Thank you to Hectence. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7. Cutters with ship going round Ross Island cape capsized (8)
SCISSORS : SS(abbrev. for “steamship” in ships’ names) containing(going round) reversal of(… capsized) [Ross + I(abbrev. for “island”) + C(abbrev. for “cape” as in names of such geographical features in maps) ].
9. Toxic shock after ecstasy is unusual (6)
EXOTIC : Anagram of(… shock) TOXIC placed after(after) E(abbrev. for the drug, ecstasy).
10. United holding lead in Championship previously (4)
ONCE : ONE(united/as a whole) containing(holding) 1st letter of(lead in) “Championship“.
11. Patronise lecture by Spooner’s municipal party? (4,4,2)
TALK DOWN TO : TALK(an informal lecture/speech) plus(by) Spoonerism of(Spooner’s) [“town”(municipal/relating to a town) “do”(a party/a social function) ].
12. Heading off unwell during test is crafty (6)
TRICKY : 1st letter deleted from(Heading off) “sick”(unwell/ill) contained in(during) TRY(to test/to subject to an ordeal).
14. Pudding seems not to be cooked (4,4)
ETON MESS : Anagram of(… to be cooked) SEEMS NOT.
Defn: …/a dessert.
… aka … 
15. Little girl’s dog carrying lead, oddly comical (7)
JOCULAR : JO(a short form of/little “Josephine”, a girl’s name) + CUR(an aggressive or scruffy dog, such as a mongrel) containing(carrying) 1st and 3rd letters of(…, oddly) “lead“.
17. Opposed to profit in a way (7)
AGAINST : GAIN(to profit/to obtain a financial benefit) contained in(in) [A + ST(abbrev. for “street”/a way/a thoroughfare) ].
20. Hit on perfect comeback to sweet-talk (6,2)
BUTTER UP : BUTT(to hit/strike against with the head) plus(on) reversal of(… comeback) PURE(perfect/unspoiled).
Defn: …/to flatter or praise someone to get his/her help.
22. Tackle occasional roguery with severity (6)
RIGOUR : RIG(tackle/equipment for a specific purpose) + 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(occasional) “roguery“.
23. Fine nights at sea with angling gear (7,3)
FISHING NET : Anagram of(… at sea) FINE NIGHTS.
24. Lift‘s free key (4)
RIDE : RID(to free/to strip off an unwanted thing) plus(with) E(one of the major keys in music).
Defn: …, as in “he’s giving me a ride home”.
25. A last letter has girl and English boy describing love in summerhouse (6)
GAZEBO : [A + Z(last letter in the English alphabet) ] contained in(has … describing) G,E,B(abbrevs., respectively, for “girl” plus(and) “English boy“) + O(letter representing 0/love in tennis scores).
I take “G” and “B” as abbreviations in texting (unless a 1st letter indicator is missing?).
26. Development happens here when ship enters dead space (4,4)
DARK ROOM : ARK(a ship or boat, such as Noah’s Ark) contained in(enters) [ D(abbrev. for “dead”) + ROOM(space/an unoccupied area).
Defn: …, ie. development of photographic film … and perhaps more:
Down
1. Sequence of possible events with cranes moving satellite (8)
SCENARIO : Anagram of(… moving) CRANES + IO(a satellite/moon of Jupiter).
Defn: …, as in a novel, play or film.
2. Land in the water when one’s left suspended in the middle (4)
ISLE : I(Roman numeral for “one”)‘S + L(abbrev. for “left”) + middle letter of(… in the middle) “suspended“.
3. Throw out unknown dignitary (6)
WORTHY : Anagram of(… out) Throw + Y(symbol for an unknown quantity, in maths).
4. Rashly, leader has point inserted in official record (8)
HEADLONG : HEAD(the leader/chief) plus(has) [ N(abbrev. for “north”, a compass point) contained in(inserted in) LOG(an official record/journal) ].
5. Leaving to collect small women’s group, not even mums, to take a dip (2,8)
GO SWIMMING : GOING(leaving/departing from) containing(to collect) [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + WI(abbrev. for the Women’s Institute, a group/organisation of women) + 2nd and 4th letters deleted from(not even) “mums“.
6. Opening ground, authorise ore to be extracted (6)
HIATUS : Anagram of(ground) [ “authorise” minus(… to be extracted) “ore” ].
Defn: A natural …/cleft in anatomy.
8. Vicar’s upset collecting one pound in coins (6)
SILVER : Reversal of(…’s upset, in a down clue) REV(form of address for a vicar)‘S containing(collecting) [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + L(or £, symbol for pound sterling) ].
Defn: …, collectively, made of, or looking like they’re made of, silver.
13. Try to get to sleep in nobleman’s pile, we hear (5,5)
COUNT SHEEP : COUNT(a nobleman, specifically a European one equivalent to an earl)‘S + homophone of(…, we hear) “heap”(a pile/collection of objects stacked on top of each other).
16. New matador runs around, haphazardly (2,6)
AT RANDOM : Anagram of(… runs around) [ N(abbrev. for “new”) + MATADOR ].
18. Military unit is one of four in southern front that’s shelled (8)
SQUADRON : QUAD(short for “quadruplet”, one of four children from the same mother in the same delivery) contained in(in) [ S(abbrev. for “southern”) + “front” minus its 1st and last letters(that’s shelled) ].
19. Unlocked desperate need to pursue work (6)
OPENED : Anagram of(desperate) NEED placed after(to pursue) OP(abbrev. for “opus”/a musical composition/work).
21. Chauffeur in a limousine’s shown place to go (6)
URINAL : Hidden in(…’s shown) “Chauffeur in a limousine“.
Defn: …/to urinate into.
22. Frightful rotter makes angry reply (6)
RETORT : Anagram of(Frightful) ROTTER.
24. Exceptional acceleration in luxury car with electric starter (4)
RARE : A(symbol for “acceleration”, in physics) contained in(in) RR(abbrev. for “Rolls-Royce”, a luxury car) plus(with) 1st letter of(… starter) “electric“.
… aka jocular juxtaposition, clever scchua …
Thank you scchua for your detailed and beautifully illustrated blog.
Too many single letter clues for my liking. Did like HIATUS and RETORT and FISHING NETS.
As is quite often the case, this was for me marginally more difficult than today’s cryptic. Is it really beyond the crossword editor to identify a clear difference in difficulty level for what are intended to be two distinct categories of puzzle?
Three specific clues elevated this above quiptic status in my view: the Spoonerism in TALK DOWN TO only covering part of the solution; the homophone in COUNT SHEEP similarly only covering part of the solution; and the anagram in HIATUS requiring the removal of letters from part of the clue. All of these would be perfectly reasonable in a regular cryptic but the quiptic is supposed to be suitable for beginners / developers, isn’t it?
Grumble over!
Anyway, thanks both 🙂
Rob T@3. Don’t have a problem with the Spoonerism only covering part of the solution in TALK DOWN TO, as the talk/lecture is clued and there is a question mark, which I don’t think is really needed.
COUNT SHEEP did make me have a second think, as the homophone is in the clue but not the answer, but have seen that before. It’s a visual thing in the end.
HIATUS is tricky, the grammar ‘ground’ before the anagrist, and the deduction. Maybe not fair as you say in a quiptic slot.
PDM @4 – oh, I got and parsed them all but just that think these are slightly more advanced ‘tricks’ than one should expect in a quiptic. I quite often come away from both G puzzles on a Monday thinking they’d been swapped around, but it’s not always so easy to articulate why. Today I could put my finger on it! 🙂
I too found this more challenging than the Cryptic, although I did solve and parse the lot. I liked the anagram for FISHING NETS, HIATUS and COUNT SHEEP, found ISLE and RARE a bit clunky.
Thank you to sschua and Hectence.
More interesting than the cryptic and lots of fun clues. The ‘s’ in ISLE is unaccounted for in your lovely blog.
Ta Hectence & scchua
I also found this harder than the cryptic. But the Pangram helped me get jocular!
But both were fun and I found they both worked well to introduce beginners to the joys of cryptics!
Thanks H and S
Didn’t see the pangram CanberraGirl@8 (I haven’t checked, take your word for it.) Maybe that’s why this crossword was (for me) less than satisfying.
Thanks Hectence, exemplary Quiptic as usual. And thanks for the blog, scchua.
Rob T @3 – If solving times are anything to go by, I found this considerably easier than the cryptic. This is probably a wavelength thing, different setters’ styles suiting different solvers. I get what you’re saying about the subtractive anagram being quite tricky for a Quiptic, but I thought it was very fairly indicated so perhaps a good introduction to that kind of clue for novices. But let’s not second guess – neither of us are novices, perhaps it’s best if we leave some genuine beginners to comment on such matters?
In any case, both were towards the easier end of the spectrum so I don’t think it really matters which one is the easier. The total time to do both for me was about half the time it to me do last week’s Brendan.
Haha, loved the images for Eton Mess! [And I am so glad that I do not have to listen to that ex-PM during this period of national mourning.]
I agree with RobT @3 in general. I often wonder about the editor’s reasoning although today I did not notice a big difference in difficulty between the two puzzles.
Liked DARK ROOM, URINAL, COUNT SHEEP, TRICKY.
Thanks, both.
Interesting comments. I don’t always manage to finish the Quiptic and found this one relatively straightforward to complete in one sitting. It is definitely a question of being on the setter’s wavelength, I think.
Thanks for explaining RON as front minus its outer (is there a typo above)? letters – I couldn’t see where that had come from, nor the E at the end of “isle”.
Widders @10 – interesting, and good point about wavelengths. By the way, I do consider myself still in the novice category, I only regularly started solving cryptics in spring this year, though I quickly became obsessed and now do 2 or 3 a day, and set my own too 🙂 … but I am still learning and the (admittedly subjective) difference between the quiptic and a cryptic is something I still pay close attention to.
Thanks AlanC for pointing out the typo.
And FrauSue for pointing out that I unconsciously typed the opposite of what I meant.
Blog corrected on both counts.
alanc @7 “The ‘s’ in ISLE is unaccounted for in your lovely blog.”
… as is the S in 8d
In both cases the S after the apostrophe is part of the fodder
Did anyone else wonder if 15 contained an oblique reference to Jo in “Little Women” ?
Thanks lin, noted. Missing S entered into blog.
Way too difficult for a ‘Quiptic’. I haven’t yet attempted to do the cryptic, but don’t need any comparison to be able to say that this puzzle is too difficult in numerous places for a neophyte IMHO. I’m not ‘pointing the finger’ at Hectence.
Talking of missing Ss, am I the only person who was a little thrown by the ‘s in 15A (JOCULAR)? It’s a small nitpick, but it seems to me to be there only to make the surface smoother, it doesn’t work in the wordplay.
To balance things up, this was the easiest quiptic I think I’ve seen… But I’ve not yet started the cryptic.
Was I the only one trying to parse “Little girl’s dog” as TOTO, causing some confusion? 🙂
SQUADRON favourite clue.
Thanks Hectence and scchua
I thought this was a good Quiptic, and, for me, whether the Cryptic is harder or not, is by the way. It must be almost impossible to follow the tradition of the Monday puzzle being easy, and at the same time ensure that it’s harder than the Quiptic.
Petert @20 and others – isn’t the answer to have the Quiptic on a Friday? There should then be a clear difference in difficulty with the Cryptic.
Morten @19 – no, you weren’t the only one,
Well I thought this was the perfect quiptic, but I see from other comments not everyone agrees.
Regarding the comparison with the Monday cryptic, my mental model is that the editor has a queue of puzzles headed to both slots, and it’s just random which of the two at the front of their respective queues happens to be harder (which depends on the individual anyway).
The debate about relative difficulty of the Monday puzzles is one I follow with interest as I very often find the Quiptic the harder of the two. Rob T@3 has today been able to give some analysis with which I tend to agree. However, difficulty is often in the eye of the beholder and today I was a bit pushed for time and abandoned the seemingly intractable Quiptic for later. I tried again this afternoon and fell asleep after another fruitless tussle. On awakening, I completed and parsed the entire puzzle rapidly before coming here. Did I find it difficult or not? I’m not sure… : )
For what it’s worth, I found this
(a) a bit harder than the cryptic (but then today’s Vulcan was at the gentler end of the Monday spectrum)
(b) a lot more accessible than many of Hectence’s previous appearances in the Quiptic slot – in fact I was going to congratulate her on that, and then I saw some of the reactions above, which didn’t quite chime with my own!
I take Rob T’s points @3 about TALK DOWN TO, COUNT SHEEP, and HIATUS. However, when assessing the overall difficulty of a clue, we have to consider not just the trickiness of the wordplay, but the helpfulness of the definition and the crossers.
In the case of 11ac, it’s fairly clear that the def has to be at the beginning, i.e. ‘patronise’, because the other end of the clue is something Spoonerish. And if you’ve got to guess a (4,4,2) phrase meaning ‘patronise’, I think TALK DOWN TO is pretty high up the list.
Similarly with 13d – COUNT SHEEP is the first thing I think of when I see ‘try to get to sleep’. And the crossers are helpful too, in both cases.
Which leaves HIATUS, where I have to concede – not just tricky wordplay but a definition that is far from the obvious one of break/gap/pause.
But 1 out of 28 ain’t bad 😉 I checked on the Graun site, and most of the comments there say it’s a nice quipticky Quiptic. Thanks H & s.
eb @25 – I totally take your point about how gettable the individual clues are (to varying degrees) but as Widders said earlier, it’s really what beginners/developers think about the relative difficulty of the quiptic that I think is important (and I put myself in that category, only being a matter of months into my cryptic education). I think it’s a matter of expectation management: the quiptic is specifically described as being “for beginners and those in a hurry“, yet on any given Monday you can toss a coin as to which will be easier/quicker to complete.
To be clear – I do both and I enjoy both, I just wish the G would either (a) just say “here’s a bonus, relatively accessible, cryptic on a Monday”, or (b) make more an effort to sort their puzzles into two identifiably different difficulty levels.
I persevered through my attempts to get into cryptic crosswords earlier this year, and I’m delighted that I did. But if an occasional or curious solver attempted some of the recent quiptics, expecting a puzzle that suited their level, I fear the description as being “for beginners” may actually be putting some people off what can be a hugely rewarding hobby!
(FWIW, my advice to beginners is to start with Everyman rather than the quiptic! A tip from Roz that I now pass on 🙂 )
Rob T @26, thanks for your response. And regarding your wish that the G would “make more of an effort to sort their puzzles into two identifiably different difficulty levels” – I couldn’t agree more!
I did this quite late, being behind on work, but enjoyed it. I agree with essexboy’s point about the definitions being pretty gettable, even when the cryptic parts of the clues were sometimes tough. Never heard of ETON MESS before today but it looks tasty. My solve was fueled by gelato.
I echo widdersbel@10 – since they are both supposed to be easy, I don’t understand why one is supposed to be always easier than the other. However, here are a couple of suggestions (one is not mine) to eliminate the controversy:
1. As Sayer@21 suggests, put the Quiptic on Friday. This provides an extra day (Monday Cryptic, Friday Quiptic, and Sunday Everyman) with an easier puzzle for beginners.
2. Alternatively, add the words “for beginners and those in a hurry” to the Monday Cryptic. This would make it clear that the Cryptic might be as easy or easier than the Quiptic.
Thanks Hectence for a fun puzzle, and scchua for your delightfully-illustrated blog.
Rob T@26 – discovering Everyman as a beginner who sometimes finds quiptics and Mondays hard was a revelation. Often easier but on the other hand no cheat nor check options on the Guardian puzzles app, which adds a satisfying bit of difficulty back in again. I now have all three to go at in a week, but still rarely dare to venture into the other days unless the relevant blog on this site begins with the blogger remarking on how easy it was!
Lovely Quiptic and blog and comments – thank you Hectence, scchua and commenterists.
This to me was a perfect Hectence Quiptic – when I see the name I know it will not be easy but it will be honest and reliable … if I avoid despair I’ll get there!
scchua I hate to nitpick (erm that’s a lie, sorry) but why, in your explanation, does E need to be a major key? There are persistent rumours of the existence of an “E minor” which I’m sure is jolly nice too and seems to have fewer of those hashtag things to confuse me …
Sorry, that’s in 24A that I’m rambling about.
Minor niggle, surely one angles with a fishing ROD, Using a net is trawling or netting.
I do these on Saturday when theres no cryptic, or when the cryptic is a Paul.