My apologies for the late appearance of this post, I dont know what has prevented the scheduled blogger from turning up. To avoid further delay, I will confine my input to a simple parsing of the clues with no further comment.
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Across
1 In which magician keeps everything up his sleeve? (3,2,6)
BAG OF TRICKS cryptic def.
7 Fellow starts to lie up getting this (3)
FLU F (fellow) L[ie] U[p] (starts to lie up) with an extended def.
9 Jellied eel consumed by radio star (5)
CELEB an anagram (jellied) of EEL in (consumed by) CB (radio)
10 Where shoppers go in hunt for rabbit (5,4)
SMALL TALK MALL (where shoppers go) in STALK (hunt)
11 Rare Fender, if electric, beginning to tempt (9)
DIFFERENT an anagram (electric) of FENDER IF plus T[empt] (beginning to tempt)
12 No quiet in crib that makes you furious (5)
IRATE [p]IRATE (no quiet in crib)
13 Flop with a cheer (7)
WASHOUT W (with) A SHOUT (a cheer)
15 Kipper caught close to Yorks river (4)
CURE C (caught) URE (Yorks river)
18 Regularly popped pills, say, and regularly unsteady (4)
USED alternate letters (regularly) in U[n]S[t]E[a]D[y]
20 Drop girl in Spanish bar (7)
CANTINA CAN (drop) TINA (girl)
23 Remaining to the right, to some extent (5)
OTHER hidden in (to some extent) tO THE Right
24 Busy / oil-worker, perhaps (9)
CONSTABLE double def., the second one cryptic policeman and artist
26 Preserve lame drama for a change (9)
MARMALADE an anagram (for a change) of LAME DRAMA
27 Charge involves book burning (5)
RABID RAID (charge) around (involves) B (book)
28 Bill thanks Ben in the first instance (3)
TAB TA (thanks) B[en] (Ben in the first instance)
29 Puzzler following fashion or not in this case (5-6)
TREND-SETTER TREND (fashion) SETTER (puzzler)
Down
1 Support wretched surrender (8)
BACKDOWN BACK (support) DOWN (wretched)
2 Fine getting into pretty yellow carp (8)
GOLDFISH F (fine) in (getting into) GOLDISH (pretty yellow)
3 Lie about strength of character (5)
FIBRE FIR (lie) RE (about)
4 Sceptre could be an emblem to ——- (7)
RESPECT an anagram (could be) of SCEPTRE
5 Confused getting cuppa on the slate finally refused (7)
CHAOTIC CHA (cuppa) O[n] TIC[k] (on the slate finally refused)
6 Private playing stick at it (7,2)
SOLDIER ON SOLDIER (private) ON (playing)
7 Uproar about brothers boxing (6)
FRACAS FRAS (brothers) around (boxing) CA (about)
8 The cost of care on high part of castle (6)
UPKEEP UP (on high) KEEP (part of castle)
14 Mindful of old boy and batman? (9)
OBSERVANT OB (old boy) SERVANT (batman)
16 Slowly is how to count coins (3,2,3)
BIT BY BIT double def.
17 Timetable is free and clear (8)
CALENDAR an anagram (free) of AND CLEAR
19 State and International Court in appointment (7)
DICTATE I (international) CT (court) in DATE (appointment)
20 Come to terms with prisoner and nurse being together (7)
CONTEND CON (prisoner) TEND (nurse)
21 Order in support of rug (6)
FORMAT FOR (in support of) MAT (rug)
22 Little fat lads revolutionary problem (6)
CHERUB CHE (revolutionary) RUB (problem)
25 Short High Street times forgotten (5)
TERSE an anagram (high) of STREE[t] (street times forgotten)
Thanks, Gaufrid, for stepping in, and Jason for the puzzle.
I enjoyed this, on the whole – I particularly liked SMALL TALK and CONSTABLE – but I’m puzzled by two definitions: can = drop and contend = come to terms with, which is more like the opposite for me.
Hi Eileen
There were quite a few occasions during this solve/blog when I mentally queried the synonymity of a pair of words, including the two that you mention.
I fully agree with you regarding CONTEND but can justify the ‘drop’ = CAN. In N. American slang, ‘to can’ is ‘to stop’ or ‘to put and end to’. A common usage is ‘can it’ meaning ‘stop doing that’ and if you drop, say, a subject at school you stop doing it.
Thanks, Gaufrid. i thought it must be some slang I hadn’t heard of [I knew can = prison or lavatory] – I should have looked it up!
Thanks Jason and Gaufrid
Eileen @ 1: to can something is an americanism for scrapping it – I guess it’s derived from can = toilet > flush away, but haven’t checked.
I have the same difficulty with contend as you do.
Sorry Gaufrid, we crossed.
I’ve just looked up CONTEND in my Chambers e-thesaurus, which gives “verb 1 /contend with a problem: deal, cope…COLLOQ come to grips, meet head on”, so I guess it’s OK.
Hi Simon S
I would think that CAN in this sense is probably derived from putting something in a trash can.
The Chambers thesaurus (which I didn’t check) obviously has more meanings for CONTEND than the dictionary does (which I did check).
Evening all
It was my turn to write a blog, but unfortunately I was in England on business, and, having solved the crossword on the flight, was then deprived of Internet access all day. I had mistakenly assumed that I’d be able to log on over lunch and post a blog then.
Thanks, Gaufrid, for stepping up to the plate.
9 ac – how is “jellied” an anagrind?
Hi Loonapick
“9 ac how is jellied an anagrind?”
Well, at least jelly, or something jellied, is wobbly or can be wobbled. I was more concerned about ‘electric’ in 11ac.
I particularly liked CONSTABLE, but it got me checking dictionaries for spelling. Chambers gives ‘busy’ as ‘a detective’, but ‘bizzy’ as ‘a policeman’. The Cassell Dictionary of Slang gives ‘busy’ as ‘a CID officer’ (as distinct from a uniformed police officer), but doesn’t list ‘bizzy’ at all.
It’s not exactly important, and I don’t suppose there will be definitive spellings for a lot of slang terms. Still a good clue, though. π
Thanks Jason and Gaufrid
Think that this might have been a little bit harder than usual from this setter … maybe because of the selection of lesser known synonyms of words in quite a few of the clues.
Didn’t know ‘busy’ as a police officer – but the answer was clearly CONSTABLE and now the clue makes more sense and is very clever.
An enjoyable workout.