ac is entirely appropriate for a Quiptic. That’s just my opinion and I know some of you disagree. I also share Writinghawk’s quibble about “FF” clued as “girls” in 15dn.
HERCULES was my LOI and IMHO the clue for it is another that would have been better suited to a normal daily puzzle because it requires the solver to know two pieces of GK rather than one with some wordplay.
I must say, I don’t see a special reason to limit general knowledge in a Quiptic. It’s aimed at people who have less familiarity with cryptic crosswords – not necessarily with the world at large. Besides, Hercules is hardly obscure; in fact he and his labours do make it into Chambers (s.v. Herculean) and no doubt other dictionaries.
Many thanks to Provis for a nice crossword.
Not sure though this was, as JS said, “perfect for the spot”.
Perhaps it was, as the mediocre solver in me finished it relatively quickly without external resources. But it took me longer than the average Everyman which, for me, is the benchmark for how a Quiptic should be.
I guess, the fact that this was my (and other’s) first encounter with this setter and his style, made tackling this puzzle probably harder than it should have been.
That said, I agree with Andy B about the S for ‘topsail’ and the dubious use of FF for ‘girls’.
I also think that the definition in 1ac (‘game’) is rather hard for a Quiptic.
Just like ‘Cheddar rind’ for CR is more something for a daily – I have never seen the use of ‘rind’ like this before.
My main complaint, though, is the anagrind in 23ac, ‘Doctors’.
It really should be ‘Doctor’, in my opinion, but that doesn”t suit the clue. I know.
Looking at the crossword now, I think I liked 14ac best.
Late comment, but wanted to congratulate a very commendable and lucid set of explanations! Good job.