Times 27,713: Guess Who’s Back, Friday’s Back

Well this was something of a beast, requiring as it did knowledge of sporting argot, classical AND rock music and various foreign tongues to negotiate its pangrammatic wynds. Marvellous stuff though I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t make it home inside of the quarter hour, due to having JUST AS IT IS in for 12ac and then somehow only being able to think of CROCODILE ROCK for the longest time. As Chuck D so rightly put it “Elvis was a hero to most, but…” Maybe when he went on “most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps” he meant that you could find their pseudonyms on puzzle pages of British broadsheets instead?

I did at least avoid the temptation to submit MUCH AS IT IS when the juzgado penny dropped… but there was only a split second in it.

Loads of treasurably brilliant clues in here, with surfaces to die for. I really really liked the double political jibing at 28dn and 8dn – how is Sir Keir Dave Starmer working out in these times of crisis, anyway? – so I’ll make them my joint COD, but there were any number of constructions I could have waxed lyrical about in this grid, I’ll let you all nominate your own faves. Bravo setter for this excellent introductory course to build stamina for tackling the Monthly Club Special, and please to keep the tough ones coming at the end of the week!

ACROSS
1 Start doing gags about Charlie being seen at Cheltenham? (4,6)
JUMP JOCKEY – JUMP [start] + JOKEY [doing gags] “about” C(harlie). I figured this was a fair bet to be something about racing but I hadn’t realised that Cheltenham Racecourse is The Home of Jump Racing. So of course you’ll find “jump jockeys” there!

6 He’s likely to be a Muslim? Most unlikely! (2,2)
AS IF – Asif is an Arabic-world masculine name; chances are that most Asifs are Muslim.

9 Foreign criminal having gone back, one had nick closed (7)
BANDITO – reverse I’D NAB [one had | nick], + TO [closed].

10 Game show from Oz, initially pushing IQ up, weirdly (3,4)
POP QUIZ – (OZ P{ushing} IQ UP*) [“weirdly”]

12 Say what many diseases end in: being no better? (4,2,2,2)
SUCH AS IT IS – SUCH AS [say] + -ITIS [what many diseases end in]

13 Release clutch like a pro? Hardly! (3)
LAY – Complicated double definition. I thought the first half was just about “letting go of something, putting it down” but it’s what a hen does; and the second contrasts being a professional with being a layperson.

15 Not the case guard used regularly to keep books in (6)
UNTRUE – {g}U{a}R{d} U{s}E{d}, to keep N(ew) T(estament) in

16 Irrational and I hesitate to say outsize note providing musical direction (3,5)
PIU MOSSO – PI [irrational] + UM [I hesitate to say] + O/S + SO [note]. I was not familiar with this direction to play “with more movement”, more quickly than before, so had to be very careful not to get the penultimate lesser wrong. MOSDO didn’t look very Italian fortunately.

18 Teary daughter, newly wed, hugging you repeatedly (4-4)
DEWY-EYED – D(aughter) + (WED*) [“newly”], “hugging” YE YE

20 Russian perhaps with trace of novichok avoiding check (6)
ANDREI – AND [with] + REI{n} [check, minus the first trace of N{ovichok}]

23 Chap writes off to the auditors (3)
REX – homophone of WRECKS [writes off]

24 Glaring as family Golf is going past (10)
OVERTAKING – OVERT AKIN G [glaring | as family | Golf]

26 Doubt short integrated circuit close to spark plugs is faster (7)
QUICKER – take QUER{y} [doubt, “short”] and then “plug” it with IC {spar}K. The type of clue that you need a degree (or equivalent experience) in crosswordology to untangle the workings of quickly!

27 Like a bargain? One not available continuously? (2,5)
ON OFFER – or, humorously, an ON-OFF-ER sounds like someone who oscillates between being on and off. Much like my blogging really.

28 Party for letting go of some left-leaning minority groups (4)
ORGY – hidden reversed (leaning right-to-left!) in {minorit}Y GRO{ups}

29 People similar to this feel ok, somehow (3,5,2)
THE LIKES OF – (THIS FEEL OK*) [“somehow”]

DOWN
1 Judge the writer’s ungrammatical sneer (4)
JIBE – J(udge) + I BE [an ungrammatical form of I AM, = “the writer is”]

2 Look for someone with height in football team, not lacking heart (7)
MANHUNT – H(eight) in MAN U [football team], + N{o}T

3 Single jug? That pitcher might do (9,4)
JAILHOUSE ROCK – JAILHOUSE [prison = jug] + ROCK [what a “pitch”er might do]

4 Pick toffees out of one’s mouth? (6)
CHOOSE – homophone of CHEWS. I was worried this might be a classic dodgy homophone but I just asked a Scot to say them both and they sounded the same, so that’s one of the usually most stringent tests passing.

5 Very understanding chap, changing with time (8)
EMPATHIC – (CHAP + TIME*) [“changing”]

7 Cries as lumbang-oil emptied into vessel (7)
SQUALLS – QUA [as] + L{umbang-oi}L, into S.S.

8 The force of certain posturing involving Left in imprecise reasoning? (5,5)
FUZZY LOGIC – FUZZ [= coppers = the force] + YOGIC [of certain posturing] “involving” L(eft)

11 Child’s play, this innings from one used to handling deliveries? (8,5)
POSTMAN’S KNOCK – “knock” as in a spell of batting in cricket was unknown to me, but the crossers eventually got me to the children’s game.

14 Exchange money, being paid half of stated price (4,3,3)
QUID PRO QUO – QUID [money] + PRO [professional = being paid] + QUO{ted} [half of “stated price”]

17 Touching address finally by head of Europol leading investigation (8)
RESEARCH = RE [touching] + {addres}S + E{uropol} + ARCH [leading]

19 Singer in need of whiskey getting larger bottles (7)
WAXWING – WAXING [getting larger] “bottles” W(hiskey)

21 Series of low very low grades deciding contests (7)
RUNOFFS – RUN OF FS. Not sure if there mightn’t be at least one superfluous word in this clue, but it doesn’t actively hurt anything.

22 Way to get bread and piece of cake (6)
STROLL – S(tree)T + ROLL [bread] to make a walk in the park.

25 Composer’s optional direction to play louder? (4)
ORFF – OR… FF = FORTISSIMO!!!