This is the first puzzle I’ve had a crack at, let alone blogged, in a little while so was relieved to be reintroduced into the shallow end of the pool. While solving, there seemed to be a plethora of beheading/curtailing-type devices, but on review they don’t seem to be quite as overabundant.
Across
9 DOWN UNDER – ….”he just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich…”
10 AGAIN – a gain
11 GONDOLA – gon[e] + (load)*
12 SCRATCH – double def’n.
13 OWL – bowl (as in, e.g., the Rose Bowl stadium) – b.
14 ARCHIPELAGO- arch + I + p[eopled] + el in ago.
17 CORGI – Co + (rig)*
18 RAT – tar(<)
19 ENTRY – double def’n
21 TROUBLESOME – roubles in tome. An obvious enough device, but deftly handled nonetheless.
23 RAW – hidden
25 CATSUIT – c[hambers] + at + suit
27 REPLICA – rep + l + I + CA
28 MOPED – PE in MoD (Ministry of Defence).
29 RED MULLET – “read” + Mull + E + t(eam). Also a kind of hairstyle sported for a while by David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust.
Down
1 ADAGIO – G.I. in a do
2 SWINDLER – s + L in winder
3 OUT ON A LIMB – wasn’t too gruntled by “abroad” = out.
4 IDEA – Ideal – l
5 PROSCIUTTO – (Poirot’s cut)*
6 MANTRA – [pain]t in Man Ra[y].
7 IN THEORY – in + he in Tory.
8 FAIR – f + air
15 CARPENTERS – carp + enters. The saccharin siblings of seventies singsong.
16 ELEVEN PLUS
17 CATACOMB – Tacom[a] in cab
20 TORTILLA – (roll it)* in TA (Territorial Army). I thought the deception here was particularly nifty.
22 ON TAPE – tap (=”bug”?) in one.
24 WEALTH – (The law)*
26 UNDO – D in Uno.
27 RIDE – rid + E.
In 22d “bug” as in “bugging device” seems fine for “tap”