To be fair, there were many standard Quiptic-like clues, but the cryptic-definition clues were, I thought, a bit over-, well, cryptic for a Quiptic. Notwithstanding all that, thanks to Anto. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Arrangement of locks to hide crown from public view (4,4)
COMB OVER : Cryptic defn: Reference to combing what little hair;locks you might have over the bald patch on the crown of your head to hide it from view.
6 Entirely possible that bones from Oz might be found here (2,4)
IN TOTO : Cryptic defn: Reference to the skeleton that can be found in Toto, Dorothy’s dog in the land of the Wizard of Oz.
9 Easy for America to turn into a state (6)
CASUAL : Reversal of(… to turn) USA(abbrev. for the United States of America) contained in(into) CAL(abbrev. for the American state of California).
10 Light on panel may start flickering (4,4)
NEON LAMP : Anagram of(… flickering) [ ON PANEL + the 1st letter of(… start) “may“].
11 Having a good time out, courtesy of the council? (2,3,4)
ON THE TOWN : ON(paid for by, as in “drinks are on me”;courtesy of) [THE TOWN](as represented by the term, “the [town] council”)
13 Pass over the centre of this grid (5)
CROSS : Cryptic defn: Refering to the 4 shaded cells in the shape of a cross in this crossword grid.
15 French place empty lorry with consideration … (6)
NICELY : NICE(the French Riviera town) + “lorry” minus its 3 inner letters(empty …).
17 … packing it with trouble — it makes you smile (3,3)
KIT BAG : Cryptic defn: Reference to the WW1 marching song, ” Pack All Your Troubles In Your Old Kit-Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile”. So, the clue should read “… with troubles – …”.
Defn. The first “it” in the clue.
18 Hate university in East NewYork (6)
ENMITY : MIT(abbrev. for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) contained in(in) [ E(abbrev. for “East”) + NY(abbrev. for New York) ].
19 Blame Nicola, having returned the pictures (6)
CINEMA : Hidden in(…, having) and reversal of(… returned) “Blame Nicola“.
Defn: Movies, collectively.
21 Traitor heads for jail under data abuse statute (5)
JUDAS : The 1st letters, respectively, of(heads for) “jail under data abuse statute“.
22 Japanese comics seen playing heavy metal (9)
MANGANESE : MANGA(a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, aimed at adults and children) + anagram of(… playing) SEEN.
25 A dry type hurt when linked to … (8)
ATTACHED : A + TT(abbrev. for “teetotaller”, one who abstains from alcohol;a dry type) + ACHED(hurt).
26 … quite detested location for international cricket match (6)
INDEED : In the word “detested“, the place;location for the word “test”(an international cricket match) is IN the word “DEED”.
28 Break up deal as part of union agreement? (6),
PRENUP : Cryptic defn: Reference to the prenuptial agreement;the deal entered into as part of a marriage;union agreement, outlining who gets what when the marriage breaks up.
29 Inoffensive language adds nothing to it (5,3)
SWEAR BOX : Cryptic defn: Reference to the box into which go the monetary fines collected from anyone in the group each time he/she utters a swear word.
Down
2 Ingredients for Roman omelette? (3)
OVA : Cryptic defn: Reference to the original Latin;Roman word for the ingredients of an omelette.
3 Shame about the face (5)
BLUSH : Cryptic defn: Reference to how shamefulness is evidenced on;about the face.
4 Toil at Livy translation that involves constant change (10)
VOLATILITY : Anagram of(… translation) TOIL AT LIVY.
5 Note about part of speech you heard (6)
RENOWN : RE(about;with reference to) + homophone of(… you heard) “noun”(a part of speech in grammar).
Defn: …;distinction;reputation.
6 He often helps a mad scientist dig for missing heads (4)
IGOR : “dig for” minus their respective 1st letters(missing heads).
Defn: The name, derived from and reinforced by pop culture, that represents, in the public imagination, one who helps a mad scientist, such as Dr. Frankenstein and other horrific villains. It was first used in the Frankenstein movies based on the Mary Shelley novel, although there was no assistant in the latter.
7 It’s OK how the Spanish appreciate republican joining board (9)
TOLERABLE : [ OLE!(how;the expression that the Spanish use to show their appreciation) + R(abbrev. for “Republican”, a member of the political Republican Party) ] contained in(joining) TABLE(board;the flat surface on which a meal is served).
8 They indicate when to check speed of traffic lights (4,7)
TIME SIGNALS : TIME(to check;measure the speed of;how fast something is moving) + SIGNALS(traffic lights at a road intersection).
12 It doesn’t follow that nurse quit on being redeployed (3,8)
NON SEQUITUR : Anagram of(… being redeployed) NURSE QUIT ON.
Defn: Latin phrase describing a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.
14 Edit metaphor for economic growth (6,4)
RISING TIDE : A reverse clue. Reversal of(RISING, in a down clue) TIDE = “Edit“.
Defn: A figure of speech;a metaphor that describes an economic policy;economic growth that will benefit all in the economy, viz. “a rising tide lifts all boats”.
16 I didn’t hear you say I’m welcome back (4,5)
COME AGAIN : Double defn: 1st: Said when I didn’t hear what you said, and I would like you to repeat it; and 2nd: Something you say to welcome me back another time.
20 Loose dart is more in than out! (6)
TARDIS : Anagram of(Loose) DART IS.
Cryptic defn: Reference to the police box cum time machine of television’s time traveller Dr. Who. The space inside the box was much more than what it looked like from the outside.
23 The only way is up from here (5)
NADIR : Cryptic defn: Reference to the phrase, “When you’re at the bottom, the only way is up” or “After you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way is up” or equivalent.
24 Small trendy carrier, perhaps (4)
SHIP : S(abbrev. for “small”) + HIP(trendy;fashionable).
27 Say nothing? Unlikely, if you have one (3)
EGO : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”;for example;say) + O(the letter signifying 0;nothing).
Defn: The conscious mind, possession of which would give you the facility of speech. A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.
Thanks Scchua and Anto.
I do like a good CD and there is no shortage of them here, but I imagine they will have stumped many beginners.
The wordplay in the solutions of 26 and 14 may also have been beyond the average Quiptic solver, but I really like them.
Did anyone else notice the grid is one Z short of being a pangram? (There’s one in a clue instead. )
Thank you scchua and Anto.
Quite tricky, I failed to parse INDEED and EDIT. IGOR, in the sense of the clue, was new to me.
I took the bones to be ones TOTO had eaten…
Now that I have seen the parsing, the clues for INDEED and EDIT are my favourites!
I did not notice the near pangram, I rarely spot them.
Thanks to Anto and scchua.
Quiptic???
I did not manage to finish this having solved barely half the clues. However I managed to solve Saturday’s prize crossword without too much difficulty. Have I entered a parallel universe?
Bracoman@3 – no, it is just a question of how attuned you are to the setters wavelength. I don’t like Brummie puzzles and gave up on the prize, but this was a breeze for me, other than failing to twig the parsing of ‘indeed’. Thanks Anto, enjoyed that, and thanks Scchua for the parsing.
Great fun — I laughed aloud more than once. Favorite clue was 27D, EGO, although my parsing was a bit different: if someone has a bit of an ego to them you can’t get them to shut up.
Thanks both. Once again a Sloptic rather than a Quiptic from Anto
Don’t usually do these because I thought the quiptics were suppose to betoo easy. I didn’t find this easy at all. It was certainly more difficult than today’s cryptic. Completed it all but it was harder than I was expecting.
Thanks Anto
Thanks Anto and scchua
I thought this was a really good crossword, but on the difficult side even for a cryptic. A good example was IN TOTO (I agree with Cookie about where the bones were intended to be); a lovely clue, but far from an easy solve without the crossers!
I found this really difficult, mainly because I wasn’t expecting so many cryptic definitions in a quiptic.
More on Igor: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had no assistant. Bela Lugosi first played an Ygor in “Son of Frankenstein” (1939) but he wasn’t a lab assistant. His character was apparently conflated with a hunchbacked assistant named Daniel of all things in “House of Frankenstein” (1944).
Incidentally, I consider James Whale and Hammer Films to be two of the UK’s greatest exports!
It’s Anto and, yet again, too hard for a Quiptic (well, the right hand side anyway). This slot is supposed to be “for beginners” and RISING TIDE was just one example of a tough midweek cryptic clue that is totally out of place here.
I’ve only ever known swear *jar* and so SWEAR BOX was my last in.
Cookie/muffin, I considered those bones too, but told myself that after he’s done with them, you couldn’t say that they were in him, remnants sure, but not bones per se. I’m probably being over-precise?
I’ve also corrected my mistake about the original Frakenstein.
Well, the clue says “possible” and “might be found”, whereas to me it seems “certain” that TOTO has a skeleton…
Toto is presumably a native Kansan, so his skeleton does not contain bones “from Oz”.
@Cookie, @Ted: I’d assumed the bones referred to in 6A were the sort Toto might have gnawed on, as opposed to his own.
Well, I’m not convinced. To me, the operative word here was “IN” (not just gnawed on), and “possible”, “from” and “might be found” are used in the sense that if you collected bones “from” (those in) Oz, it is “possible” that some “might be found”, and the rest would not be found, in Toto.
I gave up on this halfway through it because I ran out of time – it was much more difficult than today’s Cryptic!
Thanks sschua
Nicholas @14, so did muffin @8 and I, and probably Ted, we assumed that TOTO had gnawed on bones in Oz and that some small ones were probably to be found IN his tummy (that is why one must not give dogs chicken remains, the bones can be dangerous).