I don’t think I’ve blogged a Quiptic before but I was happy to stand in today.
This one fills the bill admirably, I think, with a good variety of clue types, all fairly constructed. Thank you, Hectence.
Definitions are underlined in the clues
Across
1 Foolish daughter’s at the back of the boat when sailor’s taking charge (4,2,1,5)
DAFT AS A BRUSH
D [daughter] + AFT [the back of the boat] + AS [when] + AB [sailor] + RUSH [charge]
8 Wrongdoing connected with East Anglian church? (7)
OFFENCE
OF [connected with] + FEN [East Anglian] + CE [Church of England]
9 Organisation of travel to old city’s mismanaged (7)
TOURISM
TO + UR [the familiar old city] + an anagram [managed] of MIS
11 Awkwardly silent about guy, initially appearing in underwear (7)
SINGLET
Anagram [awkwardly] of SILENT round G[uy] initially
12 Writer spoke briefly about flowers (7)
DAHLIAS
[Roald] DAHL [writer] + a reversal [about] of SAI[d] [spoke briefly]
13 Chose to adopt editorial content (5)
OPTED
Contained in adOPT EDitorial
14 Nobody’s against multinational organisation having work arranged (9)
UNOPPOSED
UN [multinational organisation] + OP [work] + POSED [arranged]
16 Kill male rabbit and get regular meat for cooler (3,6)
ICE BUCKET
ICE [kill] + BUCK [male rabbit] + alternate [regular] letters of mEaT
19 Place religious education with priest (5)
PADRE
PAD [place] + RE [religious education]
21 Charlie’s funny dog, maybe, has teatime treat (7)
CRUMPET
C [Charlie – NATO phonetic alphabet] + RUM [funny] + PET [dog, maybe]
23 Detect slight mistrust in conversation (4,3)
FIND OUT
Sounds like [in conversation] ‘fine doubt’ – slight mistrust]
24 My dogs? (7)
SETTERS
Double definition
25 Good-humoured old copper’s put on line in clash (7)
JOCULAR
O [old] + CU [copper] + L [line] in JAR [clash]
26 Platform for pressing items? (7,5)
IRONING BOARD
Cryptic definition
Down
1 Diversion during last month takes junction out of use (7)
DEFUNCT
FUN [diversion] in DEC[ember] – last month + T [junction]
2 Stroked female working dog’s head and took control (7)
FONDLED
F [female] + ON [working] + D[og] + LED [took control]
3 Staggered by scrum following One Direction (9)
AWESTRUCK
RUCK [scrum] after A WEST [one direction]
4 Pretended to throw out cadet (5)
ACTED
Anagram [to throw out] of CADET
5 Knock about with bruiser at university (5,2)
ROUGH UP
ROUGH [bruiser] + UP [at university]
6 Drinks bottle’s last dregs (7)
SPIRITS
SPIRIT [bottle] + [dreg]S
7 Visits very good English church on Sunday that is falling apart (4,2,6)
GOES TO PIECES
GOES TO [visits] PI [short for ‘pious’ – very good] + E [English] + CE [Church of England – for the second time, unfortunately] + S [Sunday]
10 Tortuous drive meant us having accident (12)
MISADVENTURE
Anagram [tortuous] of DRIVE MEANT US
15 Not in area by 1st July, old boy becomes unemployed (3,2,1,3)
OUT OF A JOB
OUT OF [not in] + A [area] + J[uly] + OB [old boy]
17 Hesitation about ridiculous quota with zero latitude (7)
EQUATOR
ER [hesitation] round an anagram [ridiculous] of QUOTA
18 Many met up going out with bridge players (7)
UMPTEEN
Anagram [going out] of MET UP + E N [bridge players]
19 Some rampant algae can appear to be a cure-all (7)
PANACEA
Hidden reversed [rampant?] in algAE CAN APpear
20 Sketched funny old journalist supporting party (7)
DOODLED
Anagram [funny] of OLD + ED [journalist] after [supporting, in a down clue] DO [party]
22 Boxer beginning to train young lad (5)
TYSON
T[rain] Y[oung] SON [lad]
Eileen – you’ve posted your blog in the wrong place!!
drofle @1
Thanks for the heads-up. Category now corrected.
What a fabulous and fun Quiptic! I really enjoyed this one. There were so many clues that that I liked, especially 9a, 15d, 25a, 20d, 21a, 11a, 1a, 3d.
Thank you Hectence and Elieen.
Thanks Hectence and Eileen
I found this very much harder than Chifonie in the paper. I was held up by having COME instead of GOES in 7d (as in “it’s come to pieces”) and trying to work ULT instead of DEC for “last month” in 1d
Favourites were two late ones in, 1a and TOURISM.
Like Muffin, I found this trickier than the cryptic, and more fun. Some quite tricky constructions, or perhaps I mean constructions with many moving parts, e.g. DAFT AS A BRUSH. I liked OFFENCE very much. I usually struggle with anagrams, but it wasn’t too hard to find the anagram of QUOTA 😉 .
I read “rampant” in 19d in the heraldic sense, as in a rampant lion, i.e. standing or rearing up.
Good fun. Thanks, Hectence and Eileen.
phitonelly @5 – I read ‘rampant’ as you did but it didn’t exactly suggest a reversal to me.
I thought it was OK as it was in a down clue, Eileen.
I found this crossword too hard for a quick cryptic, which was what I was expecting as a begginer solver. Last week’s was bad, but this was even harder. Where should a beginner go now to learn how to solve these things?
Hi Fred,
I agree that some of these aren’t very friendly for those learning.
Your best bet is probably just to go back in the Guardian archives to do some older Monday puzzles by Rufus.
Surely the clue at 17 should be “zero latitude”, not just “latitude”. The equator is zero latitude.
Thanks very much to setter (woof!) and blogger. Minor: are we missing the S for Sunday in 7D?
vogel421 @11 – yes, we are: for the sake of the archive, I’ll fix it now. Thanks.