Thank you to Hectence for this tricky Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Luxury extension can perhaps ruin housing (12)
EXTRAVAGANCE : EXT(abbrev. for “extension”) + [anagram of(… perhaps) CAN contained in(… housing) RAVAGE(to ruin/to cause extensive damage).
8. Wine seller‘s very trendy having the Queen on flipping books! (7)
VINTNER : V(abbrev. for “very”) + IN(trendy/fashionable) plus(having) [ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, the Queen) placed after(on) reversal of(flipping) NT(abbrev. for the New Testament, the collection of books in the Bible)].
9. Nowadays on edge about lover (7)
ADMIRER : AD(abbrev. for “Anno Domini”, the time period after the birth of Christ/nowadays) + reversal of(… about) [RE(on/with reference to) + RIM(the upper or outer edge of an object)].
11. Harp on about fragment found in wreck (3,2,2)
RUB IT IN : BIT(a fragment/a small bit) contained in(found in) RUIN(a wreck/the remains, say, of a building after being destroyed).
12. Sad when leader’s taken away to be thrown out (7)
EJECTED : “dejected”(sad/down in the dumps) minus its 1st letter(when leader’s taken away).
13. Push church seating back to accommodate end of cortege (5)
SWEEP : Reversal of(… back) PEWS(church seating in the form of long benches placed in rows) containing(to accommodate) last letter of(end of) “cortege“.
14. Kept back popular book (2,7)
IN RESERVE : IN(popular/fashionable) + RESERVE(to book/to order in advance, as with theatre seats or restaurant tables).
16. Give short change in error (9)
OVERSIGHT : Anagram of(… change) GIVE SHORT.
19. Seed diet oddly not for songbird (5)
PIPIT : PIP(a seed found in a fruit) + “diet” minus its 1st and 3rd letters(oddly not).
21. Hard to follow abridged article from beginning to end (7)
THROUGH : ROUGH(hard/demanding, as in “to expect a rough time in 2021”) placed after(to follow) “the”(the definite article in grammar) minus its last letter(abridged …).
23. Outside broadcast follows golf tournament (4-3)
OPEN-AIR : AIR(to broadcast programmes over the radio or television) placed after(follows) OPEN(a golf tournament with no restrictions on who may compete – with a minimum standard of course).
24. Play tune by artist originally labelled ‘unremarkable‘ (7)
NEUTRAL : Anagram of(Play) TUNE plus(by) RA(abbrev. for a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, an artist) + 1st letter of(originally) “labelled“.
Defn: Having no strongly marked characteristic or features, as in “a neutral colour”.
25. State has endlessly dry area with dam in the middle (7)
ARIZONA : [“arid”(dry of water) + “zone”(a demarcated area)] minus their respective last letters, (endlessly …) plus(with) middle letter of(… in the middle) “dam“.
26. Novel appears heartlessly mean about journalist (12)
NEWSPAPERMAN : NEW(novel/original) + anagram of(… about) [APPEARS + “mean” minus its inner letters(heartlessly …)].
Down
1. Elizabeth knights old boy, long having earned top honour (7)
ENNOBLE : E(abbrev. for “Elizabeth”, as in “QE” or “ER”) + N,N(twice the abbrev. for “knight” in chess notation) + OB(abbrev. for “old boy”, a former pupil of a school or university, as in “the old boy network in politics”) + L(abbrev. for “long”, in US usage) plus(having) 1st letter of(… top, in a down clue) “earned“.
Defn: To …
2. Be grateful husband’s abandoned cap and jumper from the 1970s (4,3)
TANK TOP : “thank”(to be grateful for/to express gratitude) minus(…’s abandoned) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”) + TOP(to cap/to be superior to).
3. Organising fishing, gutted after young salmon head off (9)
ARRANGING : “angling”(fishing with a rod and line) minus its middle letter(gutted) placed below(after, in a down clue) “parr”(a young salmon with a distinctive colouring) minus its 1st letter(head off).
4. Top grade carbon copy’s acquired quickly (5)
APACE : [A(letter signifying the best/top grade/quality) + C(symbol for the chemical element, carbon)] contained in(…’s acquired) APE(to copy/to imitate).
5. Rambling work emails get skipped initially (7)
AIMLESS : Anagram of(work) EMAILS plus(get) 1st letter of(… initially) “skipped“.
6. Museum manager‘s almost rude about schedule (7)
CURATOR : “curt”(rude/terse) minus its last letter(almost …) + reversal of(about) ROTA(a schedule of when each of a group has to do what).
7. Now and then, during poetic evening, gets extremely mushy about love (5,2,5)
EVERY SO OFTEN : E’EN(poetically, a contraction of “evening”, that part of the day) containing(during … gets) [VERY(extremely/to a high degree) + SOFT(mushy/squashed, as with “mushy peas”) containing(about) O(letter representing 0/”love” in tennis scores)].
10. Special celebration for Socialist landlord, always pursuing end of need (3,6,3)
RED LETTER DAY : RED(Socialist/one with left-wing views) + LETTER(a landlord/one who lets out property) + [AY(always/forever) placed below(pursuing/going after, in a down clue) last letter of(end of) “need“].
15. Reasons to control allowance of beer (9)
RATIONALE : RATION(to control allowance of/to fix a specific amount that is given out to each person in a group) + ALE(beer/a brew).
17. On way to thrashing after Everton edges second penalty (2,5)
ENROUTE : [ROUT(a trashing/an utter defeat by opponents) placed below(after, in a down clue) 1st and last letters of(… edges) “Everton“] + 2nd letter of(second) “penalty“.
18. With team short, reserve comes on and equalises (7)
SQUARES : “squad”(a team/a group working together in, say, the police or military) minus its last letter(short) plus(With … comes on) RES(abbrev. for “reserve”).
19. Rep confused old lady, pocketing first insurance payment (7)
PREMIUM : Anagram of(… confused) REP + MUM(informal term for one’s mother/old lady) containing(pocketing) 1st letter of(first) “insurance“.
20. Strategy also included a group of soldiers (7)
PLATOON : PLAN(a strategy/a plan of action to achieve an aim) containing(… included) TOO(also/as well).
22. Act badly, losing lead in a board game (5)
HALMA : HAM(to act badly/to overact) containing(… in) 1st letter of(… lead) “losing” + A.
A more familiar variant of the game:
That was tricky. Too tricky for a Quiptic indeed. Many thanks for the explanations, Sschua, too many ox which I needed, and thanks also to Hectence for the challenge.
Thanks Hectence and scchua
Yes, quite hard. I missed a couple of parsings. Favourite OVERSIGHT.
Your explanation of CURATOR looks a bit garbled, scchua. Isn’t it CUR(t),then a reversal of ROTA?
btw it’s a pangram.
muffin, thanks. Blog corrected. I was a bit put off by the positioning of the reversal indicator.
Thanks to Hectence and Scchua. In 6d CURATOR, I think you meant CURT minus its last letter (the blog says 1st).
Hectence is very fond of a pangram, I seem to recall.
Some smart clues in this one, although shading on the hard side for a Quiptic. I thought the simple wordplay in the likes of PLATOON, TANK TOP, and RATIONALE was best.
Re 2d.
Had to laugh thinking about Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlwQVElQcIk&ab_channel=BBCStudios
Good puzzle, but hard for a so-called Quiptic.
Failed 22 down – never heard of HALMA – and could not even parse it after revealing the answer.
Did not parse CURATOR but guessed it might have something to do with CURT.
Liked EVERY SO OFTEN, ENNOBLE.
Thanks, Hectence and scchua
@steveb Yes, that is a much better illustration of a 70s tank top.
The illustration used is gratuitous and, for me, spoils an otherwise helpful and useful blog.
This is more the king of thing we all begged our mothers to knit for us https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Tank-top-in-Wash-n-Wear-Double-Crepe-Superwash-D.K.-or-Double-Knitting-Wool-Tricel-Nylon-Double-Crepe-Wash-n-Wear-Crepe-4-ply-Fontein-Crepe-Wool-4-ply-Courtelle-Crepe-4-ply-by-Sirdar-Published-1970s.jpg
Definitely on the hard side for a Quiptic but some excellent surfaces with EXTRAVAGANCE, my favourite. New word HALMA. Ta Hectence & scchua. I really hope your pic of a tank top doesn’t bring out the snowflakes in protest 🙂
As other have commented that was a bit more than a gentle start to the day but much appreciated. Halma a new one for me although I do recall playing this many years ago.
I think your parsing of 5D is slightly off Scchua – I had it as an anagram of emails together with the s from skipped (skipped initially).
Thanks to both Hectence and Scchua.
Thanks matematico. Blog corrected.
I meant to say that I’m not convinced that E standing for “Elizabeth” in ER means that it’s OK for it to stand for Elizabeth by itself. It’s the old “does BBC mean that it’s OK for B to stand for broadcasting” argument.
Thanks DuncM. Strike 3 for me!
I’m glad others found this tricky, as I struggled a bit, too. A few where you find the definition, see it fits and then parse afterwards.
More often than not, I come to this site having spent the lion’s share of the day wrestling with the crossword – only to find loads of clever souls have already completed it with ease, many declaring they must have been on the setter’s wavelength. And I yearned to attain their olympian intellectual heights. Well, today I myself must have been on Hectence’s wavelength, for the grid almost seemed to fill itself, with several write-ins. And now that I’ve experienced it, I have to say I much prefer a slower solve – for today’s pleasure was over far too quickly!!
I twigged a pangram might be in the offing fairly early, and it definitely helped me arrive at SQUARES and EJECTED, with RED LETTER DAY and RATIONALE making me grin.
As did TANK TOP, though Scchua, whilst I have no objections at all to your choice of illustration – all the same, if the things had generally looked like that they’d have been far more popular. The ones I recall were knitted, loose-fitting, and often in clashing lurid colours.
Thanks for the blog, Scchua – and thank you Hectence for the fleeting fun. No doubt I’ll be back to a long hard slog tomorrow….
Like many I found this harder than previous quiptics (and looks like the cryptic is also going to be on the hard side since it is Nutmeg). With some even after getting the answers from the description and crosses I couldn’t parse them. The most annoying for me was HALMA which I got with a bit of help but even though I could see the HAM still couldn’t parse it – and it is so obvious. duh.
Enjoyed it anyway so thanks to Hectence and to Scchua for the much needed help parsing.
Lin @ 8
Your sirdar pattern was spot on. When I look back at the things we thought were so trendy to wear, it does make me smile – wonder if the same will be true of today’s youngsters.
[And I have just remembered I knitted a waistcoat which when buttoned up was just like a tank top. It had four different colours and I was very proud of it – the moths liked it too]
I hesitated for a long time before finally putting in HALMA, thinking surely nobody remembers this. Thank you Hectence and Scchua for happy memories of playing the 16 by 16 square version with my grandmother in the 70s, over a glass of sherry, wearing an Argyll tank top, of course.
She also had an antediluvian version of BUCCANEER in the games cupboard, which I recreated last year with paper ships, beads for treasure and pieces of sawn-off wooden spoon for the barrels of rum. Her CLUEDO had lead pipe which was made of lead !
Happy days!
Thanks for the late afternoon exercise Hectence and the explanations scchua. Yes, it was tricky but everything was gettable. My problem was with ENNOBLE, not getting the answer but the patchwork nature of the clue. Far too many one letter from here and another from there, so I agree with the other comments about “E” meaning Elizabeth. Yes, you can try to justify it by pointing to expressions like ER, but that specifically means the queen and is the whole term, not just the E and R from separate places – they go together.
I had all the constituent parts for 22D, but had never heard of the game.
Again, rather hard for the Quiptic, with a few tricky bits of wordplay, misdirection, and some slightly obscure knowledge needed to parse if (mostly) not to solve. Perhaps the Guardian needs a resolution to better cater for its newer solvers…
I’d have enjoyed this more were it badged as a regular cryptic.
Thanks to Hectence and Scchua.