What can be said that hasn’t already been said? The usual perfect construction, with a personal slight dislike of the word ‘some’ as a hidden indicator.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Slight alteration in a jacket people sport during American races (10)
ADJUSTMENT
A DJ US T(men)T — I’m not absolutely sure where ‘sport’ comes in — I think it’s just that the surface needs it
6 Soft wet earth churned around ditch (4)
DUMP
p in (mud)rev.
10 US city circulated some cheap material (5)
TAMPA
Reverse hidden in cheAP MATerial — ‘some’ as an inclusion indicator always seems a bit unsatisfactory, particularly as it’s such a giveaway
11 Possibly keep various members of sect inside Northants town (9)
TOWCESTER
(sect)* in tower
12 Only a few ounces?/ Pity (7)
QUARTER
2 defs — one of them a quarter of a pound, which is four ounces so only a few
13 Girl’s report on the situation (7)
SHEBANG
she bang
14 Tough working in adult-rated movies, they say (8)
EXACTING
“X-acting”
16 Reduce length of class given by lecturer (6)
LESSEN
“lesson”
19 Funny business admitted by this French politician (6)
CLARKE
c(lark)e — ce is this in French — ref Kenneth Clarke
20 Film about retreating soldiers getting abuse (8)
MISTREAT
mist re (TA)rev. — abuse as a verb
23 Declare divorcée’s intention to save hundred pounds (7)
EXCLAIM
(ex aim) round CL
25 Illicit drug, one which is not quite enough for woman (7)
TABITHA
tab 1 tha{t}
27 Turning tail, son thus hurried to get help for singer (5,4)
DIANA ROSS
(s so ran aid)rev.
28 Hotel not in industrial area by a lake, in the country (5)
RURAL
Ru{h}r a l
29 Regular appearances of artist unknown in smart hotel (4)
RITZ
{a}r{t}i{s}t z — for some reason that I’ve never understood, z is often an unknown in crosswords even though it is rather out on a limb as an unknown, usually being a complex number — and if you’re not going to accept that it is a complex number then you have to accept that any letter at all can act as an unknown, which would be silly in crosswords
30 Spellbinding person following performer after start of this talent show (3,1-6)
THE X-FACTOR
t{his} hex f actor
Down
1 Old opponent on adventure? No way (7)
ANTIQUE
anti que{st} — st = street = way
2 Pickle and aromatic leaf the French put in a Cajun dish (9)
JAMBALAYA
jam ba(la)y a
3 Begin with tiniest portion of steak pie (5)
START
s{teak} tart
4 Code-breaker’s mother becoming wiser (8)
MATURING
Alan Turing’s mother might have been called “Ma Turing”
5 Present one’s excuses, to begin with? Absolutely not (6)
NOWISE
now 1’s e{xcuses}
7 Political extremist showing some youthful traits (5)
ULTRA
Hidden in youthfUL TRAits — some again
8 Pastor placed over Spanish region for example (7)
PARAGON
P Aragon
9 Fervent macho types held in check (8)
VEHEMENT
ve(he-men)t
15 Meal making you remarkably awake, passing through loch (8)
TAKEAWAY
Tay round (awake)*
17 One leaving team trials in disarray suspected something amiss (5,1,3)
SMELT A RAT
(team trials – i)*
18 At least four teams going north round extremely twisty US route (5-3)
SIXTY-SIX
(XIs)rev. at the front and back of t{wist}y — at least four because each of the XIs is in the plural so is at least two, and XIs appears twice — ref Route 66
19 Edward Woodward ultimately tucked into fish and cheese (7)
CHEDDAR
ch(Ed {Woodwar}d)ar
21 Line in sort of artier short film (7)
TRAILER
(artier)* round l
22 To behave amorously is low in school (6)
SMOOCH
s(moo)ch
24 In slow-moving vehicle husband’s kept map out (5)
CHART
c(h)art — map out as a verb
26 Might this cause controversial UK bar? (5)
BURKA
(UK bar)* — &lit.
*anagram
And a pangram.
Another excellent Dac puzzle. For some reason I didn’t find this as straightforward as some of his puzzles, and it took me a while to get my last five answers which in order were MATURING (very amusing), TOWCESTER, EXACTING, TAKEAWAY and CLARKE.
An English town, TOWCESTER, an American town, TAMPA, an American singer, DIANA ROSS, two American Songs JAMBALAYA (Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis), (GET YOUR KICKS ON) ROUTE 66 (Bobby Troup, Rolling Stones, many others). What can it all mean? Search me.
Entertaining as always from Dac.
1A Presumably men “sport” (wear) US + TT, though the clue doesn’t seem clear about what’s contained in what.
6A is P + MUD all reversed.
Thanks to Dac and John.
I understood 12 to be (only a few ounces)quarter of a pound. With the other part of the definition (Pity) as in ‘give no quarter’.
Thanks Dac and John.
Wow! Some very well-thought-out and elegant clues there. I really like his style.
Some of his misdirection “done me up like a kipper” though, so I did have to visit the ‘Check Button’ once or twice to complete it.
Between Dac and Picaroon in The Guardian, I’ve had a very enjoyable day off.
Many thanks to Dac & John.
z is used as the third axis in a 3D coordinate grid, so it is as much an unknown as x and y, albeit more unknown as such.
Thanks for the blog John.
We also found this a little more tricky than usual but still very enjoyable. We were late starting (as usual) and had to leave a few for this morning. Like OPatrick, we were quite happy with z being an unknown.
Thanks Dac for another enjoyable solve!
For what it’s worth, I do agree with John. “z” is not really used as an unknown in maths (save with complex numbers); apart from x and y and other “typicals” (p for a prime, n for a whole number and so on) more likely to find a Greek letter than a “z”. However, as non-mathematicians are aware of its use to represent the third axis in 3 dimensional Cartesian co-ordinates, and because of its common use in crossword land, I’m happy to accept it as one of the “go tos”.
A fine crossword and a great blog.
Thanks to Dac and John.
For non-UK solvers, ‘burka’ was a superb tie-in to a controversial rolling news item here at the mo.