A decent challenge from Aardvark today with some well disguised definitions and pleasing surfaces, though I do have a slight quibble about part of the wordplay in 1dn.
There was one less familiar, or in my case unknown, word (28ac) which was no doubt necessitated by the pangram.
Across
1 Temporary visit curtailed around America westwards (6)
CASUAL – CAL[l] (visit curtailed) around USA (America) reversed (westwards)
4 Correct gear used by hospital during stroke (3,5)
PUT RIGHT – RIG (gear) H (hospital) in (during) PUTT (stroke)
9 Deposit’s placed by that woman going back for change (6)
REHASH – HER (that woman) reversed (going back) ASH (deposit)
10 Pub clean after shifting sticky thing? (8)
BARNACLE – BAR (pub) + an anagram (after shifting) of CLEAN
12 The Spanish invade second-rate city? (8)
BELGRADE – EL (the Spanish) in (invade) B GRADE (second-rate)
13 Personnel probe error with £1,000 contract (6)
SHRINK – HR (personnel {human resources}) in (probe) SIN (error) K (£1,000)
15 Building block not in use, partly being restored (4)
UNIT – hidden reversal (partly being restrored) in ‘noT IN Use’
16 Standard celebration – I’m taking a spin in limousine (5,5)
JOLLY ROGER – JOLLY (celebration) EGO (I) reversed (taking a spin) in RR (limousine {Rolls Royce})
19 One heartless soul in there redesigned shopping centre? (4,6)
HIGH STREET – I (one) GH[o]ST (heartless soul) in an anagram (redesigned) of THERE
20 Fibre to edge front of pullover (4)
HEMP – HEM (edge) P[ullover] (front of pullover)
23 Almost all fruit attracts Charlie’s pet? (6)
TOMCAT – TOMAT[o] (almost all fruit) around (attracts) C (Charlie)
25 Speeches regularly claim monarch wasting energy with succession (8)
SEQUENCE – S[p]E[e]C[h]E[s] (speeches regularly) around (claim) QU[e]EN (monarch wasting energy)
27 Oscar got married, following passage that’s sacred (8)
HALLOWED – O (Oscar) WED (got married) after (following) HALL (passage)
28 Greek character wrong to raid mother’s local booze (6)
METAXA – ETA (Greek character) X (wrong) in (to raid) MA (mother) – this Greek spirit
29 Burlesque party held by Turks Head, a filthy place (8)
TRAVESTY – RAVE (party) in (held by) T[urks] (Turks Head) STY (a filthy place)
30 Having scratched head, Earnest shows injury at the back (6)
ASTERN – an anagram (shows injury) of [e]ARNEST (having scratched head, Earnest)
Down
1 Animal bone found underneath roughly half-hour later (7)
CARIBOU – CA (roughly) RIB (bone) [h]OU[r] (half-hour) – I’m not sure that to use ‘half’ to indicate the middle two letters is exactly fair
2 Caught, one’s inclined inside to confess using defunct money (9)
SCHILLING – C (caught) HILL (one’s inclined) in (inside) SING (confess) – this Austrian currency
3 Insist upon having a nap in auditorium (6)
ASSERT – a homophone (in auditorium) of ‘a cert’ (a nap)
5 Rising bowler, perhaps second in Australian state (4)
UTAH – HAT (bowler, perhaps) [a]U[stralian] (second in Australian) reversed (rising)
6 Mexican farmer managed business while nursing that lady (8)
RANCHERO – RAN (managed) CO (business) around (while nursing) HER (that lady)
7 Canines seen in centrepiece of voguish fashion brand (5)
GUCCI – C C (canines) in (seen in) [vo]GUI[sh] (centrepiece of voguish)
8 One rambles on in outskirts of Thirsk with king and queen (7)
TREKKER – RE (on) in T[hirs]K (outskirts of Thirsk) K (king) ER (queen)
11 Postpone article about entertainer associated with us (7)
ADJOURN – AN (article) around (about) DJ (entertainer) OUR (associated with us)
14 Bolt, a month back, ripped off (7)
FLEECED – FLEE (bolt) DEC (a month) reversed (back)
17 Plum contract acquired by faceless monster (9)
GREENGAGE – ENGAGE (contract) after (acquired by) [o]GRE (faceless monster)
18 Perhaps bitter about work after key cut (8)
ESCALOPE – ALE (perhaps bitter) around (about) OP (work) after ESC (key)
19 Aspiring fliers, with head for heights, enter the new chopper (7)
HATCHET – ATC (aspiring fliers {Air Training Corps}) H[eights] (head for heights) in (enter) an anagram (new) of THE
21 When one in chess game accepts signal to stop? (7)
PREDAWN – PAWN (one in chess game) around (accepts) RED (signal to stop)
22 He painted scores at cricket match around stand (6)
RUBENS – RUNS (scores at cricket match) around BE (stand {remain})
24 Country woman hides voice (5)
MALTA – MA (woman) around (hides) ALT (voice)
26 Relish, most common in pizzas, is from Provence (4)
ZEST – Z (most common {letter} in pizzas) EST (is from Provence {is in French})
I think your quibble about half hour is unfair, it’s just not how we’re used to the half bits and a fair development to me.
That said, this was hard and glad I wasn’t blogging against time pressure. I got there having sampled metaxa some years ago. (it’s fine if you don’t have the cheap stuff 🙂 )
Thanks Gaufrid there were a few I half parsed and hoped you’d explain.
Didn’t notice the pangram, not sure with the setter’s aids these days it’s such a big thing, it won’t help anyone outside our circles.
I had a quibble with the definition for 9ac – doesn’t rehash mean using something without changing it ? My other question was – how does a cert equate to a nap ?
Hi stuartr
Under ‘rehash’, Chambers Thesaurus gives “rework, change, alter, rearrange, rejig, rejigger, restate, reshuffle, refashion, rewrite”.
One of the definitions in Chambers under ‘nap’ is “a racing tip that professes to be a certainty, …” and for ‘cert’ it has “a certainty, sometimes in the phrase dead cert“.
Thanks Aardvark and Gaufrid
My first puzzle by this setter – and an enjoyable one at a good level of difficulty.
Finished off with the Greek drink that I’d not heard of before and found it pretty difficult to get with only the even crossers.
Thought that JOLLY ROGER was the best of a good lot of clues – well camouflaged definition and a cryptic that was far from straightforward – did not know of JOLLY in that context.
Had no problems with the half hour = OU … nothing to say that the middle half is not as valid as the first or second half.