It would appear, that for some reason, the scheduled blogger has not been able to be with us today, so here instead is an analysis of the clues.
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Across
1 Evil women apprehended without notice initially (6)
WICKED – W (women) [n]ICKED (apprehended without notice initially)
4 Practice suffering at work (5,3)
TRIAL RUN – TRIAL (suffering) RUN (work)
10 Newcomer timing mare running without tail (9)
IMMIGRANT – an anagram (running) of TIMING MAR[e]
11 Look about to get posh male doctor (5)
LOCUM – LO (look) C (about) U (posh) M (male)
12 Sailor in belted dress (5)
HABIT – AB (sailor) in HIT (belted)
13 Exhausted and tense, rest head uneasily (9)
SHATTERED – an anagram (uneasily) of T REST HEAD
14 Study revolutionary change in part of service (7)
NOCTURN – CON (study) reversed (revolutionary) TURN (change)
16 Heroines oddly missing for long periods (4)
EONS – [h]E[r]O[i]N[e]S (heroines oddly missing)
19 Help out in a punt (4)
ABET – A BET (punt)
21 Holiday on popular train (5,2)
BREAK IN – BREAK (holiday) IN (popular)
24 Rubbish feathers on sale (9)
KNOCKDOWN – KNOCK (rubbish) DOWN (feathers)
25 Steel plane returns with king on board (5)
NERVE – EVEN (plane) reversed (returns) around (with … on board) R (king)
26 Jumper goes over edges of dyke in cowboy show (5)
RODEO – ROO (jumper) around (goes over) D[yk]E (edges of dyke)
27 Swimming across creek regularly is inspiring (9)
BREATHING – BATHING (swimming) around (across) [c]R[e]E[k] (creek regularly)
28 Way Mountie gets man from elsewhere (8)
STRANGER – ST (way) RANGER (Mountie)
29 Fruit with really cheesy covering (6)
LYCHEE – contained in (with … covering) ‘realLY CHEEsy’
Down
1 Advantage of trendy husband coated in something magical (4,4)
WHIP HAND – HIP (trendy) H (husband) in (coated in) WAND (something magical)
2 Draw near to support rally (8)
COMEBACK – COME (draw near to) BACK (support)
3 Number entering illegal gang have tattoos to start with (5)
EIGHT – E[ntering] I[llegal] G[ang] H[ave] T[attoos] (entering illegal gang have tattoos to start with)
5 Artist to outline daily grind (3,4)
RAT RACE – RA (artist) TRACE (outline)
6 A lean colt bolting suddenly (3,2,4)
ALL AT ONCE – an anagram (bolting) of A LEAN COLT
7 Vehicle coming up to get queen’s jockeys? (6)
RACERS – CAR (vehicle) reversed (coming up) ER’S (queen’s)
8 Rovers curse about keeping ball on side initially (6)
NOMADS – DAMN (curse) reversed (about) around (keeping) O (ball) plus S[ide] (side initially)
9 Mother and child preparing fruit (6)
DAMSON – DAM (mother) SON (child)
15 Unobserved nun woken roughly around start of benediction (9)
UNBEKNOWN – an anagram (roughly) of NUN WOKEN around B[enediction] (start of benediction)
17 Runner runs mile with one shoe, half having been lost in fight (8)
SKIRMISH – SKI (runner) R (runs) M (mile) I (one) SH[oe] (shoe, half having been lost)
18 Lie given in order to entice (8)
INVEIGLE – an anagram (in order) of LIE GIVEN
20 Bit of tainted foreign dough causes upset (7)
TROUBLE – T[ainted] (bit of tainted) ROUBLE (foreign dough)
21 Urban kerb-crawler accommodates one working in city (6)
BANKER – contained in (accommodates) ‘urBAN KERb-crawler’
22 Comic sketches featuring king in women’s clothing (6)
SKIRTS – SKITS (comic sketches) around (featuring … in) R (king)
23 Head of farm gets more unusual feed (6)
FODDER – F[arm] (head of farm) ODDER (more unusual)
25 Mad teachers get extremely testy (5)
NUTTY – NUT (teachers) T[est]Y (extremely testy)
I zipped through this one without too much trouble. I started with WICKED and finished with COMEBACK and then NOCTURN, which I only knew as a piece of music with an E on the end, but having Googled it after the event, find it’s part of Matins originally said at night in the RC church. An enjoyable romp. Thanks Vigo and Gaufrid.
Thanks Vigo and Gaufrid.
At least 9 of the solutions are titles of novels by Dick Francis.
A nice gentle Monday intro to the week, which gave us no problems apart from not being able to parse BREATHING. One or two very minor niggles – ‘king’ for R occurs twice (25ac and 22dn) and we’re not sure that ‘mountie’ = ‘ranger’.
All good stuff, though. Favourites were IMMIGRANT, LOCUM and UNBEKNOWN.
Thanks, Vigo and Gaufrid.
Always a pleasure to get a Vigo puzzle to solve and the image conjured up by the surface of 1a had me laughing from the outset.
Liked the notion of 29a but awarded top places to 19&27a.
Not a Dick Francis follower but had a look at a list of his output following Simon’s comment @2. Must have missed one as I could only find eight. Good spot, Simon.
Many thanks to Vigo for another most enjoyable crossword and to Gaufrid for stepping in to blog this one.
Always lovely to see a Vigo puzzle. For my money, this one was a bit chewier than usual. I didn’t see the theme until I had finished the grid, and recognised a few titles because a chap with whom I used to work always had one on his desk. Like Jilly Cooper but without the heaving bosoms, I imagine (not that I’ve read her either).
Well done Gaufrid for stepping in
Thanks Vigo and Gaufrid.
Good Monday puzzle with smooth clues.
I was trying to fit ‘in’ in 1d for trendy, doh!
I particularly liked BREATHING
For anyone still wondering, the nine titles are Banker, Break In, Comeback, Knockdown, Nerve, Rat Race, Shattered, Trial Run and Whip Hand.
Thanks G, found this quite easy but missed the theme by several country miles. Saw wicked instantly and was looking for musicals that never appeared. Sorry for the blog issue, been a tad under the weather recently
Enjoyed the crossword, but completely missed the extra dimension of Dick Francis (who?) which makes it all the more special. I think 5d is my favourite – plenty more to like. 1a and 12a, for example.
i wanted to find a way to enter “always” for 28a.
many thanks Vigo, and thanks Gaufried
I don’t have many words today, but if I did I would have only positive ones to use here. Thanks to Vigo and Gaufrid.
I enjoyed this too, found it pretty straightforward but the theme eluded me – hardly surprising since I have never read any.