Thank you to Carpathian. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Difficult prisoner loudly taking drugs (9)
CONFUSING : CON(short for “convict”/prisoner) + F(abbrev. for “forte”, musical instruction to play loudly) + USING(taking drugs).
6. Abundant plunder left out (4)
RIFE : “rifle”(to plunder/to ransack) minus(… out) “l”(abbrev. for “left”).
8. Foreign watches discussed (8)
OVERSEAS : Homophone of(… discussed) “oversees”(watches how and what’s being done/supervises).
9. Observe red rag waving (6)
REGARD : Anagram of(… waving) RED RAG.
Defn: Gaze at steadily.
10. Tolkien’s monster concealed flower (6)
ORCHID : ORC(a monster in Tolkien’s “Lord Of The Rings”) + HID(concealed from view).
11. Yearning to hold one work of art (8)
PAINTING : PANTING(yearning/longing for with your tongue hanging out, figuratively) containing(to hold) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
12. Plays for time somewhere in the theatre (6)
STALLS : Double defn: 1st: Speak or act deliberately vaguely to gain more time before taking proper action; and 2nd: …/the seats on the ground floor in a theatre/playhouse.
15. Means of removing liquid from crushed gardenia (8)
DRAINAGE : Anagram of(crushed) GARDENIA.
16. Criticise old master stealing artist’s landscape? (8)
PANORAMA : PAN(to criticise/to find fault with) + O(abbrev. for “old”) + MA(abbrev. for “master”) containing(stealing) RA(abbrev. for a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, an artist).
19. Land in eastern nation (6)
ESTATE : E(abbrev. for “eastern”) + STATE(a nation).
21. Republican upset after film showing abuse (8)
MISTREAT : [R(abbrev. for “Republican”, a member of the Republican Party) + EAT(to upset/to annoy, as in “what’s eating you”)] placed after(after) MIST(a film of tiny drops of moisture on a surface – a piece of glass or one’s eyes, say)
22. Calm observed round River Ribble finally (6)
SERENE : SEEN(observed/watched) containing(round) R(abbrev. for “river”) + last letter of(… finally) “Ribble“.
24. Season some stew in terrine (6)
WINTER : Hidden in(some) “stew in terrine“.
25. Nice men struggling with European for prominence (8)
EMINENCE : Anagram of(… struggling) NICE MEN plus(with) E(abbrev. for “European”).
26. Resent heads of exiting nations vacillations year-on-year (4)
ENVY : 1st letters, respectively, of(heads of) “exiting nations vacillations year-on-year“.
27. Plant setter keeps in dilapidated toilets (9)
MISTLETOE : ME(self-referential pronoun for setter of this crossword) containing(keeps in) anagram of(dilapidated) TOILETS.
Down
1. Caught balls in lid (5)
COVER : C(abbrev. for “caught”, in cricket scores) + OVER(a series of balls bowled to the batsman in cricket).
2. Raced back with almost half a sea creature (7)
NARWHAL : Reversal of(… back) RAN(raced/move at speed) + W(abbrev. for “with”) + “half” minus its last letter(almost …).
3. Overturn northern result (5)
UPEND : UP(northern/describing the part of a country, say, that is towards the north) + END(result/ outcome).
4. Popular drink I had lacking flavour (7)
INSIPID : IN(popular/fashionable) + SIP(to drink in small mouthfuls) + I’D(contraction of “I had”).
5. Shoot a regiment that’s out of order (9)
GERMINATE : Anagram of(… that’s out of order) A REGIMENT.
Defn: …/of a seed or spore, to grow and put out, well, shoots.
6. Trendy seaside destination with no leader (5,2)
RIGHT ON : “Brighton”(seaside destination in southern England) minus its 1st letter(with no leader).
Defn: …/fashionable and modern.
7. Keep hours of darkness for two weeks (9)
FORTNIGHT : FORT(a keep/the strongest or central tower of a castle) + NIGHT(hours of darkness).
13. Time idiot ran awful convention (9)
TRADITION : T(abbrev. for “time”) + anagram of(… awful) IDIOT RAN.
14. Trapped by strange instrument (5,4)
SNARE DRUM : SNARED(trapped/caught by, well, a snare) plus(by) RUM(strange/odd).
17. Remain too long in public street with a Yankee (7)
OUTSTAY : OUT(in public/not secret, as your skeletons in the cupboard might become) + ST(abbrev. for “street”) plus(with) A + Y(letter represented “Yankee” in the phonetic alphabet).
18. Recasts poor player (7)
ACTRESS : Anagram of(… poor) RECASTS.
20. Hill torn apart in deluge (7)
TORRENT : TOR(a high rocky hill) + RENT(torn apart into pieces).
22. Southern ice art (5)
SKILL : S(abbrev. for “southern”) + KILL(to ice, in US slang).
23. Husband in pleasant and appropriate situation (5)
NICHE : H(abbrev. for “husband”) contained in(in) NICE(pleasant/agreeable).
Nice Quiptic
Favourites: ORCHID, ENVY, SKILL
Thanks, B+S
Pleasant. I was held up by having STAGES at 12a – but maybe that sense of ‘stages’ is Australian (as in ‘he often stages for a free kick’). I did wonder why there were several stages in the theater. ORCHID, SERENE, SNARE DRUM were all nice. Thanks, Carpathian and scchua.
Lovely stuff. Liked ORCHID and SNARE DRUM. Also good to see the same word clued totally differently in the Cryptic today. Thanks for the colourful blog scchua and gentle solve Carpathian.
Did this slowly [during a great radio interview with Tana Douglas, rock’n’roll’s first female roadie.. AC/DC, Quattro, Santana, Diamond inter alia]. Enjoyed them both, thanks S and B…great narwhal pic scchua, now I’ll look up what they use that long thing for.
Spot on. Carpathian always does the best Quiptics. I particularly liked the simplicity of OVERSEAS and the silliness of COVER.
Thanks Carpathian and scchua
Very good Quiptic apart, possibly, from my last two, MISTREAT and SKILL, which both used obscure meanings.
Not happy with UP = northern. In a geographical context it more usually means “away from main population centres”.
WINTER was a very nice hidden.
Muffin @6 – “oop nawth” and “dahn sowf” seem pretty common usages, also my map has north at the top.
Shirl @7
A few Christmases ago I was given a British road atlas with south at the top. It’s really disconcerting to use!
Aha! it helps if you don’t misunderstand “loudly” as a homophones indicator in 1a, and spend ages scratching your head and wondering if you’ve had a sheltered upbringing, or the wrong accent.
grantinfreo @4: I don’t think anyone knows for sure.
Thanks scchua – For 6d you’ve inadvertently stated that “Brighton” is minus its LAST letter. Did anyone else struggle with 21a? It was my LOI, and had to cheat. I think I’ve seen mist as a synonym of film before (thought I find it tenuous…) and this was my first encounter with upset = eat, but I too explained it to myself as “what’s eating you”.
davlo@11 Yes I struggled with MISTREAT as well. For me the East side went in a lot easier than the West side. An enjoyable solve, though and a nice blog.
Enjoyable fun. Thanks to Carpathian and sschua
[Shirl @7, muffin @8. Teaching in England one time, I became good friends with the Geography teacher. On his request, once home, I sent him an Aussie map of the world with south at the top (and centered on the Pacific). When he put it up in his classroom, he reported, it nearly caused a riot. “That’s not right, sir!”]
gladys @ 9 Me too – glad I’m not the only one. Homophones are my bete noire so I puzzled for ages before I worked out it wasn’t a homophone.
Good cryptic. Liked SERENE, SKILL, RIFE, FORTNIGHT
Thanks to Carpathian and scchua
Good Quiptic with smooth surfaces.
I particularly liked SNARE DRUM and SKILL. A redundant ‘S’ has crept into the blog for FORTNIGHT (not nights). With the definition as ‘two weeks’ it was pretty easy to get the answer.
Thanks Carpathian and scchua.
davao @11 and Petert @12
Yes also struggled with MISTREAT – must remember the upset=eat use
Thanks davlo and Robi. Blog corrected.
First one I’ve tried in awhile and really enjoyed this, perfect level of difficulty for me – only cheated MISTREAT.
This was a lovely, spot-on Quiptic and a terrific blog – thank you both. I rather liked MISTLETOE.
I tackle the Quiptics occasionally but rarely get to complete them, so I was very happy to manage this one, although slowly. Thanks to Carpathian for pitching at a good level for a Quiptic.