I am a bit late on parade this morning, partly because I found bits of this quite tricky. There were certainly a good number of genuinely Quiptic clues to get you going, but the NE corner took me ages to figure out.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
4 Put your safety strap on and be quiet
BELT UP
A dd.
6 Put time into opening new centre for worship
VENERATE
This is one that took me a long time to see. It’s an insertion of ERA for ‘time’ in VENT for ‘opening’ followed by E for the middle letter, or ‘centre’ of ‘nEw’.
9 A clue’s disguised in part of sentence
CLAUSE
(A CLUES)*
10 Completely full, scoffing Italian with posh set
SITUATED
The clue is sound as a pound, but it’s a bit intricate. ‘Completely full’ is SATED; you need to put IT and U for ‘posh’ into that to get your answer.
11 Stop squabbling about autumnal borders and set fire to leaves
CALL IT QUITS
Lovely surface, but it took me a while to solve and parse it. C for circa or ‘about’, AL for the outside letters (‘borders’) of AutumnaL, LIT for ‘set fire to’ and QUITS for ‘leaves’.
15 Told girl £10 for an aerial
ANTENNA
A homophone (‘told’) in anyone’s language of ANN TENNER.
17 Spoil home with glued repair
INDULGE
A charade of IN and (GLUED)*
18 Standard essay header has name on odd sheets in brackets
PARENTHESES
Another multi-part clue. Hectence is inviting you to make a charade of PAR for ‘standard’, E for the first letter of ‘Essay’, N for ‘name’ and (SHEETS)*
22 Changing to commercial restoration of painting not popular
ADAPTING
Another charade, of AD for ‘commercial’ and (PA[IN]TING)* The anagrind is ‘restoration’ and the removal indicator is ‘not’. If you’re popular, you’re IN.
23 Informal chat with company has nothing in to note
CONFAB
It’s CO for ‘company’ followed by an insertion of FA for ‘nothing’ in NB for nota bene, or ‘note’. The polite version of FA is Fanny Adams; I’m sure you know the less polite one.
24 Put foot in it with shipping line?
PLIMSOLL
A dd, referring to the PLIMSOLL LINE on ships.
25 Led astray by clue, finally, in setter’s compilation
MEDLEY
An insertion of (LED)* and E for the last letter of cluE in MY for ‘setter’s’.
Down
1 Breakfast food upset intestine after gobbling seconds
MUESLI
An insertion (‘gobbling’) of S in ILEUM reversed (‘upset’).
2 Certain detail on which no one comes up with an explanation
DEFINITION
If you’re one of those who is using the Quiptic as an introduction to the cryptic world, then I guess sooner or later you’re going to have to learn about the ‘detail’ device. It’s meant to be read as de-tail, in other words ‘take the tail off’. If you do that to DEFINIT[E] and follow that with an inversion (‘comes up’, because it’s a down clue) of NO I, you’ll have the answer. I don’t think DEFINITION is a good definition of ‘explanation’, though.
3 Sickened by Rosy taking beating
REPULSED
Roses are red … An insertion of PULSE for ‘beating’ (which is a bit vague, imho) in RED.
4 Encourage teatime banter
BACKCHAT
A charade of BACK for ‘encourage’, CHA for ‘tea’ and T for ‘time’.
5 Fliers felt free in meadows
LEAFLETS
An insertion of (FELT)* in LEAS.
7 In part of Le Pauvre Matelot Lanza turned counter-tenor
ALTO
Hidden reversed in MatelOT LAnza.
8 Toy bear lost head in swirling water
EDDY
How sad. I hope his owner managed to stitch it back on again. It’s [T]EDDY.
12 Courtyard‘s one of four with river aspect
QUADRANGLE
A charade of QUAD, R and ANGLE.
13 Happy to fill sub’s shift
BLISSFUL
A nicely disguised anagram. (FILL SUBS)* with ‘shift’ as the anagrind.
14 Produce Ibsen’s play regularly with intelligence
SENSIBLY
A charade of (IBSENS)* and LY for the even letters (‘regularly’) of pLaY.
16 Tim opens complex with jobs for all the family
NEPOTISM
(TIM OPENS)*
19 House’s done with vacuum
HOOVER
A charade of HO and OVER for ‘done’. My house could do with a vacuum, but it might not happen today.
20 Battle plan’s beginning to buckle
WARP
A charade of WAR and P for the first letter of Plan.
21 The most mum’s chucked out is a skirt
MAXI
MAXI[MUM] If a MINI is a skirt, then I suppose a MAXI is too. But women’s fashion wouldn’t be my specialist subject if I were on Mastermind.
Thank you to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic.
I’m with you Pierre on the NE corner. In the end I got bored staring at the 2dn/6ac crossers with ???I?I?I?N and ???E?A?E so I did a word search for 2dn, sussed out that the answer was DEFINITION, and then got VENERATE without further recourse to aids. I agree that the association of “definition” with “explanation” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. The checkers for 2dn/6ac weren’t very helpful and a lot of the RHS had a very unQuiptic feel about it. Good luck to any beginners who decide to have a go at this one ………..
Yes, a bit difficult for a Quiptic with a really strange grid with only 26 clues.
Thanks Pierre; you obviously missed out on the MAXI era.
I did the NE corner but got stuck on the SE one, largely because I was unfamiliar with CONFAB, having always used CONFlAB. As you say, the nicely disguised anagram for BLISSFUL also caused a problem in this corner.
Strewth a multiplication CAPTCHA, whatever next?
Many thanks Pierre & Hectance
I was also bewildered by the NE Corner.
Putting SATIATED in 10a didn’t help!
Thanks to Hectance and Pierre. Agree about the difficulty level. Took much longer than the Rufus. BACKCHAT was new to me. NEPOTISM was my COD.
Cheers…
I had the same problem as Rob – I’ve always said “conflab”, too. I liked BLISSFUL and PARENTHESES best, although at first I thought the “-THESES” part was linked to “essay”.