This puzzle would have benefited from more accurate checking as there appears to be two errors (18ac & 13dn) unless I’ve missed something. Edit: perhaps I have missed something in 13dn (thanks Cookie @3).
I had the feeling when solving that, in places, the clues/definitions were longer than they need be. Having said that, this is probably the first Pan I have attempted (the Quiptic is not usually on my ‘to do’ list), so I am not familiar with this setter’s style and perhaps superfluous text to improve the surface is to be expected. However, on reflection whilst proofreading this post, perhaps my feeling was unfounded.
Across
1 Mark attached to letter from woman nursing journalist (7)
CEDILLA – CILLA (woman) around (nursing) ED (journalist)
5 Item used during flooding in Damascus and Baghdad (7)
SANDBAG – hidden in (in) ‘damascuS AND BAGhdad’
9 Boy briefly taking hard second subject (5)
MATHS – MAT (boy briefly) H (hard) S (second)
10 Lawyer for fence admitting second theft, finally (9)
BARRISTER – BARRIER (fence) around (admitting) S (second {again!}) [thef]T (theft, finally)
11 Ill-feeling caused by scruffy Roman wearing handsome coat (10)
DISHARMONY – an anagram (scruffy) of ROMAN in (wearing … coat) DISHY (handsome)
12 Alternative to a Latin viva? (4)
ORAL – OR (alternative) A L (Latin)
14 Males take years to accept unorthodox ratio in love triangle (6,1,5)
MENAGE A TROIS – MEN (males) AGES (years) around (to accept) an anagram (unorthodox) of RATIO
18 Give an imperfect account of little girl about to get gift (12)
MISREPRESENT – MIS[s] (little girl) RE (about) PRESENT (gift) – where is the indicator to remove the last letter of ‘miss’ or is it ‘little’ and ‘miss’ is simply ‘girl’? If the latter, it doesn’t work for me.
21 Stylish youngster ditching anorak at last (4)
CHIC – CHIC[k] (youngster ditching anorak at last)
22 Lend heroes foreign trousers (10)
LEDERHOSEN – an anagram (foreign) of LEND HEROES
25 Being bad tempered, I rile 24 for a change (9)
IRASCIBLE – an anagram (for a change) of I RILE SCAB
26 Fourth in line embraced by sweet relative (5)
NIECE – [lin]E (fourth in line) in (embraced by) NICE (sweet)
27 Alien stuck in part of wall is within reach (7)
GETABLE – ET (alien) in (stuck in) GABLE (part of wall)
28 Current Hamlet furious about king (7)
THERMAL – an anagram (furious) of HAMLET around (about) R (king)
Down
1 Setter swallowed by fish at end of funny performance (6)
COMEDY – ME (setter) in (swallowed by) COD (fish) [funn]Y (end of funny) – or you could say that ‘funny’ is doing double duty and also forms part of the definition.
2 Hate shown by end of flawed drug trial (6)
DETEST – [flawe]D (end of flawed) E (drug) TEST (trial)
3 Young woman visiting US state returned, always with tropical disease (5,5)
LASSA FEVER – LASS (young woman) FA (US state {Florida}) reversed (returned) EVER (always)
4 Record for a large bottom! (5)
ALBUM – A L (large) BUM (bottom)
5 Extremely smart park officials generate visitors (9)
STRANGERS – S[mar]T (extremely smart) RANGERS (park officials)
6 Nothing holding a pin down (4)
NAIL – NIL (nothing) around (holding) A
7 Translation of Torah clutched by crowd coming back to place for ablutions (8)
BATHROOM – an anagram of (translation of) TORAH in (clutched by) MOB (crowd) reversed (coming back)
8 Stupid troops left below during attempts to put to sea (8)
GORMLESS – RM (troops {Royal Marines}) L (left) in (during) GOES (attempts) S (sea)
13 Go north and see the phoney prehistoric monument (10)
STONEHENGE – this is presumably supposed to be an anagram (phoney) of GO N SEE THE but that leaves an N missing from the fodder. an anagram (phoney) of GO N (north) N (and) SEE THE – Edit: substituting a standard single letter abbreviation as part of the fodder for an anagram is common practice but the same cannot be said of substituting a colloquialism so perhaps there is an error in this clue. If the colloquialism was intended then I don’t think it should have been used in a Quiptic.
15 Pleasant drink interrupted by feminist endlessly going on about degree (9)
AGREEABLE – ALE (drink) around (interrupted by) GREE[r] (feminist endlessly) BA (degree) reversed (about)
16 Son ridiculing needlework (8)
SMOCKING – S (son) MOCKING (ridiculing)
17 Hopeful when letter from abroad comes before angry outburst (8)
ASPIRANT – AS (when) PI (letter from abroad) RANT (angry outburst)
19 Mounted gathering for a hunt with Home Counties’ approval (6)
ESTEEM – MEET (gathering for a hunt) SE (Home Counties) reversed (mounted)
20 Peacekeepers visiting water supply get sick (6)
UNWELL – UN (peacekeepers) WELL (water supply)
23 Go for the Spanish shock treatment (5)
ELECT – EL (the Spanish) ECT (shock treatment {electroconvulsive therapy})
24 Strike-breaker / showing evidence of a scuffle? (4)
SCAB – double def., the second cryptic.
Thanks Pan and Gaufrid
I think “little girl” for MIS is fine, but I agree about STONEHENGE.
I didn’t parse GORMLESS, and I’ve been doing too many cryptics, as I spent some time trying to find some hairdressing term for “shock treatment” rather than the obvious ECT!
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I raced through this and didn’t notice the missing n in STONEHENGE. Nor did I notice, as pointed out on the grauniad site, that Florida is abbreviated FL, not FA. Other than those errors, the rest was simple and fitted the quiptic brief. Thanks, Pan.
“Go North ‘n see the phoney…” – colloquial abbreviation for “and” given by COED.
Florida is FL.
Cookie @3
Collins also has ‘n’ as a colloquial form of ‘and’ so you could well be right.
matrixmania @2 & copmus @4
Collins and Oxford only have FL as the abbreviation for Florida but Chambers has both FL and FA.
Mostly a good Quiptic, but I flagged the missing N in the fodder for STONEHENGE. I think Cookie must be right @3 but, if so, not only does that feel too tricky for a Quiptic but even in a standard cryptic I think there should be some indication that it is colloquial. I also don’t like GETABLE, though Collins does have it so I can’t really complain.
Thanks, Pan and Gaufrid.
Thank you Pan and Gaufrid.
I enjoyed this puzzle. We often get clues with some shortening indicator like “little”, I am pretty sure I have seen “small”, but my memory is not too reliable.
Love muffin’s @1 search for a hairdressing term for shock treatment – and yes, it would make one’s hair stand on end.
The abbreviation for “and” seems to be quite common now, I can find rock ‘n’ roll, fish ‘n’ chips, pork ‘n’ beans, mac ‘n’ cheese, Park ‘n’ Ride, Cash ‘n’ Carry…
re Florida:
Lou Reed’s classic “Walk on the wild side” starts “Holly came from Miami, FLA”.
(I know that doesn’t really help!)
Cookie @8
Surely the fact that those examples all include the apostrophes suggests that it is not accepted on its own in the way that, say, N for North is? Another example – we often see “it’s” for “it is” and sometimes that combination is used in clueing, but would “is” on its own be an adequate clue for the letter S?
Whether ‘n’ is regarded as an abbreviation or a colloquialism, there is no indication of either in the clue. That’s tough in a Quiptic.
While on the subject, the storage facility we are using while our house is renovated is called Lok’nStore. That annoys me in many ways but particularly because, if they are acknowledging the need for one apostrophe, why not include the second one too?
jennyk @10, yes, the second apostrophe is “correct” according to the Associated Press Stylebook, even though the COED only gives ‘n, but the OED gives n, ‘n and ‘n’ (but not n).
My last one in was GORMLESS (8d).
I am afraid that I do not see why S = sea.
It isn’t in any of my dictionaries and I have never seen this use of S before.
Sil @12
I had similar thoughts when trying to parse 8dn. However, the abbreviation is listed in Collins if you scroll down the page far enough.
Yes, you’re right, Gaufrid, still a bit ‘obscure’ (and certainly in a Quiptic).
My hardcopy of Collins doesn’t scroll down that far ……
But it is as it is.
correction @11, that should be (but not n’), apologies.
Quiptics aren’t just for the skilled in a hurry, or even beginners. They’re also for those of us who are beginning to get a bit slow on the uptake. Devices like ‘Little girl’ for MIS(S) are quite common in Cryptics. And getting STONEHENGE without falling into the trap of ‘phoney’ is quite pleasing without fretting too much about the spare ‘N’. In any case, Gaufrid very reasonably suggests that this should have been checked in advance. So thanks to Pan and Gaufrid.