A no-show by the scheduled blogger so here is an analysis of the clues.
I cannot comment as to how this compares with other Quiptics because it is not a series that I normally solve.
.
Across
1 Visitor‘s around building really briefly (6)
CALLER – C (around) plus an anagram (building) of REALL[y] (really briefly)
5 Elephantine air transport (5,3)
JUMBO JET – def. & cryptic indicator
9 Small carriage can’t possibly accommodate figure that’s enormous (8)
GIGANTIC – GIG (small carriage) plus an anagram (possibly) of CAN’T around (accommodate) I (figure)
10 A Glastonbury opening without mud is a fantastic sight (6)
MIRAGE – MIRE (mud) around (without) A G[lastonbury] (Glastonbury opening)
11 As soon as wife gets time off then? (4)
WHEN – W (wife) [t]HEN (time off then)
12 Sweetums is one silly tender name! (10)
ENDEARMENT – an anagram (silly) of TENDER NAME
13 Expert in wordplay said in French (6)
PUNDIT – PUN (wordplay) DIT (said in French)
14 Apprehension with soldier heading off on ship (8)
WARINESS – W (with) [m]ARINE (soldier heading off) SS (ship)
16 Soldiers take high ground quietly before breakfast? (8)
PORRIDGE – OR (soldiers) RIDGE (high ground) with P (quietly) in front (before)
19 Start anew in shift working (4,2)
MOVE ON – MOVE (shift) ON (working)
21 Work very hard on design of wood tables (5,5)
SWEAT BLOOD – an anagram of (design of) WOOD TABLES
23 Saucy girl picked up furs (4)
MINX – sounds like (picked up) ‘minks’ (furs)
24 Hit back of reckless three-wheeler (6)
STRIKE – [reckles]S (back of reckless) TRIKE (three-wheeler)
25 Innovative spirit in old rail organisation (8)
ORIGINAL – GIN (spirit) in O (old) and an anagram (organisation) of RAIL
26 Dine out by lake behind brother’s yard when warm (8)
FRIENDLY – an anagram (out) of DINE plus L (lake) after (behind) FR (brother) followed by Y (yard)
27 Old man has almost nothing on — wow! (6)
GEEZER – GEE (wow) ZER[o] (almost nothing)
Down
2 One uncomfortable with top-class swimmer having no pool? (1,4,3,2,5)
A FISH OUT OF WATER – A (top-class) FISH (swimmer) OUT OF WATER (having no pool?)
3 Found out how to be erudite (7)
LEARNED – double def.
4 Withdrew / to be seen by the doctor again (9)
RETREATED – double def.
5 Flag early morning departure of northern bird (7)
JACKDAW – JACK (flag) DAW[n] (early morning departure of northern)
6 Mother once caught black snake (5)
MAMBA – MAMA (mother once) around (caught) B (black)
7 Master in sonar made out boat propeller (7)
OARSMAN – MA (master) in an anagram (made out) of SONAR
8 Criminal gang posed with working people in kids’ sporting event (3-3-5,4)
EGG-AND-SPOON RACE – an anagram (criminal) of GANG POSED followed by ON (working) RACE (people)
15 Providing relief for soldiers’ condition before passing on (9)
REMEDYING – REME (soldiers) DYING (condition before passing on)
17 Discover some of Montreal is extraordinary (7)
REALISE – contained in (some of) ‘montREAL IS Extraordinary’
18 English company has money problem without Europe’s financial organisation (7)
ECONOMY – E (English) CO (company) plus an anagram (problem) of MON[e]Y (problem … without Europe)
Unfortunately E isn’t a recognised abbreviation for ‘Europe’ but it is for European which could have been substituted without significantly affecting the surface.
20 One of the undead in endless primeval dance (7)
VAMPIRE – an anagram (dance) of PRIMEVA[l] (endless primeval)
22 Deer bulk up a bit to produce young (5)
BREED – hidden (a but) reversal (up) in ‘DEER Bulk’
Thanks Hectence, and for stepping in, Gaufrid
Sound Quiptic. I think I would have just said “a swimmer” in 2d (instead of “top-class”), and I wouldn’t have put in “condition” in 15d, but these are very minor points.
Thanks to Gaufrid and Hectence
I think the “condition” in 15d is ME
I think that 15down is RE (soldiers) + ME (condition – myalgic encephalomyelitis – cf chronic fatigue syndrome) + DYING (passing on).
Thanks to Hectence and Gaufrid.
In 15d, might “soldiers” be the more usual RE (for Royal Engineers), with “condition” being ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome)?
Thank you, Hectence, and Gaufrid for stepping in.
If it is RE + ME, that makes it a poor clue for a Quiptic, as Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is a valid corps of the British Army. I think Gaufrid’s DYING = “condition before passing on” is better, but DYING is also just “passing on”.
Isn’t 10a misconstructed? I know that “without” can mean “outside of”, but then surely we should put AG outside of MIRE, not the other way around.
I parsed 15d as Dansar, anotherAndrew, and Geoff did. I didn’t actually know ME as an abbreviation for a disease, but I inferred that there must be such a thing. Now that I see Gaufrid’s parsing, I like it better.
I don’t see that “once” is needed for either the surface or the cryptic reading of 6d. Am I missing something?
On the whole, I didn’t think this was up to Hectence’s usual high standard. My impression is that the cluing for a Quiptic should be less loose than this.
Thanks to muffin@5 for that link. I’m not sure if I ever knew that that was their proper title. It seems that setters should have been indicating RE by “old soldiers” or some such device for quite a while.
Dabsar @7
REME is separate from the Royal Engineers.
Sorry – Dansar!
Apologies to Dansar @2 and anotherAndrew@3: I must have taken too long to compose my comment @4!
Hello and thank Hectence and Gaufrid for the crossword and the explanations. I have a question about abbreviations and how I can recognise them. In this crossword there are the following abbreviations:-
1. C=Around.
2. I = Figure.
3.W = Wife and With.
4. P = Quietly ( I understand this one)
5. O = Old.
6. L = Lake.
7. Fr = Brother (Get it).
8. Y = Yard.
A = Top Class (Understand).
B = Black.
E = English and Europe or European.
I guess my question is how can I recognise a word as an abbreviation, I understand P (musical reference and FR abbreviation of friar) However Y for Yard or W for Wife or When seems very unspecific. Not sure anyone can help other than to say you have to do them to understand them. If that is it, so be it. However, if there is a “rule” about abbreviations can someone enlighten me?
Really appreciate all the comments and help in the blog.
Martin @11
The general ‘rule’ for abbreviations is that they must appear in one of the usual references – Chambers, Collins or Oxford. Chambers has the most abbreviations but unfortunately doesn’t describe how they came about or where they are/were used.
There are two ways of getting to know the various abbreviations used in cryptic crosswords. One would be to go through Chambers , read the list of abbreviations under each letter and hope that at least some of them are retained in your memory. The other is to spend many years solving a large number of cryptics and checking Chambers if you suspect that part of the wordplay is an abbreviation. However, having been solving cryptics for 55 years (with an average of 3 per day for the last 20+) I still occasionally come across an abbreviation that I haven’t met before, so there will always be something new to learn.
Gaufrid@12. Many thanks for your reply. It is very much appreciated. I will have a look at Chambers. I looked online and found a reference to a book called “XWD A dictionary of crossword abbreviations” by Michael Kindred and Derrick Knight. It looks very interesting. Again many thanks for your help.