A decent Monday Rufus, not as CD-heavy as some, with some good variation in clues. I’m stuck on 17ac, and will use as my excuse its three out of five letters unchecked. Seeing presbyterians at 28ac, my mind instantly flew to celebrity anagram Britney Spears (ok, she only makes one of them)… but it was not to be. Sorrry I skipped quite a few of the downs - took too long over the acrosses. Time management, eh?

ACROSS:

1. CO(MICA)L. This took a while - COL around the outside seemed clear, but a nicely misleading definition. As in ‘oh, that’s priceless!’.

5. ASPIRED. Good anagram, well phrased.

11. PROM ON TORY. Another good surface - right-winger almost has to mean Tory (Newlab doesn’t come into many words!)

12. ARM ADA. Hmm, bit of a naval theme going on here?

14. SPARE TYRE. The story to which Rufus alludes eludes me, but I guess the original Ali G got stuck at the roadside and had to call the RCA (Royal Chariot Assistance).

16. DITCH. Double meaning that proved tricky with only _I_C_ given.

17. _E_Y_. And this one stumped me - a journalist beginning with N? A naval commander?

19. WATCH WORD. My least favourite clue - it just splits the word into its root meanings.

23. APPLA(PAPAL*)USE.

24. TRA(ART<) U MA. Good surface.

26. TRIAL MATCH. Feels like it should be test match really.

28. PRAYERS. PRESBYTERIANS* less BEST IN*. Rare for a daily, a compound anagram +lit, and one that doesn’t follow the practice espoused by comp-anag specialist Azed, that unless the words removed appear in sequence, a second anagram indicator is needed (I thik I’ve got that right).

29. UP FRONT.

DOWN:

2. OUT CROP. Didn’t follow this at first, but I guesss it’s ‘off cut’ = OUT CROP.

4. ASP HALT. ’On the road’ is the definition, HALT being ’confronted by’ ASP.

8. ER(RAT)IC.

9. FOSTER PARENTS. The only CD, I think, and a good one - all four main terms have a different meaning in the surface and cryptic readings, including ‘tend’.

15. ROYAL NAVY. Yo ho ho - theme ahoy again? No cap’n, three ships don’t make an armada.

20. CATCH UP. I know ‘catsup’ is an alternate spelling of ‘ketchup’, but is ‘catchup’ too? Must be.

25. (b)ANGER.