I’m not so sure about the ‘Qui….’ part of this puzzle but maybe that was due to the fact that I had slept longer than usual last night and perhaps my brain was a bit sluggish as a result.
As I knew I was going to be blogging this one I went through the clues in the traditional order and was surprised to find that I only had three entries by the time I got to the end of the across ones. However, when I moved on to the down clues the grid filled far more rapidly as these seemed to be somewhat easier. A second pass through the clues left only a handful of empty lights which were then filled in quite quickly.
I appreciated the generally smooth surfaces (22ac amused me in particular) and my only (very slight!) quibble was the use of ‘… leader’, to indicate an initial letter, twice within the space of four clues. Overall this was an enjoyable solve.
Across
1 Goddess returned seed to island (7)
NEMESIS – SEMEN (seed) reversed (returned) IS (island) – the Greek goddess who was the spirit of divine retribution
5 Strange pouch first found in bone (6)
SACRUM – SAC (pouch) in front of (first found) RUM (strange) – a triangular bone composed of five fused vertebrae (sacral vertebrae) wedged between the two innominate bones, so as to form the keystone of the pelvic arch in humans (Chambers)
9 Pretend to hide something to open a door in church — it’s not true (8)
COCKEYED – COD (pretend) around (to hide) KEY (something to open door) in CE (church) – ‘not true’ in the sense of not straight
10 Good man takes a container to get anti-cholesterol drug (6)
STATIN – ST (good man {saint}) A TIN (a container)
12 Showing signs of pregnancy, almost vomit in an Italian cathedral (7,5)
STRETCH MARKS – RETCH (almost vomit) in ST MARKS (an Italian cathedral) – this Basilica in Venice
15 Setter’s getting rent, so order soup (10)
MINESTRONE – MINE (setter’s) plus an anagram (order) of RENT SO
17 Prompt to hit a ball (3)
CUE – double def.
19 Warhol’s letter from Greece? (3)
RHO – hidden in ‘waRHOl’
20 At the end of spring, girl gets you and me in to weed part of the garden (10)
GLASSHOUSE – [sprin]G (end of spring) LASS (girl) plus (gets) US (you and me) in HOE (to weed)
22 Wearing glasses to see something worth looking at in bed! (12)
BESPECTACLED – SPECTACLE (something worth looking at) in BED
26 Market place by river (6)
AMAZON – double def.
27 Feel over-excited by unconventional sex (4,4)
FREE LOVE – an anagram (excited) of FEEL OVER
28 Article accepted by director in state of indecision (6)
DITHER – THE (article) in (accepted by) DIR (director)
29 Change the name of green house gas (7)
METHANE – an anagram (change) of THE NAME
Down
1 Steal in prison (4)
NICK – double def.
2 Gambler’s third high card is a club (4)
MACE – [ga]M[bler] (gambler’s third) ACE (high card)
3 Small little exam is most agreeable (8)
SWEETEST – S (small) WEE (little) TEST (exam)
4 Used fake English leather (5)
SUEDE – An anagram (fake) of USED plus E (English)
6 A maths problem leads to breathing difficulty (6)
ASTHMA – an anagram (problem) of A MATHS
7 Organisation advocating community service for troubled burly actor (6,4)
ROTARY CLUB – an anagram (troubled) of BURLY ACTOR
8 Worked as a clergyman in small desert settlement (10)
MINISTERED – MINI (small) plus an anagram (settlement) of DESERT
11 Speaker’s money smells (6)
SCENTS – a homophone (speaker’s) of ‘cents’ (money)
13 Maybe order new piece of kit for nail bar (5,5)
EMERY BOARD – an anagram (new) of MAYBE ORDER
14 Conservative entering without delay is liable to change allegiance (10)
INCONSTANT – CON (Conservative) in (entering) INSTANT (without delay)
16 Tell the story of queen turning up dead (6)
RELATE – ER (queen) reversed (turning up) LATE (dead)
18 Most significant Chinese leader beheaded criminal set for release (8)
CHIEFEST – C[hinese] (Chinese leader) [t]HIEF (beheaded criminal) plus an anagram (for release) of SET
21 Mean to reject school attended by editor (6)
DENOTE – ETON (school) ED (editor) reversed (to reject)
23 Starts to cause a row over mate’s shot at billiards (5)
CAROM – initial letters (starts to) of C[ause] A R[ow] O[ver] M[ate] – the short form of carambole, a cannon in billiards
24 Icelandic leader on a Scottish island (4)
IONA – I[celandic] (Icelandic leader) ON A
25 Surrender territory in late December uprising (4)
CEDE – hidden reversal (uprising) in ‘latE DECember’
Thanks Pan & Gaufrid.
Generally OK, although CAROM is a bit of a difficult one for a Quiptic. If methane had been changed to another ??T?A?E, a more usual word could have been fitted into 23.
I liked the signs of pregnancy.
Hi Robi
I would tend to agree with you regarding CAROM, though the wordplay was such that it should have been easy to get. I had no problems with it as I used to play billiards and have met the word several times previously as an answer in a crossword, most recently only a couple of days ago.
This should have been today’s main puzzle. Maybe it was because I was trying to get back on to a “normal cryptic” wavelength after doing the Rufus, but I found this one hard to get into for a Quiptic, and I actually found it a challenge, but an enjoyable one. Having said that, I’m not sure what the supposed target audience for a Quiptic would have made of it. SUEDE was my LOI after I finally saw NEMESIS and COCKEYED. CHIEFEST doesn’t look like a proper word …………
Thanks for blogging, Gaufrid.
I didn’t have quite the experience you did, but certainly a few clues – for me in the SW corner – were tricky to pin down. But the grid is solver-friendly, only two instances of less than 50% checking, no particularly unusual words (I don’t think METHANE falls into that category) and generally clear clueing. So is it suitable for ‘beginners’? I think it is. When I was restarting cryptics, I wouldn’t necessarily expect to finish a puzzle every time, so if there were a few more elaborate ones here … well, read the blog and come back for more next week.
Thanks to Pan too. I especially liked STRETCH MARKS. But Andy B is right: CHIEFEST is not a word. You can have significant, more significant and most significant, but CHIEF already tells you that it’s the most significant.
CHIEFEST is in the 12th edition of Chambers.
Ah, the BRB. That’d be the one that confirms that it’s okay to say that a MILLIPEDE is an INSECT, then. No doubt it will tell you that CHIEF and MAIN are synonyms. The main problem with Chambers is that it’s sometimes wrong. The mainer problem is that everyone bows down and worships before it. The mainest problem is that compilers can use the excuse “it’s in Chambers” when any careful – or in this case even casual – user of English would never touch the word with a bargepole. We’d better stop now before we frighten the beginners who never comment here.
Not really qualified to comment because I didn’t do the puzzle but I always like to read the blogs.
My attitude to Chambers is well known, I think, but I do [really] remember ‘chiefest’ from my O Level ‘Macbeth’: ‘“As you all know, Security Is Mortals’ chiefest Enemy.” It was one of the key quotes. [I’d always rather rely on the bard than the BRB. 😉 ]
Without wanting to turn Gaufrid’s blog into an arcane discussion about archaic meanings, Shakespeare wrote that 400 plus years ago. Nobody in their right minds would ever use CHIEFEST today. In the same way that the next time I’m annoyed with someone, I won’t call them a WHORESON.