Thanks to Falcon for an enjoyable one. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Onlooker at the side of stall, extremely eager (9)
BYSTANDER : BY(at the side of/next to) + STAND(a stall/a booth for the sale of goods) + 1st and last letters of(extremely) “eager“.
6 Proper shock losing face (5)
RIGHT : “fright”(a shock/a scare) minus its first letter(losing face).
9 “Plain” Cinderella nobleman embraces (5)
LLANO : Hidden in( embraces) “Cinderella nobleman“.
… in Venezuela.
10 In a state of elation, strutting leader fronting a band (4-1-4)
COCK-A-HOOP : COCK(from the fowl, a strutting leader/chief, as in the observation “He who walks around with his hands in his pockets is feeling cocky”) + A + HOOP(a band in the shape of a ring).
11 Refuse to throw away rag (5,5)
WASTE PAPER : WASTE(to throw away/to squander) + PAPER(a pejorative term for which is “rag”).
12 Armada having no time to escape (4)
FLEE : “fleet”(an armada of ships) minus(having no) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
14 With vigour, cook cut soft loaf (7)
BRIOCHE : BRIO(vigour/liveliness, as in “con brio”, the musical direction to play with vigour) plus(With ) “chef”(a professional cook) minus its last letter(cut).
15 Jersey not as dry, we hear, after beginning of September (7)
SWEATER : Homophone of( , we hear) “wetter”(not as dry) placed after(after) 1st letter of(beginning of) “September“.
Sweater girls …
… reveal something about sweaters.
17 Money received cheers Cambridge college (7)
TAKINGS : TA!(cheers!/thank you!) + KING’S(a college of the University of Cambridge).
19 Solve exercise (4,3)
WORK OUT : Double defn: 1. . In the mind; and 2nd: in the gym.
20 I serve on lake’s bathing beach (4)
LIDO : [I + DO(to serve/to be suitable or acceptable, as in “that will do if you’re looking for a way out”) placed after(on/attached to) L(abbrev. for “lake”).
22 Small beer to accompany fish, or tripe (10)
CODSWALLOP : [S(abbrev. for “small”) + WALLOP(British slang for beer)] placed after(to accompany) COD(a food fish).
Defn: /nonsense.
25 Member blowing hard, renowned trumpeter (9)
ARMSTRONG : ARM(a member, not of Parliament, but of the human body/one of its two upper limbs) + STRONG(blowing hard, as with a wind).
Answer: Louis
26 Drank to excess back in base (5)
DEPOT : Reversal of( back) TOPED(drank alcohol to excess).
7 Too soon, almost missing header (5)
EARLY : “nearly”(almost/very close to) minus its last letter(missing header).
28 Kitchen utensil produced by granny if cooking bit of pork inside (6,3)
FRYING PAN : Anagram of( cooking) GRANNY IF containing( inside) 1st letter of(bit of) “pork“.
Down
1 Live down under (5)
BELOW : BE(to live/to exist) + LOW(down physically/at a relatively lower level, or emotionally/sad).
2 Pits restless during sluggish farce? (9)
SLAPSTICK : Anagram of( restless) PITS contained in(during) SLACK(sluggish/slow, as in “things progressed at a slack pace).
3 Youngster getting rise in benefit? Just the opposite (10)
ADOLESCENT : ASCENT(a rise/a climb) containing( in ? Just the opposite) DOLE(in the UK, unemployment benefit from the state).
4 Publish short study on Cambridge college (7)
DECLARE : “den”(a study/a secluded room in a house) minus its last letter(short ) placed above(on, in a down clue) CLARE(another college of the University of Cambridge).
Defn: /formally announce, as with an edict.
5 Fiddles game (7)
RACKETS : Double defn: 1st: /con jobs; and 2nd: for 2 or 4 people played with, well, rackets and a ball, not quite like squash
6 Understand most of game (4)
READ : “ready”(game/willing and set to do something) minus its last letter(most of ).
Defn: or interpret the significance, as in “They could easily read the look on his face”.
7 Greek member of parliament’s surly grumble (5)
GROWL : GR(abbrev. for “Greek”) + OWL(one in a gathering of owls, called a parliament).
8 Leading faction receives note, highly confidential (3-6)
TOP-SECRET : TOP(leading/above the rest) + SECT(a faction/a group of people with shared interests, beliefs, etc.) containing(receives) RE(syllable representing a note in the musical sol-fa scale).
13 Disorderly scene in a bar “gender” involved (4,6)
BEAR GARDEN : Anagram of( involved) A BAR “GENDER.
14 Fight and fell dragon (6-3)
BATTLE-AXE : BATTLE(to fight/to wage war) plus(and) AXE(to fell/to cut down, say, a tree with, well, an axe).
Defn: /an unpleasant and aggressive older woman.
16 Take care of star, unduly led astray at first (6-3)
TOODLE-PIP : PIP(a star on the soldier of an army officer’s uniform) placed below( at first, in a down clue) [TOO(unduly/excessively or unnecessarily, as in “you’re too hasty”) + anagram of( astray) LED].
Defn: !, said when parting/a farewell.
18 Swank cabaret cancelled (4,3)
SHOW OFF : SHOW(a cabaret/a staged performance) + OFF(cancelled/not going to happen, as said of an event originally planned).
Defn: A person who brags about or publically parades himself, his things and his deeds.
19 Learned to make fun of smartypants (4,3)
WISE GUY : WISE(learned/knowledgeable) + GUY(to make fun of/to tease).
Defn: Someone who tries to show how clever (or not) he/she is.
21 Reserved reduced object (5)
DEMUR : “demure”(reserved/shy) minus its last letter(reduced).
Defn: To to/to not accept.
23 Climbing aid‘s special point (5)
PITON : Anagram of(special) POINT.
24 Board first of steamers on river (4)
STAY : 1st letter of(first of) “steamers” placed above(on, in a down clue) TAY(the river in Scotland).
Defn: , specifically, pay to live and receive regular meals in an establishment, like a boarding house or school.
Nice and easy does it with this satisfying offering from Falcon. My only unknowns were 9ac and 23d which being a hidden answer and anagram respectively posed no problems. There was a plethora of answers missing a letter which I particularly enjoyed including 6ac, 12ac and 21d. I admired the neat and clever cluing of 19d, the college ones and even 2d (ha, two day’s running!) 16d was a favourite. Some subtle parsing was required which sometimes eluded me – thank you Sschua – but overall, crossers and definitions made sense. Thank you, Falcon.
A relatively easy and enjoyable puzzle . Although I speak Spanish I was slow to spot llano. Do the inverted commas signify a foreign word or just something unusual ?
Don’t know bear garden as a phrase; I’d gone with beer garden, drumming up how they look after a long day’s post-lockdown pubbing, but didn’t notice the anagram didn’t work. Shame as I liked the imagery!
Too much Bristish slang for me to complete — COCK-A-LOOP, CODSWALLOP, and TOODLE-PIP were all new; I should have been to get the first through the wordplay but the last two not so much — Wallop being beer and pip being a star were also beyond my GK. Nonetheless, I found a lot to enjoy — BELOW, READ, BRIOCHE, and SLAPSTICK were favorites; SLAPSTICK appeared recently in a crossword so it was still fresh in my mind. Thanks Falcon for the challenge and to Scchua for the nicely illustrated blog.
Thanks both for the puzzle and the parsing. Codswallop, Bear Garden were best guesses because they fitted, as with Toodle Pip, even though I wear one as a soldier. Preferred today’s Slapstick to yesterday’s, which I only got because it fitted. Got RA! for “Cheers” in 17a at first – “raking” it in? until I figured out Battle Axe and realised what a 19d I hadn’t been and then was 10a when it all fitted.
To pick up on the illustrations for 15a: Polly dips toe in Eton Mess to make Bond Girl.
A nice pleasant solve. We spotted LLANO as our first one in (SM@2 – We think the inverted commas may be just there, paradoxically, to divert your attention away from “plain” being the definition.
Interesting how the same words crop up close together – SLAPSTICK yesterday and today. and today we had SWEATER here with ‘sweaters’ in the Indy.
Good to see that the setter resisted the temptation to spoonerise FRYING PAN.
There’s a typo (or a predictive text error), btw, in the blog for 16dn – the pip is a star on the shoulder … (not ‘soldier’).
Thanks, Falcon and scchua.
Tony, it was also too much British slang for me. I knew only cock-a-hoop from doing these puzzles for many years. I had heard of codswallop, but didnt remember it, and had never heard of toodle-pip but will certainly remember them for next time.
Thanks Falcon and scchua
Late to this one and managed to make the same mistake as George@3 with BEER GARDEN and also lazily didn’t check the anagram fodder. In hindsight, I think I can recall seeing BEAR GARDEN before, but it wasn’t the first thing I would think of fo a ‘disorderly scene’.
Always appreciate the knack of this setter to find numerous definitions that are not the obvious ones – e.g COCK (‘strutting leader’), HOOP (‘band’, where the surface misdirected one), STRONG (‘blowing hard’), READ (‘game’, which took some looking up to see it), OWL (‘member of parliament’, the best of all of them) and STAY (‘board’).
LLANO jumped out at 9a to start off the solve and finished with SLAPSTICK (notwithstanding it’s appearance yesterday) and TAKINGS (which needed that last K crosser to get it).