Thank you to Picaroon. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Reluctant to wear oddly cheesy apparel (7)
CLOTHES : LOTH(reluctant/unwilling) contained in(to wear) 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(oddly) “cheesy“.
5. Action receiving tennis serve – it’s struck out (7)
DELETED : DEEED(an action/something done) containing(receiving) LET(in tennis, a service that has to be retaken).
9. Taking drugs in university, spill the beans (5)
USING : U(abbrev. for “university”) + SING(to spill the beans/to inform on someone).
10. See chessman – king I check at first (9)
BISHOPRIC : BISHOP(a chess piece/chessman) + R(abbrev. for “Rex”, Latin for “king”) + I + 1st letter of(… at first) “check“.
Defn: …/a district under the pastoral care of a bishop.
11. Drivers suffer terribly after tea, you heard (10)
CHAUFFEURS : Anagram of(… terribly) SUFFER placed after(after) [ CHA(informal term for “tea”) + homophone of(… heard) “you” ].
12. Lazily covers for injured lady (4)
IDLY : 1st and last letters, respectivly, of(covers for) “injured lady“.
14. Person watching Milanese football side, one asking questions (11)
INTERVIEWER : INTER(short for “Football Club Internazionale Milano”, the professional football team based in Milan) VIEWER(one watching the aforementioned).
18. When playing, Tories charm musical director (11)
CHOIRMASTER : Anagram of(When playing) TORIES CHARM.
21. Debauched fellow, one maybe kept in garden shed (4)
RAKE : Double defn.
22. A French agricultural worker touring Limousin’s capital, not Nice (10)
UNPLEASANT : UN(the article “a” in French) + PEASANT(agricultural worker) containing(touring) 1st letter of(…’s
capital) “Limousin“.
Defn: …, in lower case letters.
25. Some resent our agency supplying group of escorts (9)
ENTOURAGE : Hidden in(Some) “resent our agency“.
… on different occasions:
26. I litigate about son’s problem (5)
ISSUE : I + SUE(to litigate/take legal action against) containing(about) S(abbrev. for “son”).
27. Disturbance ultimately beset Russian capital? (7)
TROUBLE : Last letter of(ultimately) “beset” + ROUBLE(Russian capital/money).
28. Federal agents in small Spielberg film part (7)
SEGMENT : G-MEN(short for “Government men”, slang for US Government agents) contained in(in) [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + E.T.(a Steven Spielberg film) ].
Down
1. Firmly grasp batch of eggs (6)
CLUTCH : Double defn: 2nd: … laid by a bird at one time.
2. Old, drunk Noah entertains one Cincinnati resident? (6)
OHIOAN : O(abbrev. for “old”) + anagram of(drunk) NOAH containing(entertains) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
Defn: …, Cincinnati being a city in Ohio State in the US.
3. Successful people, in an intoxicated state, shot rifles (4-6)
HIGH FLIERS : HIGH(in an intoxicated state, from drugs) + anagram of(shot) RIFLES.
4. Retail promotion includes black, expensive fur (5)
SABLE : SALE(a retail promotion with goods at discounted prices) containing(includes) B(abbrev. for “black”).
From many this: 
to: 
to: 
5. Abandon sailor going north, or WWII British soldier (6,3)
DESERT RAT : DESERT(to abandon/to leave behind) + reversal of(… going north, in a down clue) TAR(informal term for a sailor).
Defn: …, one of the 7th Armoured Division who fought in North Africa.
6. Spoils implement turned upside down (4)
LOOT : Reversal of(… turned upside down, in a down clue) TOOL(an implement/a device for a particular purpose).
Defn: …/goods stolen or forcibly taken.
7. Refuse last of beer in barrel, in a low mood (4,4)
TURN DOWN : Last letter of(last of) “beer” contained in(in) TUN(a barrel/cask for storing beer or wine) + DOWN(in a low mood/feeling depressed).
8. Shorten by 91.44 cm area where ships are repaired (8)
DOCK YARD : DOCK(to shorten/cut short an animal’s tail) plus(by) YARD(a unit of distance equal to 3 ft., equivalent to 91.44 cm.).
13. Principal welcomes current PR, seeing what people are saying (3-7)
LIP READING : LEADING(principal/foremost) containing(welcomes) [ I(symbol for electrical current in physics) + PR ].
15. Charge for travelling through Sumatra, in Far East (5,4)
TRAIN FARE : Hidden in(through) “Sumatra, in Far East“.
16. One hugged by funny actress – most alarming! (8)
SCARIEST : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(hugged by) anagram of(funny) ACTRESS.
17. Chicken also following a parrot (8)
COCKATOO : COCK(a male chicken) + [ TOO(also/as well) placed below(following, in a down clue) A ].
19. That man keeps equine animal and large badger (6)
HASSLE : HE(pronoun for “that man”) containing(keeps) [ ASS(an equine animal, in this case, a donkey) plus(and) L(abbrev. for “large”).
Defn: …/to bother repeatedly.
20. Affirm where fan of international cricket might be (6)
ATTEST : [AT TEST](where a fan of international cricket might be, attending a Test match)
23. Reasons to call plumber, we’re told, to get vegetables (5)
LEEKS : Homophone of(…, we’re told) “leaks”(reasons to call a plumber – to fix them).
24. Cry when upset, getting an onion or a tulip, say (4)
BULB : Reversal of(… when upset, in a down clue) BLUB(to cry noisily and uncontrollably).
Defn: Examples of which/say, are an onion or a tulip.
Feeling quite proud of myself today: This is the first cryptic crossword I’ve ever finished where I solved each clue as I came across it, without skipping any.
Favourite today was HIGH FLIERS for the amusing surface.
Thanks both
I thought this a nice Quiptic and continue to be impressed by Picaroon’s ability to set at different levels.
Nothing too outrageous or difficult in the General Knowledge or that I couldn’t parse (I now solve Quiptics wondering how I’d blog them, and parsing everything is always a good start.)
Thank you to scchua for the illustrated blog and Picaroon for the Quiptic.
Excellent Quiptic. Perfect for beginners. Well done Arossignol@1.
Favourites: LIP-READING, SEGMENT (loi).
New for me: the exact figure of 1 yard is equal to 0.9144 meters. I rarely/never need to convert metres to yards.
Thanks, both.
* typo in blog for 2ac DEEED should be DEED
4ac Ugh, to think that so many people still like to wear the pelt of dead/murdered animals. The pics in the blog made me feel sad.
Arossignol@1
Congrats!
Thanks Picaroon and scchua!
Thankyou both. Just what the Quiptic should be.
Well done Arossignol @1. Perfectly pitched Quiptic. I particularly liked CHAUFFEURS, ENTOURAGE, TRAIN FARE, LIP-READING and INTERVIEWER.
Ta Picaroon & scchua for the colourful blog.
Ouch.
No idea for 1a, 5a, 10a, 11a, 12a…I could go on.
I had PILLS for 9a.
16d – I could not come up with a “funny actress”.
19d – tried to get HORSE into the clue.
“Containing” clues baffle me senseless.
Lovely Quiptic, perfect level I would think.
Favourites LIP READING and SEGMENT, both very elegant clues.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
Simply delightful. Perfect quiptic. What a gorgeous hidden for TRAIN FARE.
Thanks both
Like Arossignol @1, this was one where I could do the clues in order.
@Steffen, don’t give up! Each clue you do get is a little victory. For me, it took quite a few puzzles before the little victoriesfinally added up into a big one.
I also had a tick for LIP-READING. Have to do a bit of that these days. Since COVID and mask-wearing it’s a challenge, especially with the tendency of anyone younger than me to speak rapidly, and my increasing deafness..
Lovely stuff, very well-pitched. But yes, noting that not everyone (as per the comments on the Guardian site and here) has found it so, and hoping they persevere.
Though my mind boggles at the comment over there that it was ‘too Quiptic’.
Good quiptic – I enjoyed it. A few parsing issues but the blog has sorted it out. Thanks both.
Warning – chicken diversion follows ,and possibly rude to some. I had a hen, called Katerina (I was going through a Russian phase), who suddenly grew a cock’s comb and started crowing. She never laid another egg but retained a hen’s bottom. We rapidly changed the name to Sasha (being suitably gender neutral). He now lives happily with a mob of turkeys, crowing away at will. It’s more common in Australia to call them roosters – ‘cock’ almost inevitably means something rude. Which leads me to the glorious caption in a Tasmanian newspaper under a photo of a man clutching his prize winning bird – Mr Dick and his black/red cock.
enjoyed this one. feel I’m making progress, aided by the a-ha brain-stretching of the quick cryptics. sometimes arrive at the answer from the definition and work backwards to see how the clue parses – this still feels like a bit of a cheat!
Nakamova@10
Great!
tmdoc@14
this still feels like a bit of a cheat!
If you guess the solution and then parse it, it’s ok
in my view.
tmdoc@14 – some clues I build up from the clue and realise I’ve got a word, some I see the definition and work back from that to the wordplay, some I never work out what the parsing was meant to be, until I get here. And as some of the cryptic bloggers post with partially unparsed solutions as they can see the answer but not the word play, that sometimes means it takes answers to the blog to enlighten me..
A couple of nicely hidden answers in TRAIN FARE and ENTOURAGE.
Believe it or not I just couldn’t figure out 9A despite having u_i_g and 28A,just couldn’t think of a charade for federal agents.Otherwise the rest were a relatively smooth affair.
As a career novice, I really enjoyed this one. It wasn’t an ink-in, but I could solve it and there were plenty of clues which made me smile!
This Quiptic crossword 1282 wouldn’t download. Error code: – 99
Once again, top class setting from Picaroon. Congratulations to those relatively new to cryptic crosswords who have found the puzzle encouraging: they may also find today’s cryptic crossword quite accessible and worth a try.
Many thanks Picaroon and sschua. I found this great fun. Particularly liked ENTOURAGE, CHAUFFEURS and LIP-READING. Arossignol@1 and Nakamova@10, that’s brilliant. Steffen @7, keep going – Nakamova is right. The little wins are to be celebrated. It’s taken me years to feel I am fairly competent. I agree with George @ 21’s recommendation of today’s Vulcan Cryptic as being good for people learning the tricks of solving 😎.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
Perfect Quiptic!
scchua – I think AC Milan fans might prefer it if you referred to Inter as “a professional football based in Milan”!
Perfectly pitched, I have to say. A couple of chewy clues that were obvious in hindsight, and BISHOPRIC was an excellent clue given that I didn’t know it was a word but the wordplay was sufficient to piece it together. Couldn’t parse DELETED, but a quick glance at the blog and now it’s obvious, of course!
Awesome. Absolutely brilliantly pitched, thankyou both!
Well it took me a long time, and for a couple of clues I guessed an answer, checked and found it was wrong and had to try again, but I finished this in the end, and didnt need the blog to understand any of them.
New for me: LOTH (as an alternative spelling to loath), LET, BISHOPRIC, CLUTCH and DESERT RAT, but the wordplay was clear enough. Favourite probably SEGMENT.
Thanks both!
I parsed bishopric quickly but don’t get how it means “see”…..it’s area of land right?
A see is an ecclesiastical area under the auspices of a bishop. In crosswords it often gives ELY.
Perferctly pitched Quiptic – thanks both. Really enjoyed working out BISHOPRIC, TRAIN FARE and OHIOAN (what a strange-looking word!).