The guinea pig fancier’s turn in the Quiptic slot, and an enjoyable first excursion into this week’s cryptic waters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | JITTERBUG | Pitcher’s filled with craft bitter for dance (9) |
| JUG (pitcher) containing (filled with) an anagram (craft) of BITTER | ||
| 6 | CORGI | Dog‘s company put regular grin on Queen! (5) |
| CO (company) R (queen) GI (regular = in this case, the odd letters of grin) | ||
| 9 | PLOUGHMANS LUNCH | All munch nosh-up prepared with good pub food (10,5) |
| An anagram (prepared) of ALL MUNCH NOSH UP + (with) G (good) | ||
| 10 | NAGS | Hitches non-starting horses (4) |
| SNAGS (hitches) minus its first letter (non-starting) | ||
| 11 | DREARIER | Sadder end in dire neglect (8) |
| REAR (end) in (in) an anagram (neglect) of DIRE | ||
| 14 | OUTSMARTS | Exposes markets’ tricks (9) |
| OUTS (exposes) MARTS (markets) | ||
| 15 | RIGHT | Proper religious ceremony is spoken (5) |
| A homophone (is spoken) of RITE (religious ceremony) | ||
| 16 | POSER | One who’s affected by moving prose (5) |
| An anagram (moving) of PROSE | ||
| 18 | WITH CHILD | Expecting a delivery? (4,5) |
| A cryptic definition | ||
| 20 | EMOTIONS | Strong feelings as earth moves (8) |
| E (earth) MOTIONS (moves) | ||
| 21 | SPOT | See small Post Office at end of street (4) |
| S (small) PO (Post Office) next to (at) T (end, i.e. last letter, of street) | ||
| 25 | SELF EXPLANATORY | No clarification required from me on old scheme by a Conservative (4-11) |
| SELF (me) next to (on) EX (old) PLAN (scheme) next to (by) A (a) TORY (conservative) | ||
| 26 | RUNNY | Ladder to point unknown is not all solid (5) |
| RUN (ladder) next to (to) N (point, i.e. north) Y (unknown) | ||
| 27 | NAAN BREAD | Old lady’s eating a lolly that’s served with curry (4,5) |
| NAN (old lady) containing (eating) A (a) BREAD (lolly) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | JAPAN | Dad supports German agreement with neutral country (5) |
| PA (dad) is positioned under (supports) JA (German agreement) plus (with) N (neutral) | ||
| 2 | THOUGHT | Personal judgment should be following central hypothesis (7) |
| OUGHT (should be) after (following) TH (central, i.e the middle two letters of, hypothesis). Not sure that ‘should be’ and ‘ought’ are strictly equivalent | ||
| 3 | EDGE | Patrolled German section of border (4) |
| An answer hidden in (section) patrollED GErman | ||
| 4 | BUMP | Strike has a thousand involved in local uprising (4) |
| M (a thousand) contained in (involved in) a reversal (uprising) of PUB (local) | ||
| 5 | GENEROSITY | Greet noisy drunk with kindness (10) |
| An anagram (drunk) of GREET NOISY | ||
| 6 | CALL A TRUCE | End argument about everybody at party in street in Paris (4,1,5) |
| C (about) ALL (everybody) AT (at) C (party) in (in) RUE (street in Paris) | ||
| 7 | RANTING | Phoned about silly nit holding forth (7) |
| RANG (phoned) containing (about) an anagram (silly) of NIT | ||
| 8 | INHERITED | Having received a legacy, home help’s half-embarrassed about it (9) |
| IN (home) HE (half the letters of HELP) RED (embarrassed) containing (about) IT (it) | ||
| 12 | EMBROIDERY | I set up one tying knot, securing circle and lines for sewing (10) |
| A reversal (set up) of ME (I) BRIDE (one tying knot) containing (securing) O (circle) plus (and) RY (lines) | ||
| 13 | DRAWING PIN | One fixes pop-up sketch above (7,3) |
| A reversal (up) of NIP (pop) with DRAWING (sketch) above | ||
| 14 | OPPRESSOR | Tyrant‘s abuse of poor absorbs newspapers (9) |
| An anagram (abuse of) POOR containing (absorbs) PRESS (newspapers) | ||
| 17 | SWOLLEN | Puffed up to West Country on old lines with points (7) |
| SW (west country) above (on) O (old) LL (lines) plus (with) EN (points, i.e east and north) | ||
| 19 | IMPROVE | Island politician with range to make progress (7) |
| I (island) MP (politician) plus (with) ROVE (range) | ||
| 22 | TOYED | Played to young editor (5) |
| TO (to) Y (young) ED (editor). I can’t find Y = young in Oxford or Collins online, or Chambers | ||
| 23 | GALA | A prisoner’s returning celebration (4) |
| A reversal (returning) of A (a) LAG (criminal) | ||
| 24 | BARB | Sharp point is said to hurt (4) |
| I thought at first this was a homophone but I think it must be a double definition, where BARB = 1. a sharp point and 2. a hurtful comment | ||
Thanks Hectence and nms. Straightforward stuff, only the “y=young” in 22d raised an eyebrow
Re 22d, Y = young, as in YMCA.
Thanks Hectence and nms.
Nice. GENEROSITY was my favourite. Didn’t really like C for party in 6d, but it’s OK I suppose.
Thanks Rullytully @2, that makes sense
Thank you Hectence and newmarketsausage.
A pleasant Quiptic. The clue for BARB had me fooled, rather fun!
Once I used Y for young in a clue but found support nowhere. And solvers don’t like use of abbreviations which are part of a string such as YMCA here. Is y – young entered in any recent dictionary? Is Guardian liberal in this respect?
Thanks, nms.
I did like this one – as you say, an enjoyable start to the cryptic week. Lots of good surfaces.
I was okay with Y for ‘young’, but I know some folk don’t like it. We’ve had N for ‘navy’ plenty of times, and that’s really only in RN for ‘Royal Navy’.
Good Quiptic – well done, Hectence.
Haven’t had a “write-in” for ages, so enjoyment combined with reassurance – a nice Quiptic. Thanks to Hectence and nms.
Muffin@3 – I agree that C=party is a bit of a stretch.