A puzzle of two halves, for me: north side, mostly a breeze; south side, mostly murder. But I got there in the end, and I enjoyed the journey – and I learned a thing or two. Some very inventive stuff (and one or two old chestnuts). Thank-you, Redshank.
ACROSS
1. CLOSING TIME Anagram of clients go I’m [setter’s]
7. OFF Hidden in reversal of suFFOlk
9. RATEL Hidden in inveteRATE Liar
10. BEEFEATER Reversal of fee [pay] within beater [one who ‘raises birds’ on a grouse or pheasant shoot]
11. INCOMMODE Or in commode [in convenience, toilet]
12. EWING Win [victory] within e.g. [for example, say] to give the family crude-oil millionaires in the soap Dallas
13. GLASSES G [good] + lasses [girls]
15. See 18
18. TOLL GATE LL [Learners, trainees] within to + gate [restrict]
20. VOLCANO Anagram of oval cone minus e [energy]; a nice &lit
23. LEAVE AV [Authorised Version of the Bible, ‘good book’] within lee [shelter]
24. CALF OF MAN Fm [contraction of ‘from’?] within anagram of a falcon
26. PARTHENON Anagram of promenent Athens minus I’m sent
27. SINUS Reversal of is [exists] + NUS [National Union of Students]
28. YEN Ye [old form of ‘the’] + N(ipponese); sort of an &lit, except that the Yen is still, not formerly, the Japanese currency (or Nipponese capital)
29. MOTHERS’ RUIN Reverse clue: or meths ruined gives ‘mothers’; ‘mothers’ ruin’ is a slang term for gin
DOWN
1. CARRIAGE Not sure of this one: I know that a Surrey (with or without a fringe on top) is a carriage, but beyond that I’m lost… help!
2. OPTICIAN Op [opus, work] + tician [sounds like Titian, artist]
3. ISLAM Regular letters from tIm SoLd ArMs
4. GIBBONS Anagram of sobbing
5. ICEBERG I [one] + C [cold] + reversal of grebe [water bird]
6. ELEMENTAL Double definition
7. OXTAIL O [zero, love] + X [kiss] + tail [follow]
8. FOREGO Or for ego [selfishly]
14. SMOKED HAM Those who enjoy cigars may have smoked Ham(let) [cigar brand]
16. KATMANDU K [king] + atman [Sanskrit term for the universal soul] + du(e) [expected]
17. GOINGS-ON S(tate) within going on [continuing]
19. LOCKNUT Lock [hold] + nut [head]
20. VALANCE Anagram of naval + C [Cuba] + e [mathematical constant, base of the natural logarithm]
21. FLOPPY Flop [failure] + p(robabl)y, alluding to the now-obsolete floppy disk
22. HADRON Anagram of Rhonda
25. OASIS O [ring] + as is [the same]
Thanks Ringo and Redshank, I also enjoyed this.
In 1d, I think CARRIAGE=GAIT, a homophone of GATE (the entry at 15).
Thanks, Ringo, for the blog and Redshank for a fun puzzle.
I loved CLOSING TIME, PARTHENON, MOTHER’S RUIN, GIBBONS and SMOKED HAM in particular – and SINUS = ‘head room’ made me laugh, too.
Great fun. Lots to laugh at today, thank you Redshank and Ringo too.
Thanks Redshank for a puzzle with much to admire and Ringo for the blog.
1ac: I think this must be Anagram of clients go containing I’m &lit. We need “clients go” as part of the definition, so the clue must be &lit. Now in the cryptic reading “unruly” is the anagram lead, so “drunk” must be a containment indicator.
10ac: However many times other people may praise this device, I continue to regard the unsignalled requirement to split a clue word as unsatisfactory.
24ac: fm for “from” is in Collins 2000.
1dn: I agree with Wanderer @1: indeed this was how I solved 15ac, getting 18ac much later.
20dn: I cannot find a meaning for “disputed” that makes it a valid anagram lead.
One more from me: I think 28ac works as a complete “&lit” if you take “old” in the sense of “long established” rather than “former” in the literal meaning.
16d…. Kathmandu is spelt with a h. Also, athma (soul) is spelt with a h, as in ‘Mahathma’ or great soul…
also, a bunch of stuff to get tipsy until ‘closing time’ with ‘beefeater’ and ‘mother’s ruin’ in ‘glasees’ 🙂