As often happens with this setter in Quiptic mode (which he at least appears to be in here), there are a small number of clues which seem a bit clunky, or over-engineered. Your experience may have differed, of course.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Felt sorry corralling horse that’s difficult
RUGGED
An insertion of GG for ‘gee-gee’, a small person’s word for a ‘horse’, in RUED. The insertion indicator is ‘corralling’. RUGGED can mean ‘difficult’, but only in the sense of terrain, so might not have been my first choice of synonym here.
4 Sanctions mouthpiece for leak
LET SLIP
A charade of LETS and LIP.
9 Show second-rate players taking on course
BROADCAST
An insertion of ROAD in B CAST. The insertion indicator is ‘taking on’.
10 Firm hides soldier in shed
RIGID
An insertion of GI in RID. The insertion indicator is ‘hides’.
11 Back smart type of fellow to embrace independent woman
CELIA
An insertion of I in ALEC reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘back’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to embrace’. He’s a smart Alec, that Anto.
12 Doctors hate to interrupt men the worse for wear?
MOTH-EATEN
An insertion of (HATE TO)* in MEN. The insertion indicator is ‘interrupt’. I don’t think you can have ‘doctors’ as an anagrind, can you? ‘Doctored’ or ‘doctor’, for sure. Come to think of it, can you have ‘interrupt’ on its own as an insertion indicator? The cryptic grammar seems a bit cock-eyed to me here.
13 NB: it’s just been delivered
NEWBORN
N for ‘new’ and B for ‘born’ gives you NEWBORN.
15 Leader castigated for holding back something so revered
SACRED
Hidden reversed in leaDER CAStigated.
17 Rehearsal for smuggling booze?
DRY RUN
A cd. I think this is just whimsically suggesting that if you were practising smuggling booze then it would be a DRY RUN, on the Dry January model.
19 Grit sac evolved — it’s involved in digestion
GASTRIC
(GRIT SAC)* with ‘evolved’ as the anagrind.
22 Dealing so unexpectedly to get close
ALONGSIDE
(DEALING SO)* with ‘unexpectedly’ as the anagrind.
24 Brick producer limits time to fire
LET GO
An insertion of T in LEGO, the company that certainly produces a lot of bricks. 36,000 every minute, according to Mrs Google.
26 Run off in compliance with the rules
LEGIT
A dd. For the first element, you have to separate the elements into LEG IT.
27 Silly to grieve over time? Here’s advice about moving on
GET OVER IT
An insertion of T in (TO GRIEVE)* The insertion indicator is ‘over’ and the anagrind is ‘silly’.
28 Continue behaviour that started comedy film series
CARRY ON
A dd.
29 Americans admit to making mistake when swapping female for male
FESS UP
The setter is inviting you to replace the M in MESS UP with F. The ‘Americans’ bit is there because this is chiefly AmEng, and in the past Anto has had stick for using Americanisms without indicating the fact.
Down
1 Polish hero crossed by rebellious old Roman
RUBICON
A charade of RUB and ICON. The ‘rebellious old Roman’ was JC, of course. Alea iacta est, and all that, and the modern idiom ‘to cross the Rubicon’.
2 Odd ones in law court go back to complain
GROWL
Every other letter in LaW cOuRt Go reversed. Again, GROWL for ‘complain’ is not a great choice of synonym for a beginners’ crossword, in my opinion.
3 Rewrite an overdue essay
ENDEAVOUR
(AN OVERDUE)* with ‘rewrite’ as the anagrind. ‘Essay’ is a formal word for ‘attempt’ or ENDEAVOUR. It’s cognate with the modern French essayer.
4 Figure of speech child found in stories — that’s an understatement
LITOTES
An insertion of TOT in LIES. The insertion indicator is ‘found in’. There seem to be two definitions here, surrounding the wordplay. Why not simplify things and get rid of the first three words of the clue?
5 Short piece from Pinter series
TERSE
Hidden in PinTER SEries.
6 A girl they shifted some distance away
LIGHT YEAR
(A GIRL THEY)* with ‘shifted’ as the anagrind.
7 Exercise US prosecutor books? He’ll still find fault with it
PEDANT
A charade of PE, DA for District Attorney and NT for New Testament, or ‘books’.
8 Game return of international staff
PAC-MAN
A charade of CAP reversed and MAN. The reversal indicator is ‘return’. ‘She is an England international/cap.’
14 Offensive type, comfortable with more extended line out
WARMONGER
A charade of WARM and [L]ONGER.
16 Evil caste circulating a stoical philosophy
C’EST LA VIE
(EVIL CASTE)* with ‘circulating’ as the anagrind.
18 Capture piece — it will secure things more quickly!
NAIL GUN
A charade of NAIL and GUN. ‘Piece’ is slang for a hand GUN.
19 Arrive at hotel inside poor neighbourhood
GHETTO
An insertion of H in GET TO. The insertion indicator is ‘inside’.
20 Produce cover — it’s certainly revealing
CROP TOP
A charade of CROP and TOP.
21 Plant at the heart of pagans’ peerless medicine
GARLIC
A charade of the central letters of paGAns, peeRLess and medICine.
23 Courageous chap accommodating outsiders from Texas
GUTSY
An insertion of TS for the outside letters of ‘Texas’ in GUY. The insertion indicator is ‘accommodating’.
25 Stuff leading tradesmen use removing paint stains
TURPS
The initial letters of the last five words of the clue, and a cad.
Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I agree with your quibbles, and would add that it’s unfortunate that “over” appears in both clue and solution at 27.
No foreign language indicator at 16d, though I suppose the phrase is well known in English.
I liked RIGID for the misleading “shed”, and RUBICON/
A tad gnarly in places for a quiptic I thought, partly due to unusual synonym choices as noted above, and (though it may just be a gap in my vocabulary) specifically for LITOTES. One of my arbitrary criteria for a good quiptic is that I shouldn’t have to reach for Chambers…
Also I agree with muffin on the repetition if ‘over’, it always seems odd when a professional setter does that.
At the risk of opening up a can of pedantry 🙂 I’m curious as to the objections to ‘doctors’ and ‘interrupt’ in the clue for MOTH-EATEN. Both seem perfectly fine to me, and I can read the sentence in a grammatically correct way. What would be the rationale for thinking these words were grammatically iffy in this clue?
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Agree with aforementioned quibbles. Fairly straightforward and enjoyable. Never heard of LITOTES, and don’t understand why “cap” is “international”.
GdU
If a player is selected for an international match, s/he is given a cap (sometimes literally), so is then both a cap and an international.
I liked the “brick producer” and CROP TOP, but I am inclined to agree with the quibbles.
It was the cryptic grammar I was questioning, Rob T. An anagrind should in principle be an instruction (so ‘doctor’ as the imperative of the verb) or a description (so ‘doctored’ as an adjective). I don’t see that ‘doctors’ works in either of these ways. Since the ‘to’ bit has been taken in the anagram fodder, that leave us with ‘interrupt’ as the insertion indicator. Since (HATE TO)* is a single insertion, I think you have to take that as requiring a singular verb, so you’d need ‘interrupts’.
Thank you, muffin @ 4. I’ll try to remember.
Pierre @6 – thanks. Your explanations make sense! Although I had managed to find a way of reading it that also made sense 🙂 by adding an implied subject i.e “(She) doctors hate to interrupt men the worse for wear?”… but now I concur that the “interrupt” part is still problematic. So thanks for the breakdown!
The “doctor(s)” part didn’t worry me. This is Crosswordland. Similarly “litotes” was immediately familiar (surely O Level English?) and that went straight in. But “growl” for “complain”? Not a great synonym. And “rugged” for “difficult” ditto. Still, an enjoyable Quiptic that took a Quiptic amount of time to solve, so I’m happy.
I must be a bit of a libertarian because I only had one quibble, over something completely different. Moths have got to my clothes in the past, but only when they’ve been hanging up in the wardrobe and not being worn…
All right, I’ll get my coat. Oops, it’s full of holes…
I thought this was a good quiptic. Didn’t have a problem with the extra definition for LITOTES – a somewhat obscure word, so a little more help was welcome.
Did also query grammar of 12A. My off-the-cuff rewrite was ‘Doctors hate to what?: To interrupt men the worse for wear.’
The idea being that someone unspecified ‘doctors’ (rearranges) ‘hate to’ for some purpose, and that purpose is ‘to interrupt men’. But it’s awkward and I’m not sure it really works.
Couldn’t for the life of me think of PAC MAN even with all the crossers, and I caught myself muttering about never having seen NB for newborn – I forgot that even abbreviations can get the lift and separate treatment.
CAP for “international” is a new one for me.
blaise@10 “Moth-eaten” taken metaphorically is a synonym for “shabby,” and so is “the worse for wear.” Works for me.
I asked a French friend what the French word was for “understatement,” and the answer was “litotes.” Apparently they haven’t got a word in ordinary French, just the fancy Greek one.
Is LITOTES that obscure? It crops up from time to time in crosswordland, although always clued rather similarly; e.g.:
PAUL on 26 August last year: ‘Small amount of drink mopped up by a tissue, falsely? That’s an understatement.’
ARMONIE in the FT on 21 December 2019: ‘Is dishonest after consuming drink? That’s an understatement.’
PASQUALE on 4 June 2019: ‘Little child in stories making understatement’.
While at some risk of being a PEDANT in the matter, I do prefer this, which, while defining by example, is more specific about how understatement is actually constructed in LITOTES:
‘Stole it when befuddled? Such an occurrence is not unheard of’ (7)
I saw CARRY ON as a triple definition: continue, behaviour and the comedy film series.
Very good Quiptic puzzle.
Liked PEDANT.
New: LITOTES.
Thanks, both.
After GROWLing repeatedly about Anto and his non-Quiptic Quiptics, I’ve got to say I really enjoyed this. I think it’s the first one of his I’ve actually completed in a Quiptic-type time (and meanwhile I’m still stuck on his Cryptic from last Wednesday, so kudos for differentiating!)
I know I’m not the target audience (and perhaps some beginners will disagree with me?), but I thought this was not only pitched at the right level, but had some lovely witty touches as well – the smart Alec, the NB, the brick producer, and the girl that got shifted to a galaxy far far away.
All of which more than makes up for MOTH-EATEN, in my wardrobe at least 🙂 Many thanks Anto and Pierre.
I had a multiple quibble with 16D: there was no language indicator, and c’est is not a single 4 letter word. that made it rather un-quiptic.
in response to gliddofglood @9, I remember O level English as being almost entirely Literature. I learnt grammar terms through crosswords!
I was not bothered by “doctors” as an anagrind. I didn’t finish this one but I found that to be one of the easiest clues, so it certainly didn’t inhibit comprehension. My main complaint was FESS UP – why not just leave it as MESS UP and avoid the Americanism altogether?
Speaking of, Pierre, I would have said only “Americans admit (to)” would be the clue to 27a, since “making mistake” is required for the wordplay to begin with MESS UP
Thank you for the analysis: at an advanced age I am a quiptic novice and really welcome the explanations when I have ‘solved’ a clue via crossers or guesswork without fully understanding the link between clue and answer. Plus I really enjoy the comments here and on the blog in the Guardian.
I found this a very good Quiptic too, in which the clue for MOTH-EATEN was a bit of a sore thumb. I liked ENDEAVOUR, NEWBORN, DRY-RUN, there was no telepathy needed, and the whole thing seemed pretty conventional and neat.
Thanks to both
Trying to pick out the odd letters for 2d without pen & paper, I missed a letter out and thought the answer was GROAN, which seemed so right that I put the last 2 letters in again *twice* after they were removed by the CHECK button!
Me @22: then again, a “grumbling appendix” is also called a “growling appendix”, and “grumble” definitely means “complain”, so perhaps GROWL isn’t so far off, after all 🙂
Thanks Anto and Pierre. ?
I come to praise (not the rebellious old Roman but) DRY RUN – which I thought was rather clever – and LEGIT, which raised a smile after resisting the ponder for too long a while.
(I popped in MOTH-EATEN without a second thought. No blogger I.) (Although I do share altreus@19’s thought about FESS UP.)
MaryAMartha@20: Welcome aboard!
My quibble was with LIGHT YEAR. A light year is a distance, not a distance away. Thanks, Anto and Pierre
TT @25
?
HoustonTony@18
When I did ‘O’ levels there were separate papers for English Language and Literature. I only took Language which is where I learnt about litotes.
Definitely on the hard side for a quiptic in places (eg multi-step solving plus semi cryptic definition for WARMONGER) but with some good entry level fun as well. Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Wonderful to see LITOTES, one of my favourite words. Given how obsessed I was with PACMAN as a kid, it shouldn’t have been my LOI …
I agree with TT@25, the ‘away’ had me looking for something in the sense of ‘afar’, say, rather than a discrete measure. Several defs seemed rather loose to me but it was still a pretty quick and enjoyable solve.
Thanks A & P.
What essexboy@17 said.
Anto is not one of my favourite setters (it’s just a wavelength thing), but I really enjoyed this one. I thought 13a NEWBORN was brilliant, and 3d ENDEAVOUR cleverly hid both the anagrind and the definition in a short and sweet clue.
I didn’t agree with Pierre’s objection to some not obvious synonyms. Novice solvers should be exposed to creative definitions, so they can be on the lookout for them as they progress in their new hobby.
Thanks Anto for the fun, and Pierre for the informative blog.
As a relative newbie to cryptics (on a good Quiptic I can do 2/3), I found this one much harder than the average Quiptic…
I confess that I still don’t understand 17ac (DRY RUN).
Ted @33. A DRY RUN is a rehearsal for something and if you were rehearsing booze smuggling, you’d do it without the booze, ie no liquid so not WET
My quibble is wth 2D. To meOdd ones in law court go in a crossword for beginners would mean the odd letters of each word, ie LWCUTO, which obviously doesn’t work (too many letters), rather than the odd/alternative letters of the whole string
Thanks, Martin @34. That makes sense. On rereading Pierre’s original explanation it seems perfectly clear; I don’t know why I didn’t understand it originally.
Regarding 2dn: I think I’ve seen “odd letters” of a multiword phrase used to mean both what you expect and what Anto meant here. Both seem reasonable to me.