Thanks to Hectence for a nicely tuned Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Very fine biscuit with no excess fat (5-4)
WAFER-THIN : WAFER(a thin crispy biscuit) + THIN(with no excess fat/lean and mean).
6. Birds of prey decapitated chickens (4)
OWLS : “fowls”(chickens) minus its 1st letter(decapitated …).
8. Special forces tired out containing catastrophe (8)
DISASTER : SAS(abbrev. for the Special Air Service, a special forces unit in the British Army) contained in(… containing) anagram of(… out) TIRED.
9. Seller‘s against completion before October vacation (6)
VENDOR : V(abbrev. for “versus”/against as in “Man U v. Man City”) + END(the completion/the finish) plus(before) “October” minus its inner letters(vacation).
10. More or less right to leave time to enter elegantly (6)
NEATLY : “nearly”(more or less/about) minus(… to leave) “r”(abbrev. for “right”) containing(… to enter) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
11. Spectator‘s using toilet before King and Queen arrive (8)
ONLOOKER : [ON (the) LOO](using the toilet) plus(before … arrive) [K(abbrev. for “king” in chess notation) plus(and) ER(abbrev. for Elizabeth Regina, the Queen).
12. Swindle nets £1,000 case of Armagnac brandy (6)
COGNAC : CON(a swindle/a confidence trick) containing(nets) G(abbrev. for “a grand”, £1000) + 1st and last letters of(case of) “Armagnac“.
And both are brandies:
15. Time left at home with girl makes young horse (8)
YEARLING : YEAR(a period of time) + L(abbrev. for “left”) + IN(at home/not out and about) plus(with) G(abbrev. for “girl”).
16. Poor at singing and fade out after bum note (4-4)
TONE-DEAF : Anagram of(… out) FADE placed after(after) anagram of(bum) NOTE.
19. Former copper initially suspended and partner gets pardon (6)
EXCUSE : EX-(prefix signifying “former”/once) + CU(symbol for the chemical element, copper) + 1st letter of(initially) “suspended” plus(and) E(abbrev. for “East”, the partner of “West”, in the game of bridge).
21. Cross states in endless trek (8)
TRAVERSE : AVERS(states/asserts) contained in(in) “trek” minus its last letter(endless …).
22. Open local with student in charge (6)
PUBLIC : PUB(a local/a drinking establishment near one’s home) plus(with) L(letter displayed by a student driver) + I/C(abbrev. for “in charge”)
24. Back company involved in project (6)
SECOND : CO(abbrev. for “company”, a commercial concern) contained in(involved in) SEND(to project/to emit, as in “to send light beams into the night”).
Defn: …/to support a proposal, say.
25. Dad picked up bargains with vegetables (8)
PARSNIPS : Homophone of(… picked up) “pa”(term of endearment for one’s father/dad) + SNIPS(bargains/ surprisingly cheap items).
… not a whit carrot.
26. Busks avidly, content reflecting requests (4)
ASKS : Hidden in(…, content/the inside of) reversal of(… reflecting) “Busks avidly“.
27. Friend accepts Bond books: ultimate misogyny without objection (9)
PATIENTLY : PAL(a friend) containing(accepts) [TIE(a bond/a link) + NT(abbrev. for the New Testament, the collection of books in the Bible)] + last letter of(ultimate) “misogyny“.
Defn: …/with tolerance.
Down
1. Put pen to paper with ceremony (5)
WRITE : W(abbrev. for “with”) + RITE(a ceremony/a customary practice).
2. Press even has PM’s home number (7)
FLATTEN : FLAT(even/without any bumps) plus(has) TEN(No. 10, from 10 Downing Street, official residence of the UK Prime Minister).
3. Have another go on model railway (5)
RETRY : RE(on/with reference to) + T(the model of an early Ford motorcar) + RY(abbrev. for “railway”).
4. Order refurbishment of manor after hard year (7)
HARMONY : [Anagram of(refurbishment of) MANOR placed after(after) H(abbrev. for “hard”)] + Y(abbrev. for “year”).
Defn: …/the state in which everything is in its appropriate place, ie. in compatibility with one another.
5. Set up an unusual lab aboard vessel in Devonport, perhaps (5,4)
NAVAL BASE : Reversal of(Set up, in a down clue) AN + [anagram of(unusual) LAB contained in(in) VASE(a vessel/container, for cut flowers, say)].
Defn: An example of which/perhaps is the one in Devonport, Devon, England.
6. Defensive error gets cry of pain, followed by a long analysis (3,4)
OWN GOAL : OW!(a cry when feeling pain) plus(followed by) anagram of(… analysis) A LONG.
Defn: …, say, by a football team in a match.
7. Aims to pursue vague business left unfinished (5,4)
LOOSE ENDS : ENDS(aims/objectives) placed after(to pursue /to go after) LOOSE(vague/ill-defined).
13. Unscented old roses flourish around community centre (9)
ODOURLESS : Anagram of(… flourish) OLD ROSES containing(around) middle letter of(… centre) “community“.
14. Jollied along child always heading off bored (7,2)
CHEERED UP : CH(abbrev. for “child”) + E’ER(literary form of “ever”/always) + “fed up”(bored/up to here) minus its 1st letter(heading off …).
Defn: …/encourage someone in a cheerful manner.
17. Jealous of three points victory (1-0) by United brought in (7)
ENVIOUS : E,N,S(abbrev. for “east”,”north”,”south”, three compass points) containing(… brought in) [V(abbrev. for “victory”) + I(Roman numeral for 1)-O(letter representing 0) + U(abbrev. for “United”)].
18. Felt sad about a good cinema that’s shabby … (7)
FLEAPIT : Anagram of(… sad) FELT containing(about) [A + PI(short for “pious”/good)].
20. … about to dispose of film display unit (7)
CABINET : CA(abbrev. for “circa”/about that time, in reference to specific years) + BIN(to dispose of/to put into the waste bin) +E.T.(… The Extra-Terrestrial, crosswordland’s favourite movie directed by Steven Spielberg).
A curvy and an angular one:
22. Go round old city to find mashed food for baby (5)
PUREE : PEE(to urinate/to go, in slang) containing(round) UR(very old city, dating from circa 3800 BC).
23. Suggest impolitely Eliot’s characters being dropped (5)
IMPLY : “impolitely” minus letters of(…’s characters being dropped) “Eliot“.
A good Quiptic.
Liked PUREE
Did not parse NAVAL BASE apart from lab*
Thanks, scchua and Hectence
Thanks both. Pedants corner for 2d. Doesn’t the PM live above no 11, or has that changed?
Hectence delivers another enjoyable Quiptic and the scchua’s blog was (as always) very informative. So many thanks to both!
With respect to 17D I could start a debate about whether Envy and Jealousy are really the same thing:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy
However, for the purposes of this clue, I guess the identification is OK.
Shirl@2: According to Wikipedia . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_Downing_Street
. . (OK, not the most reliable source!), Boris did live in No 11 whilst Sajid Javid was Chancellor, but Rishi Sunak is now in No 11. There have been a few other examples of the PM and the Chancellor swapping residences in recent years.
Thanks Rick @3. Exactly where our Great Leader lays his head at night has often been a cause of speculation for his ex-wives!
Very neat indeed
Nice Quiptic. TONE DEAF was a treat. Other lovely ones were HARMONY, COGNAC, ENVIOUS, RETRY, OWN GOAL – and a special mention to IMPLY for an intriguing construction. Thanks, Hectence and scchua.
As usual from Hectence, delightfully plausible surfaces. I wonder if anyone else suffered my doubts about the parsing of ODOURLESS…With two of the widest letters in the first half of coMMuNitY and two of the narrowest in the second half, it took me a while to believe that U was indeed the centre.
Good Quiptic I thought with plenty of variety.
I liked the ON LOO KER.
Thanks Hectence and scchua.
It’s my birthday and I really enjoyed this – lovely way to spend the morning – first one of Hectence I have seen. Favourites were IMPLY COGNAC PATIENTLY. Couldn’t parse a couple including NAVALBASE. So thanks to scchua and to Hectence.
Now off to open presents – and a bottle of fizz.
An exemplary Quiptic from Hectence. A variety of cluing devices, a few that were write-ins from the definitions to get a beginner started, then a few with trickier constructions (NEATLY, IMPLY) to stretch the brain a bit, and not a dodgy clue in the lot. No complaints except that it was over too soon. Thanks to Hectence and scchua (and Happy Birthday to Fiona Anne).
‘Partners’ is often used to indicate NS or EW, but I think using the singular ‘partner’ to give E in 19a is a bit vague. Since the E follows the S from ‘suspended’, ‘opponent’ would have worked better, even though the surface reading would have been adversely affected.
Good stuff though, thanks to Hectence, and to scchua for the comprehensive blog.
PS. Happy birthday Fiona Anne, you must be a very patient person to have put off opening your presents (not to mention the ‘fizz’) until you’d done the crossword!
As a lockdown newbie to cryptic crosswords and this blog, I have not felt the need to join this comments community as Fiona Anne usually says what I was thinking, so I break my silence to wish her many happy returns and to thank her and in this case scchua (help with parsing needed and appreciated today) and Hectence.
A big dose of Paul’s toilet humour today. I do hope he’s not rubbing off on other setters.
Ahem.
I always enjoy a Hectence. I thought IMPLY and HARMONY were both neatly composed today, and even enjoyed the simple pleasures of WRITE. NEATLY was my last one in, with its tricksy wordplay. Very nice stuff all round, I thought.
I echo what blaise said about the pleasing plausibility of the surfaces. 9ac all too apposite for our lodger. I made this unnecessarily difficult by convincing myself that 2down was FIFTEEN, FT (press) around if (even??) followed by ten with an unexplained e in it, all meaning number. Looks obviously wrong as I write this, but at the time…Thanks to Hectence and sschua
Many happy returns Fiona Anne.