Thank you to Hectence. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Clubs worker’s sacked, caught breaking bottle opener (9)
CORKSCREW : C(abbrev. for “clubs”, one of the 4 suits in a deck of playing cards) + anagram of(… sacked) WORKER’S containing(… breaking) C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores).
Zany (or screwy) ones:
6. Natural gemstones not right for rings (5)
PEALS : “pearls”(natural gemstones formed within the shell of the oyster) minus(not) “r”(abbrev. for “right”).
Defn: …/makes a sound that bells make or like that of bells ringing.
9. Detective managed to retire without getting to rock bottom (5)
NADIR : DI(abbrev. for “detective inspector”) contained in(… without) reversal of(… to retire) RAN(managed, say, an organisation).
10. Carpeting tripped tot heading off toddling inside (7-2)
TALKING-TO : Anagram of(tripped) TOT containing(… inside) 1st letter deleted from(heading off) “walking”(“toddling”, describing a young child/tot learning to walk with unsteady steps).
Defn: …/a scolding face to face.
11. Dislikes trapping poor mouse for co-residents (10)
HOUSEMATES : HATES(dislikes/loathes) containing(trapping) anagram of(poor) MOUSE.
12. Wally‘s quick rejoinder partly backfired (4)
JERK : Hidden in(… partly) reversal of(… backfired) “quick rejoinder“.
Defn: …/a silly person.
14. Large number of British having trouble at home with nothing coming in (7)
BILLION : B(abbrev. for “British”) plus(having) ILL(trouble/misfortune) + IN(at home/not outdoors) containing(with … coming in) O(letter shaped like 0/nothing).
15. So distant up to now (4,3)
THUS FAR : THUS(so/in this way) + FAR(distant/being some distance away).
17. Let’s go travelling, tour’s beginning on your bike (3,4)
GET LOST : Anagram of(… travelling) LET’S GO + 1st letter of(…’s beginning) “tour“.
Defn: …!/”Shoo!”
19. Almost everything eaten by sea creature’s foul! (7)
SQUALID : Last letter deleted from(Almost) “all”(everything) contained in(eaten by) SQUID(sea creature with an elongated body and many tentacles).
Defn: …/filthy.
20. Thin line moving between English and American style (4)
ELAN : LEAN(thin/spare) with “L”(abbrev. for “line”) moving to between the E(abbrev. for “English”) and the “A”(abbrev. for “American”) in the word.
22. Team weakens, stuffed with southern hotel’s extra food (4,6)
SIDE DISHES : SIDE(team in a competitive match) + DIES(weakens/fades) containing(stuffed with) S(abbrev. for “southern”) + H(letter represented by “hotel” in the phonetic alphabet).
25. One with no hope of French act winning (9)
DEFEATIST : DE(French for “of”) + FEAT(a very brave or difficult act/deed) + IST(“1st”/first/winning, with the Roman numeral substitution).
Defn: …/one who has given up hope and is ready to accept failure.
26. Letter from Greece is first of hundreds in Tate collection (5)
THETA : 1st letter of(first of) “hundreds” contained in(in) anagram of(… collection) TATE.
Defn: Letter in the Greek alphabet.
27. Hang around with dopehead’s mate (5)
DALLY : 1st letter of(…head) “dope” plus(…’s/indicating possession) ALLY(mate/one you can depend on).
28. Endure, long after date that’s absolutely final (4-5)
LAST-DITCH : LAST(to endure/survive) + [ ITCH(to long for/to feel a strong desire) placed after(after) D(abbrev. for “date”) ].
Down
1. Church gathering incorporated piece of cake (5)
CINCH : CH(abbrev. for “church”) containing(gathering) INC(abbrev. for “Incorporated”, as used in a business corporation’s name).
Defn: …/something that is easily done.
2. Redo short haircut for swimmer (3,6)
RED MULLET : “Redo” minus its last letter(short) + MULLET(a particular haircut/hairstyle).
A non-swimming red mullet:
3. Film star rocks party, wearing nothing (6,4)
SCREEN IDOL : SCREE(rocks/a mass of loose stones covering a mountain slope) + [ DO(a party/a social function) contained in(wearing) NIL(0/nothing) ].
… not exactly nothing.
4. Teach new skills online (7)
RETRAIN : RE(with reference to/”on”) + TRAIN(“line”/a group of vehicles moving in a line/column).
5. Most desolate quarter has listed building (7)
WILDEST : W(abbrev. for “west”, one of the four main compass points/quarter) plus(has) anagram of(… building) LISTED.
6. Brace for party leader broadcast (4)
PAIR : 1st letter of(… leader) “party” + AIR(to broadcast over the radio or TV).
7. Regular guest is host for debate (5)
ARGUE : Hidden in(… is host) “Regular guest“.
8. Day before American artist’s retrospective, it’s blocked (9)
SNOOKERED : Reversal of(…’s retrospective) [ D(abbrev. for “day”) + ERE(before in time) + KOONS(Jeff, American artist) ].
Defn: …/thwarted.
13. Indulged by wearing uniforms I’d later bother keeping (10)
LUXURIATED : [ X(symbol for multiplication/by) contained in(wearing) U,U(twice abbrev. for “uniform”) ] contained in(… keeping) anagram of(… bother) I’D LATER.
14. Falsely superior large loaf has seeds occasionally (9)
BIGHEADED : BIG(large) + HEAD(in slang, “loaf”/a person’s head) plus(has) 2nd and 4th letters of(… occasionally) “seeds“.
16. The lift is out of order, being most dirty (9)
FILTHIEST : Anagram of(… out of order) THE LIFT IS.
18. Time opponent’s taken over me is not significant (7)
TRIVIAL : T(abbrev. for “time”) + RIVAL(one’s opponent/competitor) containing(…’s taken over) I(me, with the setter using the self-referential pronoun).
19. Detectives in violent tussle seizing drug (7)
SLEUTHS : Anagram of(violent) TUSSLE containing(seizing) H(abbrev. for the drug, heroin).
21. Terrible fellow you reportedly left after a week (5)
AWFUL : [ F(abbrev. for “fellow”) + homophone of(… reportedly) “you” + L(abbrev. for “left”) ] placed after(after) [ A + W(abbrev. for “week”) ].
23. Mum’s quiet after son in car accident (5)
SMASH : [ MA(mum/one’s mother) + SH!(exclamation demanding “silence!”/quiet!) ] placed after(after) S(abbrev. for “son”).
24. Rejected new street map that’s variable and eccentric (4)
ZANY : Reversal of(Rejected) [ N(abbrev. for “new”) + AZ(“A-Z”, any of a range of street maps of a particular area published by the Geographers’ A–Z Map Company, UK) ] plus(that’s) Y(symbol for a variable quantity in mathematics).
Thanks Scchua for parsing lean and snookered. Think the clue for lean is very clever now that I understand it. Thanks to Hectence for the puzzle
And a pangram I think. Which helped me with JERK. Thanks Hectence. And scchua for parsing RETRAin and ELAN.
Surely SLEUTHS is an anagram of ‘tussle’ and H, the latter being the drug.
I think the ‘nothing’ in 3 gives the letters NIL, rather than O
We seem to have had a lot of SLEUTHS lately (and yes, it’s H(eroin) not E(cstasy). Liked CORKSCREW, thought LUXURIATED was a bit tough for a Quiptic, and had trouble remembering the artist.
My fave is the girl in the green dress with the cog shoulders, cleverly funny and so cute. And yes, the nothing is nil and the drug is H, but we don’t mind, the pics are cool 🙂
Thanks scraggs and Savage for pointing out my errors. Blog corrected.
I found this tougher than the Cryptic and was helped by the pangram to a couple as I knew I needed that letter.
Thanks to Hectence and sschua.
Generally about the right level for a quiptic with just a couple of possible eyebrow twitches: the trick in LEAN is very clever but maybe a tad too much for a quiptic? And LUXURIATING had quite a few moving parts. But overall an enjoyable romp, I thought, and two mild stretches in a quiptic is much better than some weeks when it’s barely distinguishable from a regular cryptic.
Favourite: SNOOKERED, once I’d worked out I was looking for an actual American artist and not the strings US + RA…
Thanks both.
Actually, I just expanded the green girl full screen … more spooky than cute. The ‘nipples’ are eyes looking at you, and the handle is one of those scary blank-faced aliens in Dr Who. Deviously clever bit of design.
I blame my problems with completing and parsing this on post hip replacement operation fatigue rather than inherent difficulty. I liked CINCH and SQUALID.
This was a tough puzzle. I was hoping for something a bit easier after I struggled with (gave up on) the Cryptic so I was glad to be able to complete this one.
I could not parse:
10ac apart from the def = carpeting
20ac
3d SCREE + ??
Liked SQUALID, SNOOKERED (loi).
Thanks, both.
I agree with RobT@9 that LUXURIATING was too difficult for a Quiptic. I wonder which gemstones are not natural – only those that are synthetically produced, I would think. Rock forming processes are just as natural as organic ones. Thanks, Hectence and sschua.
Agree with those who thought it was on the tough side for a Quiptic, but not entirely out of range.
TT@13 beat me to it re: not needing natural in 6a.
Thanks
No hope of parsing ELAN or SNOOKERED.
Thanks, Hectence and scchua.
Thanks scchua for the blog, and for your zany pics.
I quite liked the way Hectence told us precisely where to move the L to in ELAN, instead of a general direction to move the L down or across.
I had more trouble with SMASH than LUXURIATED, because of ‘Mum’s’ and thinking of other meanings of quiet, and looking for an anagram of ‘car’ in there.
CORKSCREW favourite for the surface, the clear definition, and the anagrind ‘sacked’.
I don’t usually comment on the Quiptic/Cryptic comparisons. It seems to be a question of being on the setter’s wavelength and the variability in both adds to the anticipation. Which one to do first? Ease in, or do the challenging one, and then have a warm-down. But you don’t know until you try. I found Vulcan’s cryptic difficult , mainly due to GK deficits. I found Hectence more accessible, (although it might have helped doing them a day apart), with a good range of clue types and standard cryptic tricks to store away for future reference for solvers developing their repertoire.
There is a “meet the setter” type interview on the FT crossword page with Zamorca/Hectence. She said she almost always does pangrams, which helped with LOI luxuriated.
Some tricky anagrinds in there which I failed to notice. Never heard of the verb “to carpet” meaning to dress down. Harder than most Quiptics but generally doable.
Gliddo@18. Carpet and dress-down are both loose synonyms of reprimanding (but I guess you worked that out).
Relative novice here, with a question (which may turn into a complaint depending on the answer!)
Are there any clear rules governing anagram indicators? Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of rhyme or reason to them, and several clues in this puzzle contained indicators that seemed tenuous at best (e.g. poor, collection, building, bother). I know I can’t expect to always get an exact instruction (e.g. out of order in 16d) but surely the word should have some meaning similar to ‘shuffle’ or ‘rearrange’ or similar? I get that misdirection is important but surely that can’t extend to using words with totally unrelated meanings?!
I was a touch surprised that there weren’t any complaints about the variety of indicators in this puzzle which makes me think the problem is with me, not the clues!
GWats @20
If you look at this list of possible anagram indicators, you will much more left-field examples!
I was snookered by SNOOKERED, meaning I didn’t see JERK. There were a lot of unparsed clues in this, too.