Thanks to Beale for this enjoyable Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Put one’s foot down when presented with energy charge (8)
STAMPEDE : STAMPED(put one’s foot down heavily, on the ground or on something on the ground) plus(when presented with) E(symbol for “energy” in physics).
5. Made up for being poorly prepared (6)
OFFSET : OFF(being poorly/not feeling well) + SET(prepared/ready to go).
Defn: …/compensated for, in part or wholly.
9. Goodbye said to old rogue on Tube returning (6-3)
TOODLE-PIP : TO + anagram of(… rogue) OLD plus(on) reversal of(… returning) PIPE(a tube/a hollow cylinder).
11. Girl, I gathered, finds something creepy in the forest (5)
LIANA : LANA(a girl’s name) containing(… gathered) I.
Defn: A creeping vine in the forest.
Who’s creepy?…
12. Bias against programme in black and white, for instance (6,6)
COLOUR SCHEME : COLOUR(as a verb, to bias/to influence someone against, or for, a particular choice) plus(against) SCHEME(a programme/a large-scale plan for achieving something).
Defn: …, if one considers, debatably, black and white as colours.
15. Run-in with leading girl band (4)
RING : R(abbrev. for “run” in cricket scores) + IN plus(with) 1st letter of(leading) “girl“.
16. Hardy heroine receives letters from all ten, without a single gift! (10)
TALENTLESS : TESS(heroine in the Thomas Hardy novel, “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”) containing(receives) anagram of(letters from) ALL TEN.
18. Insect damage is found on backstreet, reveal researchers (10)
SCIENTISTS : Anagram of(… damage) INSECT + IS plus(found on) reversal of(back…) ST(abbrev. for “street”).
19. Irritation of one in short sleepover (4)
PAIN : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(in) reversal of(…over) NAP(a short sleep/forty winks).
Defn: … as in “a pain in the neck/ass”.
21. Frowning, one of Fab Four heard brother was in debt (6-6)
BEETLE-BROWED : Homophone of(… heard) “Beatle”(one of/a member of the Beatles, nicknamed the Fab Four) + BR(abbrev. for “brother”) + OWED(was in debt to someone).
24. New unopened volumes found in hiding places (5)
NOOKS : N(abbrev. for “new”) + “books”(bound volumes of printed sheets) minus its 1st letter(unopened …).
25. On the way out, concluded careful inspection (5-4)
GOING-OVER : GOING(on the way out/in the process of departing) + OVER(concluded/ended).
26. Pacific islands import south Indian food (6)
SAMOSA : SAMOA(country consisting of a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean) containing(import) S(abbrev. for “south”).
27. Taken aback from the outset, having been in charge (8)
STARTLED : START(the outset/the beginning) + LED(having been in charge/responsible for showing the way).
Down
1. Place is upside-down by half-term (4)
SITE : Reversal of(… upside-down, in a down clue) IS plus(by) 1st 2 letters of(half-) “term“.
2. All eager for a try before start of game (4)
AGOG : A + GO(a try/an attempt at) plus(before) 1st letter of(start of) “game“.
3. Ghastly look of some municipal lorries (6)
PALLOR : Hidden in(some) “municipal lorries“.
4. No one should meddle with this internationally sensitive case (10,3)
DIPLOMATIC BAG : Cryptic defn: A case/pouch, legally protected against being tampered/meddled with, used to transport documents/items amongst diplomatic missions and their home government – material sensitive to international relations.
6. Delight when life model goes to town (8)
FELICITY : Anagram of(… model) LIFE plus(goes to) CITY(a large town).
7. Son confused as mice ate feline (7,3)
SIAMESE CAT : S(abbrev. for “son”) + anagram of(confused) AS MICE ATE.
8. Reaching across tabletop, partygoers spilt gin (10)
TRAVERSING : 1st letter of(…top, in a down clue) “table” + RAVERS(partygoers/those at a rave/a lively event involving dancing and drinking) + anagram of(spilt) GIN.
10. One demands the best — often priciest — variety (13)
PERFECTIONIST : Anagram of(… variety) OFTEN PRICIEST.
13. Christian symbol remains a reminder of mortality (10)
CROSSBONES : CROSS(a symbol/emblem of Christianity) + BONES(remains/what’s left after the meat is gone).
Answer: …, or “skull and crossbones”, symbolising death (or danger), serving to remind one of one’s mortality.
14. It keeps one going when all at sea (6,4)
ENGINE ROOM : Cryptic defn: That which holds/keeps the machine that is operating/going in a craft at sea, literally.
17. Scrutiny of very particular year sister joined (8)
ANALYSIS : ANAL(very particular/being obsessively orderly and meticulous, perhaps to the point of being a pain in somebody else’s ass) + Y(abbrev. for “year”) plus(… joined) SIS(short for “sister”).
20. Clerical assistant gets right up to the margin (6)
VERGER : R(abbrev. for “right”) placed below(up to, in a down clue) VERGE(the margin/the edge).
Defn: …/an officer in a church assisting the clergy by acting as a caretaker and attendant.
22. Shape of both clutch and headlight (4)
OVAL : OVA(a collection of which, fertilised at the same time, is a clutch) plus(and) 1st letter of(head…) “light“.
“both” is for the surface, as both clutch and headlight are found in a car.
23. Hard work is pointless — but it’s where setters begin (4)
GRID : “grind”(hard work/toil) minus(is …less) “n”(abbrev. for “north”, a compass point).
Defn: …, crossword setters, that is.
Don’t you just love quirks like toodle-pip, or toodle-oo as some say in Oz. And creepy meaning ‘creeper-like’ was quirky too. Very apt pic of Ringo, Scchua (does he remind anyone else of a certain Svengali-like character?). And ova for clutch was canny. Nice quiptic, ta Beale and Scchua.
Liked TALENTLESS, SCIENTISTS, GRID
Thanks, B+S
Not quite on Beale’s wavelength thus morning. I got there but found that pretty tricky, though once I had the answers I was not sure why… The exception was LIANA which I dud mot know (that was a first for a Quiptic I think). Thanks to Scchua for explaining and to Beale for the challenge!
[[U and I are too close together for my fingers… Sorry]]
An interesting solve from Beale – started off easy, but I needed the full range of crossers to fill in some of the harder answers. A Quiptic-plus, I would suggest.
TALENTLESS made me smile (perhaps because I had just read the Piers Morgan interview), but ANALYSIS and SCIENTISTS were my favourites.
10 was my favourite in this entertaining Quiptic. As sschua mentioned, one might quibble about B&W being a colour scheme as black is the absence of colour.
14 had me trying to think of an alternative term for seasickness/mal de mer at first till I had a crosser or two.
I was convinced 14d involved some kind of anagram of one going, which held me up for a while. Also had LEDGER instead or VERGER. I think anal in the sense of obsessive comes from Freud’s stages of development.
I’ve just commented on the Cryptic blog that this was significantly more challenging than the Cryptic, so it literally saved an otherwise fairly empty crossword day … and I even had to come here to confirm the parsing of a couple of clues.
I also had ledger but see that VERGER makes more sense. This was fun and more challenging than the cryptic. PERFECTIONIST fav clue over both crosswords [the surface esp amused as I tend to have champagne tastes on beer money].
Thanks to Beale and sschua.
I agree with Boffo and rodshaw that this was tougher than the usual Quiptic. I had a rough time with it and didn’t especially enjoy the solve, but looking back I see that it was quite well set. In addition to those mentioned by Michelle, I liked BEETLE-BROWED as well as SIAMESE CAT for its amusing surface. Like Petert @7, I had LEDGER at 20d (it almost works). Thanks to Beale and scchua.
I agree – tough and too obcure for a Quiptic. Today’s Cryptic took half the time. Isn’t the job of the Quiptic to be easier?
Another LEDGER here. I can only echo copland smith @11. Even seeing some of scchua’s parsing, I am left doubtful.
I’m glad it’s not just me that found this harder than the Cryptic! I failed on COLOUR SCHEME, not being able to see colour as bias (getting stuck on colour bar), not to mention B&W as colour! There are a lot of tricky definitions and ambiguities, though most of them seemed much less daunting once the answer appeared from the crossers.
I saw OVAL as the shape of both (a clutch of) eggs and of an eye (headlight?), so completely missed sschua’s (obviously correct) parsing.
Felt a bit weird for a quiptic – I’d frequently find half the word was obvious (eg spilt gin – that’ll be ING on the end then) and the other half would be quite the grind. I think I gave up on the last Beale quiptic I tried though, so at least there’s that!
Thought PERFECTIONIST was the highlight here.
Special tick for scientist.
I also liked colour scheme which I took to be an “and lit”. If you have a bias against programmes in black and white then you might have a scheme to add colour. Thus, no issue with black and/or white not being colours.
I had the opposite experience to Boffo, with painfully slow progress for the first half – and then answers seemed to come in a rush. I’ve no idea why. It did indeed seem harder than most Quiptics, but then I’ve suspected for a while that the “easier on Mondays” thing has more or less been dropped.
BEETLE-BROWED and GRID made me grin, I enjoyed the neatness of SITE – and TALENTLESS was satisfying too. (It’s always long-suffering Tess, isn’t it, when Hardy heroines crop up. Poor old Bathsheba never gets a look-in.). Thanks to Scchua for the blog – and Beale for the fun.
Black and white is fine as a colour scheme – think the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady! Btw, this was an excellent crossword, thank you Beale. I’d like to see you more often.
Very enjoyable Quiptic – quite difficult, but none the worse for it. I, too, would like to see more from Beale more regularly. Particularly liked TALENTLESS. A sign of our times? :-(( many thanks scchua
Thanks to Beale and the estimable sschua for the as always distracting blog.
This was just fine for me as a Quiptic. The eyebrows twitched over COLOUR SCHEME and ENGINE ROOM but I found forgiveness in my heart. Well, my heart of hearts if I must since I got them but they were impossible without the crossers – am I wrong?
11 didn’t need the ‘I gathered’, it could have been a straightforward double definition.
Great puzzle and blog, thanks both. Quite hard, I thought, with some excellent clever/witty moments. All very enjoyable.