I’m not quite sure what to say about this. Early indications, and my careful, blog aware, time of 13.46 suggests that it’s not in the Tricky Thursday category. A large number of the clues are of the first/last/either end letter type, such that I almost wore out my [] keys and relaxed my convention occasionally for variety’s sake. It’s mostly pretty prosaic stuff, the sort of stuff that might encourage first tentative steps from the Shallow End. OK, we’ve got a couple of philosopher chappies and a writer, and a Prime Minister from (my oath, can it really be?) 70 years ago, but hey, Bill and Ted knew one of them! There’s a delicious word from pre-metric days to brighten things up. Right at the end there’s an almost apologetic bit of wordplay which might sum up the feelings of those who like meatier fare, but it’s perfectly workmanlike, and most should find it doable, so that can’t be bad.
Definitions underlined in italics. Most, but not quite all excluded letters are indicated by [] and I’ve included some experimental acronyms which I hope will be informative
| Across | |
| 1 | Order check on empty surgery (6) |
| SYSTEM – Remove the contents of S[urger]Y and add STEM, check (as in stem the tide), to them, however tempted you may be to do it the other way round. | |
| 4 | Extremely clever, my boss — I owe him (8) |
| CREDITOR – Oh my, now remove the contents of C[leve]R and add to EDITOR, the setter’s boss who let this repetitive bit of cluing through. | |
| 10 | Eventful game for the most part, with English heading for defeat (9) |
| CHEQUERED – I guess such a career is eventful. CHEQUERS, the game shortened by removing the S, then add E[nglish] and the first letter of Defeat | |
| 11 | Move back to accommodate old novelist (5) |
| WOOLF – Don’t be afraid (it might be Leonard, Virginia’s hubby, also a novelist). Reverse FLOW for move and accommodate O[ld] | |
| 12 | Contraction initially impacting German debt adversely (11) |
| ABRIDGEMENT – An anagram (adversely) of GERMAN DEBT plus the first letter of Impacting. | |
| 14 | Close relation lives on benefits in the end (3) |
| SIS – I think I should introduce FLO and LLO to the lexicon. This one’s LLO benefitS to which you add IS for lives. | |
| 15 | Reporter’s in contact with source on the way from France (2,5) |
| EN ROUTE – An aural charade (reporter’s) of ON, in contact with, and ROOT, source. | |
| 17 | Nation somehow “discontented”, PM concludes (6) |
| SWEDEN – And perhaps in concert with 1 and 4 above RTCO (dis-content-ed) SomehoW, and add EDEN, PM brought down by the Suez crisis of 1956. | |
| 19 | Republican party winning everything in race (6) |
| GALLOP – For once, it’s not R[epublican], but its other abbreviation, the Grand Old Party which “wins” ALL for everything. Race as in speed along, not Grand National. | |
| 21 | Millions in favour of trade union backing case for election (7) |
| FORTUNE – FOR, in favour of, T[rade] U[nion], then RTCO ElectioN and reverse (backing, case) | |
| 23 | Character seen in first part of book? (3) |
| CHI – One of the Greek ones. CH[apter] I might be the first part of a book. | |
| 24 | Resolve differences: exonerate sole successor in hearing (5,3,3) |
| CLEAR THE AIR – Another aural charade (in hearing) of THE HEIR, sole successor, to follow CLEAR for exonerate. | |
| 26 | African native being ironic, you say? I disagree (5) |
| RHINO – And another aural charade (you say), this time of being ironic, or WRY, followed by NO for I disagree. | |
| 27 | Dish his wife tries out (5,4) |
| IRISH STEW – An anagram (out) of HIS W[ife] TRIES | |
| 29 | Underworld boss losing millions in stock exchange crash perhaps (8) |
| DISASTER – DIS is both the nether regions and their overlord, Pluto, but in this case you need the boss to produce MASTER , from which your remove M[illions] | |
| 30 | Obsequious southern host entertaining maiden (6) |
| SMARMY – S[outhern] ARMY for host with M[aiden] included. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Judges thus arresting conservative thinker (8) |
| SOCRATES – A little liberty taken with the word order here. Thus, SO, judges, RATES takes in C[onservative] | |
| 2 | Husband trapped by waters beginning to rise is cut off (5) |
| SHEAR – H[usband] inside SEA for waters and FLO Rise. | |
| 3 | Wingless Madagascan creature — it can’t fly (3) |
| EMU – The Madagascan creature is a LEMUR. This time RTCO and promote them to be your answer. | |
| 5 | Correct groom once again (7) |
| REDRESS – To groom is (more or less) to DRESS. Again: RE- | |
| 6 | Sensible review of time on death row? (4-2-5) |
| DOWN-TO-EARTH – An anagram (review) of T[ime] ON DEATH ROW. Neat. | |
| 7 | Last of atheist philosopher’s articles for union (9) |
| TROUSSEAU – LLO atheisT and ROUSSEAU Jean-Jacques, proto-woke Swiss philosopher. The definition references the stuff put aside for a bride. | |
| 8 | Turn down official employment (6) |
| REFUSE – The official is the REF, employment is USE | |
| 9 | Setting for Oedipus Rex film announced (6) |
| GREECE – Fortunately you don’t have to know Oedipus’ whereabouts with any precision. a sound charade (announced) of GREASE. It’s a word, it’s got groove, it’s got meaning, it’s a musical. | |
| 13 | Two kisses signifying a betrayal? (6-5) |
| DOUBLE-CROSS – XX | |
| 16 | Facts about island’s earliest broadcast (9) |
| REALITIES – an anagram (broadcast, not this time a “we hear”) of I[sland’s] EARLIEST. | |
| 18 | A hothead, one sadly falling abroad (8) |
| TEARAWAY – I so wanted this to be something like a volcano, but we make do with a rather more ho-hum answer. One sadly falling is a TEAR, and abroad gives us AWAY. | |
| 20 | Pressure on television channel to be in charge (7) |
| PRESIDE – P[ressure] RE, on, SIDE television. When we only had BBC and ITV, “what’s on the other side?” prompted the duty switcher to get up and change channels. | |
| 21 | Boozy capacity of female briefly irritating (6) |
| FIRKIN – 9 brewed gallons, or a quarter of a barrel, or what you claimed to have said when your mum thought she heard something ruder. F[emale] plus IRKING, irritating, cut short (briefly). | |
| 22 | Panic-stricken broadcast drops middle section (6) |
| SCARED – Broadcast is SCATTERED. RTCO the middle bit. | |
| 25 | Make modifications to ’arness (5) |
| ALTER – A HALTER is part of a harness. Do unto the former what the clue does to the latter. | |
| 28 | Fringe uninspiring? On the contrary (3) |
| HEM – The reverse (in the contrary) of HEM is MEH which indicates indifference or uninspiredness. | |
16:49
Missed MEH and SHATTERED but checkers helped nail in the correct answers.
Thanks Z and setter