Thanks to Hectence for a puzzle befitting the Quiptic tag. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Difficult time after baby’s head is delivered (7)
BROUGHT : [ROUGH(difficult/unpleasant, as in “I had a rough time in school”) + T(abbrev. for “time”) + placed after(after) 1st letter of(…’s head) “baby“.
5 Leaves fellow changing oil to get on (7)
FOLIAGE : F(abbrev. for “Fellow”) + anagram of(changing) OIL + AGE(to get on, say, in years).
10 Man is one of those I’ll report (4)
ISLE : Homophone of(… report) “I’ll“.
Defn: … islands; this one is in the Irish Sea.
11 Tory’s contribution to party flyer (10)
BLUEBOTTLE : BLUE(a Tory/a supporter of the Conservative Party, whose political colour is blue) + BOTTLE(usually, of wine, brought by a guest as his/her contribution to the party/get-together).
12 Evening with film stars ahead (6)
SUNSET : ET(the Spielberg film with the extra-terrestrial main character) placed after(… ahead) SUNS(stars in the universe similar to our sun).
13 Old seabird’s regularly able to get outside (8)
EXTERNAL : EX-(prefix signifying “old”/formerly) + TERN(a seabird) + 1st and 3rd letters of(regularly) “able“.
14 Camera set to show off some delights of Cornwall (5,4)
CREAM TEAS : Anagram of(… to show off) CAMERA SET.
16 Some of meze’s typically full of beans (5)
ZESTY : Hidden in(Some of) “meze’s typically“.
17 Holiday snap (5)
BREAK : Double defn: 1st: … away from work.
19 Challenged wicked superhero (9)
DAREDEVIL : DARED(challenged someone to take a risk) + EVIL(wicked).
23 Dance with the French chaps in fine company (8)
FLAMENCO : [LA(the article “the” in French) + MEN(chaps/fellows)] contained in(in) [F(abbrev. for “fine”) + CO(abbrev. for “company”/a commercial firm)].
24 Spotted cat in car (6)
JAGUAR : Double defn: 2: … made by the British multinational company, Jaguar Land Rover.
… what the clue says, though not a jaguar nor a Jaguar.
26 In St Lucia you are travelling with care (10)
CAUTIOUSLY : Anagram of(… are travelling) ST LUCIA YOU.
27 Quietly set up goody-goody (4)
PRIG : P(abbrev. for “piano”/a musical direction to play quietly/softly) + RIG(to set up/to put together a device, equipment, or structure, as in “to rig a booby trap”).
Defn: A … who is unbearably self-righteous and conceited.
28 The heartless rich I suspect to be more irritating (7)
ITCHIER : Anagram of(… suspect) [“The” minus its middle letter(heartless) + RICH I].
29 Poem about unknown ship on year-long journey (7)
ODYSSEY : ODE(a lyric poem) containing(about) [Y(symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics) + SS(abbrev. for “steam ship”, used in the name for such a ship)] plus(on) Y(abbrev. for “year”).
Down
2 Soldier’s prompt resistance brings someone to get us out of trouble (7)
RESCUER : RE(abbrev. for a Royal Engineer, a soldier in the engineering branch of the military) + CUE(a prompt/a signal to indicate to, say, actors or performers to start their performance, speech, etc.) + R(symbol for electrical resistance in physics).
3 Employers backing unions’ resurgence to some extent (5)
USERS : Hidden in(… to some extent) reversal of(backing) “unions’ resurgence“.
4 Usual practice to have volunteers set up living area (7)
HABITAT : HABIT(a usual practice) plus(to have) reversal of(… set up, in a down clue) TA(abbrev. for the Territorial Army, consisting of volunteers).
6 Goes round renovated bistro (6)
ORBITS : Anagram of(renovated) BISTRO.
Defn: …/travels around a specific point
7 Step in when Bury against Everton ends ultimately in violence (9)
INTERVENE : INTER(to bury, say, a corpse) + V(abbrev. for “versus”/against, as with one competitive team against another) + 1st and last letters of(… ends) “Everton” + last letter of(ultimately in) “violence“.
8 Good books contain everything top-class and noble (7)
GALLANT : [G(abbrev. for “good”) + NT(abbrev. for the New Testament, the collection of books in the Bible)] containing() ALL(everything) + A(letter representing the best sort/top-class).
9 Sort of quite like morning by river, still and noiseless (5,2,1,5)
QUIET AS A MOUSE : Anagram of(Sort of) QUITE + AS(like/similar to) + AM(abbrev. for “ante meridiem”/the morning part of the day) plus(by) OUSE(the river in N. Yorkshire).
15 May watch a special game at other team’s ground (4,5)
AWAY MATCH : Anagram of(… special) MAY WATCH A.
18 Lease covers to become sick, retired and dependent (7)
RELIANT : RENT(to lease, say, property) containing(covers) reversal of(…, retired) AIL(to become sick/ill).
Defn: …, as in “to be dependent on someone”).
20 Liked to see Joey jumping around in goal (7)
ENJOYED : Anagram of(… jumping around) JOEY contained in(in) END(a goal/an objective).
21 Dream home in picture (7)
IMAGINE : IN(at home/not out) contained in(in) IMAGE(a picture).
22 Money received once I’m working (6)
INCOME : Anagram of(… working) ONCE I’M.
25 Stares open-mouthed at girl taking on monkeys (5)
GAPES : G(abbrev. for “girl”, as in “gf”/girlfriend?) plus(taking on) APES(primates/”monkeys” in general use, though apes are larger-sized than monkeys).
… not just any girl.
Beautifully done by Hectence, and a pangram to boot! Too many ticks to count and just right for a Quiptic.
This was a nice, easy Quiptic.
Thanks Hectence and scchua.
Thanks Hectence and scchua
Lovely puzzle. Favourites were FOLIAGE and INTERVENE.
Not so keen on JAGUAR – not just for the “in”, but also because the car make was named after the cat.
23A. It should be LA (in place of LE) in the parsing.
Thanks VDS Prasad. Typo corrected.
Almost perfect Quiptic in my opinion. Pity that some answers had less than 50% checkers but I guess this was balanced by a few with more than 50%. I had to use a word finder for DAREDEVIL, although nothing wrong with the clue.
Thanks Hectence and scchua.
just thought I’d pass on the info that Hectence appears with her debut puzzle in today’s FT cryptic as Zamorca
Just what a Quiptic should be in my opinion.
I didn’t know that cream tea was associated with Cornwall, so I learned something today.
I was wondering whether anyone would complain about equating apes with monkeys. Flitwick is exactly right in my opinion to point out that there is a taxonomic distinction but not to worry about it because the two terms do overlap in non-scientific parlance. And I say this as someone who in other contexts proudly wears the label of “pedant”.
Thanks to Hectence and Flitwick!
Ted @8 Adam Rutherford (a geneticist, presenter of BBC’s Inside Science) dived into the apes vs monkeys debates. He pointed out that, from a professional biologist perspective, the terms do in fact overlap. Whilst pedants might try to argue that apes have no tails etc, there is not actually consistent usage of the terms even in formal scientific literature, making the equivalence perfectly acceptable. I guess there is no such thing as a fish, an ape or a monkey!
TheZed @9
You are quite correct that, cladistically, there is no such thing as a fish, as “fish” is defined by exclusion. The clade of monkeys includes apes (and humans, though it shouldn’t be necessary to point out that humans are in the ape subdivision of the monkey clade).
About eight months since I started trying to solve the Quiptic each week and it’s all beginning to make sense at last!! Thank you, Hectence and Scchua.
Thanks for the ape-monkey information.
I just noticed that I thanked the wrong person. I scrolled up to the top of the page to see who the blogger was, but my eye caught the name of the setter for the previous blog entry, which was right at the top. I thought it was odd that the blogger’s name was one I’d never seen before. Anyway, thanks to sschua!
Is it just me or was the ‘to show’ extraneous in 14a? Surely the anagram is ‘Camera set’, and the indicator ‘off’. If it was just for a smoother surface I’d suggest it barely succeeded! Overall enjoyed it though. Fun and well pitched Quiptic.
Thanks to both. Now that I have finally got round to doing this puzzle, I enjoyed it. But I, too, had to check to see if Cornwall had CREAM TEAS. Just right for the Quiptic spot.
Thanks so much for the blogging. Minor thing: you’ve missed out the S from the [‘s] in your parsing of 2d
Great crossword and blog – thanks both!
I looked up “bottle” in Chambers to confirm, and gives one definition of a buskers take (of contributions).
I completed all but the NW before I made any progress on the NW clues. ISLE was my last one in as I could not parse 10 at all! But mustn’t grumble as I have only been doing quiptics for about two weeks. I struggled with 14, not knowing much about Cornwall, but I had an A in each word from the crossers and I thought it might be an anagram of the first two words of the clue. BREAK was good misdirection; my favourites were DAREDEVIL and ODYSSEY.
Thanks to Hectense and scchua for this one.