I think this one fills the Quiptic slot very well, with no obscurities of vocabulary, construction or references.
ACROSS
1 PANATELLA Anagram (‘change’) of ‘lent a pal’ + ‘a’.
6 COST Envelope of S (‘beginning to S[nore]’) in COT (‘bed’).
8 DUMPLING D (‘Dutch’) + anagrams (‘stewed’) of ‘plum’ and ‘gin’.
9 APPEND Charade of ‘a’ + PP (‘couple of pages’) + END (‘last section’).
10 THRUSH Double definition; the bird and an infection(or this, if you happen to be a horse).
11 COGITATE Envelope (‘wearing’) of GIT (‘fool’) in COAT (‘anorak’) + E (‘English’).
12 SPEECH Envelope (‘during’) of PEE (‘relieve oneself’) in SCH (abbreviation of ‘school’).
15 LISTLESS Double definition, one slightly cryptic LIST-LESS (without catalogue’).
16 CRACKPOT Likewise: CRACK-POT (‘place to store drugs?’).
19 AGENDA ‘a’ + GENDA, homophone (‘a speaker’s’) of gender (grammatical category’).
21 AMERICAN Anagram (‘crazy’) of ‘main race’.
22 GOBBLE Double definition.
24 INCEST Hidden answer (‘to cover up’) in ‘[conv]INCE ST[ripper]’.
25 FRAGRANT FR (‘father’; very common, when it does not indicate PA) + ‘a’ + GRANT (‘gift’).
26 WARY Charade of WAR (‘hostilities’) + Y (‘close to [enem]Y’).
27 HELLEBORE Envelope of reversal(‘back’) of BELLE (‘beautiful girl’) in HORE, anagram (‘distraught’) of ‘hero’. A wild or cultivated flower.
DOWN
1 PLUSH Charade of PLUS (‘bonus’, principally as a noun) + H (‘hospital’; common abbreviation).
2 NEPTUNE Charade of a reversal(‘coming up’, in a down light) of PEN (‘swan’, the female of the species) + TUNE (‘air’). ‘for’ is mainly for the surface. Definition: the Roman sea-god.
3 THIGH Charade of T (‘T[eenager] principally’) + HIGH (‘excited’).
4 LOGICAL Envelope of G (‘German’) + I (‘setter’) in LOCAL (‘nearest pub’).
5 ANALGESIA Anagram (‘dodgy’) of ‘lasagne I’ + A (‘A[te] to start with’).
6 CAPITAL Charade of CA (‘chartered accountant’) + PIT (‘mine’) + AL (Alabama, ‘state’).
7 SANITISED Anagram (‘unbalanced’) of ‘diets a sin’.
13 PYROMANIA Charade of PY (‘extremely PeskY’) + ROMANIA (‘country’).
14 HOPSCOTCH Envelope of OPSC, an anagram (‘beaten’) of ‘cops’ in HOT (‘animated’) + CH (‘children’). For the purposes of the wordplay, the definition is just ‘game’, although hopscotch is of course a children’s game. The most elaborate construction of the puzzle, but clearly laid out in the clue.
17 CARVERY Envelope (‘entertaining’) of VE (‘disheartened V[eggi]E’) in CARRY (‘bear’).
18 TANKFUL T[h]ANKFUL (‘feeling appreciation’) less H (‘henry’; the standard abbreviation for the unit of inductance).
20 EMBARGO Anagram (‘erupt’) of ‘mob rage’.
22 GRAPE Charade of G (‘good’) + RAPE (‘crop’; the brassica grown mainly for the producton of rape seed oil, known in the US as canola).
23 LANCE Envelope of C (‘Catholic’) in LANE (‘narrow street’).
Thanks Raich – as you say, a reasonable standard for a Quiptic. I think, in 14d, the definitive clue is ‘children’s game’ with ‘animated’ giving ‘hotch’ which is a Scots definition of ‘to fidget’, although I may be splitting hairs here!
Thanks, Peter (and Raich as well for the fine puzzle in the Independent today …)
Fine blog and excellent Quiptic – everything clearly clued for a less experienced solver but a good variety of devices and some clever surfaces. Well done to Pan.
I liked SPEECH and INCEST (not that I’m into bodily functions, obviously) as well as GOBBLE, which for me is a perfect example of a clue for a Quiptic – nice play on words, good surface, smile when you get it.
That just might be a good call from Koran on HOPSCOTCH! Works either way, I think.
Hi Peter, I must say I enjoyed this. It has some delightful surfaces, like 21 and 22ac, or 2 and 3d, to cite but a few, with a couple of 😆 moments.
Your blog is colourfully informative, as usual – I checked your link to horses at 10ac, and am now left wondering what a ‘frog’ is in that context 😀
Thanks Pan and PeterO for a nice start to the week.
I liked the pictures, but missed the homophone at 19.
Stella @3: The frog is a part of a horse’s hoof http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog_(horse)
Agreed, a proper Quiptic. But now I’ll have to find something else to do!
Hi Robi, I assumed so, but preferred to read on in the blog. My real curiosity was the origin of the word, which a careful look at the photo in your link reveals.