Thanks to Carpathian for a neat and enjoyable Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Confront air conditioning price (6)
ACCOST : AC(abbrev. for “air conditioning”) + COST(the price to pay for something).
4 Arrest English rose taking drug on Sunday (7)
ENGROSS : ENG(abbrev. for English) + rose” “minus(taking) “e”(abbrev. for the drug Ecstasy) plus(on) S(abbrev. for Sunday).
Defn: To arrest/capture someone’s attention or interest.
9 A labyrinth intended, we hear, to cause consternation (9)
AMAZEMENT : A + MAZE(a labyrinth) + homophone of(…, we hear) “meant”(intended, as in “I meant to say this, not that”).
10 Spy American man of refined manners (5)
AGENT : A(abbrev. for American) + GENT(short for “gentleman”/a man of refined manners).
11 Raced through a red-light section (5)
HARED : Hidden in(… section) “through a red-light“.
12 Plant line across Eastern Pacific (9)
PEACEABLE : PEA(a climbing plant) + CABLE(a line/rope) containing(across) E(abbrev. for Eastern).
13 Command police department returning to gallery (7)
DICTATE : Reversal of(… returning) CID(abbrev. for the Criminal Investigation Department of a police force) plus(to) TATE(one of four of the Tate art galleries in London, Liverpool or Cornwall).
15 Step across hard filament (6)
THREAD : TREAD(step/walk) containing(across) H(abbrev. for “hard”).
17 Hollow container by river (6)
CRATER : CRATE(a container for transporting goods) plus(by) R(abbrev. for “river).
19 Lift hatch noisily for bird (7)
JACKDAW : JACK(to lift, as with your car when you have a flat tyre) + homophone of(… noisily) “door”(a hatch/an opening in an aircraft, spacecraft or submarine).
22 Brief trip leading to deficit (9)
SHORTFALL : SHORT(brief) + FALL(to trip/stumble over something and fall).
24 Salesperson returning after six is a snake (5)
VIPER : Reversal of(… returning) REP(short for “sales representative”) placed after(after) VI(Roman numeral for “six”).
26 Cheer as story is rejected by Head of Ethics (5)
ELATE : Reversal of(… is rejected) TALE(a story) plus(by) 1st letter of(Head of) “Ethics“.
Defn: …/to make happy.
27 Convey miracle oddly missing objective (9)
IMPARTIAL : IMPART(to convey/to pass on, as in “to impart an understanding of the concept of …”) + “miracle” minus its 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th letters, respectively, of(oddly missing).
Defn: From a neutral standpoint/not subjective.
28 Stolen pans first provoking unfounded criticism (7)
POTSHOT : HOT(describing stolen articles) placed after(… first) POTS(cooking pans).
29 Journalist rejected current alternative (6)
EDITOR : Reversal of(rejected) TIDE(a current/a surge or trend, as in “a tide of dissatisfaction”) + OR(indicating/introducing an alternative).
Down
1 Adult beaten and embarrassed (7)
ABASHED : A(abbrev. for “adult”) + BASHED(beaten/struck hard and violently).
2 Conduct church melody (5)
CHAIR : CH(abbrev. for “church”) + AIR(a melody/a tune).
Defn: …, a meeting, say.
3 Firm dates rotting quickly (9)
STEADFAST : Anagram of(… rotting) DATES + FAST(quickly).
4 Remove passage (7)
EXTRACT : Double defn: 1st: … 23down, for example; and 2nd: … from/part of a body of text.
5 Virtue of good competition (5)
GRACE : G(abbrev. for “good”) + RACE(a competition to see who finishes first).
6 Those in charge lifting six deliveries from the boat and into the water (9)
OVERBOARD : BOARD(… of directors/those in charge of an organisation) placed below(lifting, in a down clue) OVER(collectively, six deliveries from bowler to batsman in cricket).
7 Place support for item of furniture (6)
SETTEE : SET(to place/to put in position) + TEE(support for a golfer’s ball when playing a shot off the tee).
8 Sad film of little dish (6)
WEEPIE : WEE(little/tiny) + PIE(a dish/a food).
14 Funny cartoon about oddly rum bird (9)
CORMORANT : Anagram of(Funny) CARTOON containing(about) 1st and 3rd letters of(oddly) “rum“.
16 Admired bottling company brought back (9)
RECOVERED : REVERED(admired/respected) containing(bottling) CO(abbrev. for “company”/a commercial firm).
18 Pragmatist about to join the elite (7)
REALIST : RE(about/with reference to) plus(to join) A-LIST(the elite/the top celebrities).
19 German agreement to cut off tail of dodgy car (6)
JALOPY : JA(German for “yes”/agreement) + LOP(to cut off/to remove, as with branches on a tree) + last letter of(tail of) “dodgy“.
Defn: … that could be dodgy to drive.
20 Singer with broken barrel (7)
WARBLER : W(abbrev. for “with”) + anagram of(broken) BARREL.
21 Inattentive? Doctor please! (6)
ASLEEP : Anagram of(Doctor) PLEASE.
23 Canines maybe tailing enigmatic European travelling home, initially (5)
TEETH : 1st letters, respectively, of(…, initially) “tailing enigmatic European travelling home“.
Defn: …/perhaps those in your mouth.
25 Spot bit of orange in beer (5)
POINT : 1st letter of(bit of) “orange” contained in(in) PINT(beer, as in “we’re going to the pub for a pint”).
Defn: A particular place, as in “at the point where the roads converge”.
Thanks both.
2 birds on Pierre’s day off? He must be livid!
3 birds Shirl – a triple whammy! All good fun.
Thanks Carpathian and scchua
Very nice, as always. I had a few question marks, but most turned out to be my misparsings. One minor one does remain, though – why “unfounded” in 28a? It’s not needed for the clue, and isn’t necessarily true.
Thanks for the blog. As you say, a neat quiptic.
Muffin @3 the Googled dictionary for potshot gives “a criticism, especially a random or unfounded one.”
I am sick as a parrot.
…so not necessarily true that it’s unfounded, Andy 🙂
Good Quiptic with neat clues.
I particularly liked PEACEABLE.
Thanks Carpathian and scchua.
Seems to me that the double definition in 4d EXTRACT is barely double — “remove” and “the thing that’s removed.”
I love the cow settee, scchua!
Valentine @8
I thought that at first, but there is the distinction that the first meaning as a verb, the second a noun.
.is.
Not enough distinction for me.
Muffin @6 – well … unneceassarily pedantic IMO! Plenty of clues might have e.g. “deer” as a definition with elk as a solution , without a ? to indicate def by example. I agree that the unfounded is strictly unnecessary, but I thought it gave a rather more precise definition. Plenty of clues use synecdoche as a def, which is far less precise than this. a is a member of A, albeit a subset, is fine for me.
Yes, very neat. Thank you Carpathian and Scchua. Is there story to go with golfing jackdaw?
Andy @12
I don’t think it can be pedantic to ask for words to be left out!
I prefer clues to have as few words as possible.
Daw and door are not homophones, IMH – American – O
cataphract1 @15
As far as I’m concerned, I agree, but it’s that “rhotic/non-rhotic” dichotomy again, much discussed previously.
Really enjoyed this. Half way through suspected a pangram which helped with the remainder. Nice when the Quiptic gets some of the grown-up fun 🙂
Thanks both!
Muffin @16: But “daw” and “door” are, even if I say the latter like a Bostonian, still not terribly close–it’s also a different vowel.
And I disagree that unnecessary words in the definition are always bad if they still result in an accurate and fair clue–and it’s sometimes a misleading device to use an unusually verbose definition. But in this instance, I do agree that “unfounded” doesn’t add anything much to that clue.
@15 As a Londoner, I say “daw” and “door” are exact homophones.
Very nice Quiptic.
Thanks Carpathian and scchua.
6d – Oh, is that where the ‘six’ was coming from? I kept trying to get ‘VI’ in there. *shakes fist* Criiiiiickettttt!
The other tricky Britishisms were ‘weepie’ and ‘hared’, which I’d never heard before but could infer from context.
16d – I got ‘recovered’, but only as a quasi-dd – a bottling company would have a capping machine to ‘cover’ the goods, no? Didn’t fully parse the clue until reading the explanation, so thanks scchua.
@15,18,19 – Funnily enough, I considered ‘jackdaw’ for 19a at least three times before I finally plugged it in. I could see jack > open, but not the ‘daw’ part. When the Guardian marked it as correct and I spent about five minutes rolling the word in my mouth until I channeled Cary Grant (or at least a parody of him): do-o-aw
Words: 1
Characters: 5
il principe dell’oscurità@13. That’s his pet jackdaw he’s taken golfing. Jackdaws are known to have an affinity with humans.
Re 28: in my opinion (it’s the only one I have) pots are not pans, they are completely different. Pots are deep and pans are shallow. The words aren’t at all interchangeable.
Otherwise a worthy puzzle, a little on the hard side for a quiptic, but not with wit or humour for me.
@JohnB. Frying pans may be shallow, but saucepans?
As an ex-Geordie Londoner I’d agree that jackdaw and back door rhyme exactly. But with my other, ex-Bristolian, hat on, I’m not so sure!
Thank you setter, blogger and commenters for the usual lovely time!