Thank you to Pasquale. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Firm support for unoriginal performer? (6)
COPIER : CO(abbrev. for “company”, a commercial firm) + PIER(a solid support designed to sustain vertical pressure).
4. Salesperson by a street offering food (6)
REPAST : REP(short for a sales representative/salesperson) plus(by) A + ST(abbrev. for “street”).
9. Issue new item (4)
EMIT : Anagram of(new) ITEM.
Defn: …/to produce and discharge.
10. Not giving up with prettiness destroyed (10)
PERSISTENT : Anagram of(… destroyed) PRETTINESS.
11. Fuss when sibling loses a right (6)
BOTHER : “brother”(a male sibling) minus one of its(loses a) “r”(abbrev. for “right”).
12. What may be worn — more short robes, properly tailored (8)
SOMBRERO : Anagram of(…, properly tailored) [“more” minus its last letter(short) + ROBES].
13. Downcast journalists probing exploit (9)
DEPRESSED : PRESS(journalists/news reporters, collectively) contained in(probing) DEED(an exploit/a feat).
15. A male cat gets something tiny (4)
ATOM : A + TOM(a male cat).
16. Announcement of importance? Hang about (4)
WAIT : Homophone of(Announcement of) “weight”(importance/significance).
17. Stars offering old jokes on island (9)
CAPRICORN : CORN(old jokes/humour considered old-fashioned and trite) placed after(on) CAPRI(a resort island in Italy).
Answer: The sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation of stars, the Capricornus.
21. The fellow left to go down to island capital (8)
HELSINKI : HE(third-person pronoun for that fellow) + L(abbrev. for “left”) + SINK(to go down/drop to a lower level) + I(abbrev. for “island”).
Defn: … city of Finland.
22. Alter church, leading to endless wrath (6)
CHANGE : CH(abbrev. for “church”) plus(leading to) “anger”(wrath/fury) minus its last letter(endless …).
24. Unusually decent boss? Less than ideal (6,4)
SECOND BEST : Anagram of(Unusually) DECENT BOSS.
25. For foot one needs a doctor (4)
IAMB : I(Roman numeral for “one”) plus(needs) A + MB(abbrev. for “Medicinae Baccalaureus”, translated as Bachelor of Medicine, a doctor’s degree).
Answer: … or iambus/a foot or unit of sound in poetry.
26. Tot comes with me to river when it’s hot? (6)
SUMMER : SUM(to tot/to add up) plus(comes with) ME plus(to) R(abbrev. for “river”).
27. Union Jack, maybe, on vessel (6)
FLAGON : FLAG(an example of which/maybe is the Union Jack, effectively the national flag of the UK) + ON.
Down
1. Arrive carrying cooking utensil and dish (7)
COMPOTE : COME(to arrive/reach one’s destination) containing(carrying) POT(a rounded or cylindrical container/utensil used in cooking).
2. Quality of note which cricketers need (5)
PITCH : Double defn: 1st: …, a musical note, that is; and 2nd: The ground … to play their game on.
3. Domains filling English politicians with anger (7)
EMPIRES : [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + MPS(abbrev. for Members of Parliaments, elected politicians) ] containing(filling … with) IRE(anger/rage).
5. Imagine not beginning tricky puzzle (6)
ENIGMA : Anagram of(… tricky) [“Imagine” minus its 1st letter(not beginning)].
6. A national organisation associated with one cold region or another (9)
ANTARCTIC : A + NT(abbrev. for the National Trust, an organisation for the preservation of heritage) plus(associated with) ARCTIC(the one cold region around the North Pole).
Defn: …, cold region, that is.
7. Pet with brown tail mostly missing — odd (7)
TANTRUM : TAN(a brown or yellowish-brown colour) + “tail” minus 3 out of its 4 letters(mostly missing) + RUM(odd/strange).
Defn: …/an outburst of bad temper.
8. Angry old lover, an underground worker who wants questions answered? (5-8)
CROSS-EXAMINER : CROSS(angry/furious – there’s a lot of anger in this puzzle?) + EX(an old lover/a party to a romantic relationship that’s over) + [A MINER](an underground worker, in a mine, specifically).
14. Reason for cancelling outdoor event? Minor star is upset (9)
RAINSTORM : Anagram of(… is upset) MINOR STAR.
… or suspended at the least:
16. Little person not getting on — we express sadness (7)
WEEPERS : WEE(little/small) + “person” minus(not getting) “on“.
18. Article about musical event (7)
RECITAL : Anagram of(… about) ARTICLE.
19. Almost all of a military group in a systematic plan for living (7)
REGIMEN : “regiment”(a military group/a unit in the armed forces) minus its last letter(Almost all of …).
20. Nervous, performing with advantage (2,4)
ON EDGE : ON(performing/doing a turn on stage, as in “Who’s on tonight at the Apollo Theatre?”) plus(with) EDGE(an advantage/a factor putting one ahead of the competition).
23. A player going down the side of the field is inspiring (5)
AWING : A + WING(position in a team of one/a player going down the side of the field in a match of, say, football or rugby).
Defn: … with awe.
“Properly” confused me for a while with SOMBRERO but a nice Quiptic, and a well-illustrated blog.
Excellent Quiptic, perfect for beginners.
Thanks, both.
Scchua – in 12 across, more is shortened, not robes. Otherwise, you have no S. Thanks for the blog.
Thanks Pasquale and scchua
Mostly a good Quiptic, though the definition for SOMBRERO was a bit perfunctory.
Anyone else try PROF at 25a?
Thanks Crispy. Blog corrected.
Pet = Tantrum was a new one for me. Perhaps IAMB a little obscure for quiptic level but everything was fair.
A lovely Quiptic. I’m not sure that a Quiptic needs to have straightforward GK, Heracles @6. Beginners are learning the conventions of cryptic crosswords, but not necessarily starting off on a journey of learning random facts. Thanks, Pasquale and scchua.
An exemplary Quiptic. I mostly know REPAST from the alternative Grace: Thank you lord for this repast / May the next one come quite fast
muffin @4 – I didn’t quite get to entering PROF, but I was definitely considering it…
Thanks scchua and Pasquale.
From my irregular Quiptic attempts, this was one that I managed to complete, which is very satisfying; thanks Pasquale.
Pet and tantrum is also new for me, Heracles @6.
I thought the definition for SOMBRERO was very week. It’s just one step away from “a thing”.
Pet = Tantrum still baffles me
Also have never come across AWING – awesome, awful, awe-inspiring, yes, but not awing.
Pet / tantrum makes no sense to me, and Iamb had to be dredged up from somewhere very deep. Otherwise a nice straightforward Quiptic. Thanks S and P.
Having started dipping my toe in cryptic crosswords just last week, this is the first quiptic I have managed to complete, which was very satisfying (I’m still a long way off completing any of the actual cryptics, but I shall keep plugging away).
I came here, though, to see if someone could shed light on the pet/tantrum thing – I’ve never heard or seen written anywhere an equivalence between the two – I only got the clue because all the cross letters left TANTRUM as the only word that would fit.
A quick search did find this article from 2009 where it would appear a similar clue caused some controversy.
And like ragged @10, I also have never come across AWING.
Every day is a school day, as they say.
A “pet” might also be called a “hissy fit”.
I think I’ve come across ‘pet’ for TANTRUM before, probably in Dickens or Trollope, that kind of era. WEEPERS was my LOI, and I wasn’t impressed, but I thought HELSINKI was clever. IAMB was obvious from the crossers, but I didn’t know about MB for doctor.
Nicely aimed at a Quiptic level; .
For 25 I put in “inch” figuring that CH was one of the obscure British abbreviations. like RA for artist. Oh well, wrong Britishism.
To me, a pet is more a silent sulk than a noisy tantrum.
Thanks to both S & B.
@Mtega 11
I find this site quite useful
Oops..
Trying again.
And for the third time
https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/tantrum.html
You’ll have to copy and paste. I can’t the link procedure to work. Just me I expect.
It was…
When one of our cats is being particularly whiny, I often say that the pet is in a pet.
In general I found this perfect for a Quiptic–impeccable clues as always from Pasquale, and no obscure words or difficult constructions. (Pace those who don’t recall the word IAMB–it feels like that one is in the category of words you should know or at least be able to deduce given a half-decent high school English education. I mean, as in iambic pentameter? It’s also a staple of American style crosswords, by the way: a foot is always an iamb here–you never see trochees or dactyls in crosswords for obvious reasons.)
I was held up in the lower right corner because I read the clue for CHANGE as starting with the word “After” rather than “Alter,” which left the clue with a mysterious lack of a definition. Apparently I’m going blind or something.
Oh, and for those doubting AWING: consider this sentence: “He completely awed me with the breadth of his knowledge.” Put that in present progressive, and you get, He is completely awing me with the breadth of his knowledge. Seems fair to me.
PET is something I have never come across before for tantrum. Every day is a school day.
I found this very hard and had to reveal all but 10 clues, whereas I managed the cryptic crossword fine (no reveals but had to use “check” numerous times- is that cheating?)
Steffen, funny what we think of as cheating. I think the check button is, but I don’t hesitate to use an anagram solver if the fodder is obvious.
Of course it’s not cheating.
Crosswords are meant to be fun, there’s no point bashing your head against them in frustration on some dubious point of principle. If you need a bit of assistance, go for it, no one else even needs to know.
In any case, I find it very rare indeed that I need to use the check button for Pasquale because his clueing is so precise that once you’ve found the solution, you just know it’s correct. Even if the definition is a bit broad, like SOMBRERO, the wordplay is crystal clear, so it couldn’t possibly be anything else.
Great puzzle as usual, thanks, Pasquale and scchua.
Took longer than yesterday’s Cryptic, but that’s often the case (especially if Vulcan’s setting the cryptic).
CAPRICORN emerged once all the crossers were in, I was banging my head with that one. REGIMEN went in late, too. IAMB needed the check function (I haven’t heard of an MB before): despite knowing about Iambic Pentameter and so forth, it was a word that I hadn’t associated with a foot.
Thanks for the blog which cleared up a couple of mysteries the clues still held!
Just wanted to note how much I love this site and let you know that it has helped me tackle cryptics in leaps and bounds since It was recommended to me by a commenter on The Guardian’s comment thread. I can’t remember the name of the poster but I am so grateful for the suggestion.