Agreeable work out this morning
Across
1 MISLAY lose M (mobile) ISLAY (Hebridean island)
4 RING PULL can-opener RING (phone) PULL (row boat)
10 ROOSEVELT former president (VOTE LOSER)*
11 OF USE handy O (old) FUSE (circuit breaker)
12 ONYX semiprecious stone O (ring) N[ift]Y X (cross)
13 SALMONELLA nasty bug ONE in (SMALL)* LA (US city)
15 EPISODE passage EP (disc) IS ODE (lyric)
16 SPHERE dd
19 SEND-UP skit SEND(broadcast) UP (winning)
21 REGULAR dd
23 AMELIORATE better A M (mass) ELI (priest) ORATE (give speech)
25 BYES extras sounds like BUYS (purchases)
27 CROOK criminal C (caught) ROOK (castle)
28 LEND A HAND help LEND (loan) A HAND (farm labourer)
29 THE GREYS regiment THE (article) GREY’S (earl’s)
30 CAREER dd
Down
1 MOREOVER as well (2 words for extra)
2 STORYLINE plot TORY (Conservative) in S (small) LINE (note)
3 APEX peak APE (do like) on X (times)
5 ISTHMUS narrow strip of land IS M (miles) in THUS (like this)
6 GROUNDHOGS marmots GROUND (anagram instruction) (GOSH)*
7 USUAL typical U (university) in USA L[ist]
8 LEEWAY room WEE< (small elevated) in LAY (place)
9 LEGATE ambassador EG (for example) in LATE (behind schedule)
14 NON-DRINKER teetotaller (KIND ONE RN R)*
17 RELAY RACE team event (RARELY)* ACE (champion)
18 CRUSADER campaigner SA (Salvation Army) in CRUDER (more offensive)
20 PARSLEY herb S (special) in PARLEY (talk)
21 ROTUND stout TUN (large beer cask) in ROD (staff)
22 MASCOT horseshoe eg M[any] ASCOT (racecourse)
24 ELOPE run away PENELOPE (girl minus PEN – writer)
26 GALA field day GAL (girl) A
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit dd = double definition < = reverse
Very enjoyable and not that tricky either. One of those puzzles someone on another blog described as a ‘bricklayers’ puzzle, you start solving at the bottom and build your way up to the top.
Thanks to both Falcon and Jed
Thanks Falcon for an enjoyable puzzle and Jed for the blog.
crypticsue@1: I got a start at the top, but came to a halt after a handful of clues, and had to start again at the bottom.
16ac: This for me was the weakest clue in the puzzle. Circle can only equate to sphere in the figurative sense, which is then not sufficiently distinct from province to be a really satisfying double definition.
21ac/30ac: These for me were somewhat better double definition clues than 16ac, in that the meanings were more distinct. I still think this type of clue is at its very best when two words with different origins have converged in spelling.
14dn: I think the parsing here is R (resistance) in (KIND ONE RN)*, taking “worried” as the anagram indicator and “about” as the containment indicator.