This turned out to be more of a challenge than I anticpated at first; plain sailing initially, but then got becalmed on the last few clues. At the time of solving, I wasn’t 100% certain about a couple of answers (1a, 22a, 21d), but subsequent searching seems to confirm them. Also, I still haven’t fathomed the wordplay element of 9a/20d, so please feel free to offer enlightenment.
Across
1 BERTH A – The final one I solved (after several minutes). I doubted whether there was a St Bertha, but it turns out that there is. However, given the punning nature of the wordplay “first job?”, perhaps “Woman” would have been a fairer definition than “Saint”?
5 BROOD HEN (on bed or h)* – nounal anagram indicators seem to perturb some people. But sparing usage, such as “contraption” here, seems reasonable to me.
9,20d SLEEPING PARTNER – I’m not sure what the “out east, perhaps” part of the clue is alluding to…
11, 7d STAR OF DAVID – (daft advisor)*
18 PARALYMPIANS (army pal in spa)* – A bit of a clunky clue, both in terms of anagrind (“rallied”) and surface reading. I’m ashamed to admit that it was only several years ago that I learned that this portmanteau word is derived from Parallel Olympics and not Paralysed Olympics.
22 FLETCHER – double def. I figured the oblique reference to arrow-making, but was blissfully unaware of the playright.
28 SKETCHER – K, H in (secret)*. A seamless segue between wordplay and definition. I assume that “letter in” is the anagrind.
29 DRY+DEN – A familiar construction, but I’ve just found out that the reference to “Mac Flecknoe” makes this an &lit! (I must bone up on C17th literary feuds)
Down
2 O+LIT in HE(rev) – I slogged my way through this one. The ambassadorial part came readily enough, but “upkeep” as a reversed container and an inability to get past OT for “old writings” kept me guessing.
3 CRIME in THEA
8 EASTWARD (trade was)* – simple but effective, and a silky-smooth surface.
16 SET(rev)+TIMON+Y(ears)
17 BALL PARK – ref “ball park figure”= estimate (in cliched business jargon). Liked the misleading reference to a “soccer stadium” rather than a baseball one, which is presumably a dig at Wembley (Version 2.0) too.
21 JE+ROME – Another toughie. I had to seek confirmation that “Hieronymus” alone was the definition.
24 HUTCH – ref Starsky & …
SLEEPING = out PARTNER (bridge) = East, I think
Super puzzle, very challenging and very satisfying to finish. JEROME was my last.
SKETCHER Ain’t got the paper now, but thought the idea was to use the letters of “secret”. There was also a v clever disguised join in “secret drawer”
Thanks for the clarification on SLEEPING PARTNER. Obviously too subtle and elegant for me!
Revisiting 28a (“Kilo – heroin – found among letters in secret drawer”): I’m starting to suspect that the intention was for the word “found” to be treated as a verb, not an adjective. If so, then that’s another inspired touch of deviousness.
I felt so bad about being credited for an alleged extra ‘touch of deviousness’ that I left Smiffy’s remarks at 3 up all day.
But I’m afraid his original parsing in the blog along with NMS’ @ 2 are right: it’s just the K and H ‘found among’ (although in the right order) the ‘letters in’ SECRET.
If anyone’s interested, I found that indication – which seems to me to imply a new ordering – in Ruth Crisp’s Teach Yourself Crosswords book. A richer source of information about the Arses Magna of compiling & solving would be be quite hard to find.