1. Go, but only pay the minimum? (5,1,5)
SPEND A PENNY
7. Cut price lettuce (3)
COS
9. Sing thus and yell, half-cut in boozer (2,3)
BY EAR
YE[ll] (half cut) in BAR (boozer)
10. Listen as Cockney retches by sink (9)
EAVESDROP
[h]EAVES (retches, with Cockney pronunciation) by DROP (sink)
11. Lowlifes wanting money back? It makes you sick (9)
TOADSTOOL
TOADS (lowlifes) wanting (LOOT)< (money, <back)
12. Priest beginning to take ecstasy and crack (5)
ELITE
ELI (priest) + T[ake] (beginning to) + E (ecstasy)
13. Look longingly round European court and return to office (2-5)
RE-ELECT
(LEER)< (look longingly, <round) + E (european) + CT (court)
15. Reckons theologian’s in the way (4)
ADDS
DD (theologian) in AS (the way)
18. King sunk in gloom – he’ll probably croak (4)
FROG
R (king) sunk in FOG (gloom)
20. Attempt to seduce? One might with item from Ann Summers (3,2,2)
TRY IT ON
23. Husband’s lust a problem? (5)
HITCH
H (husband) + ITCH (lust)
24. Something spicy, such as Sun article I briefly see (4,5)
STAR ANISE
STAR (such as Sun) + AN (article) + I + SE[e] (briefly)
26. Begin to hold forth about island tipple (9)
ORIGINATE
ORATE (hold forth) about (I (island) + GIN (tipple))
27. Very nice meal. 1p off (5)
SUPER
28. Woman knocking back some chartreuse (3)
SUE
([chartr]EUS[e])< (some, <knocking back)
29. Friendly don outraged when sacked (4-7)
GOOD-NATURED
(DON OUTRAGED)* (*sacked)
1. Help politician to pocket billions? A sorry tale (3,5)
SOB STORY
(SOS (help) + TORY (politician)) to pocket B (billions)
2. Happy about first lady almost getting high (8)
ELEVATED
ELATED (happy) about EV[e] (first lady, almost)
3. Day heading for disaster? Boris blows top (5)
DORIS
D[isaster] (heading for) + [b]ORIS (blows top)
4. Show rotten English poet up (4,3)
PEEP OUT
(E (english) + POET UP)* (*rotten)
5. Book revealing unusual case of Libya (7)
NOVELLA
NOVEL (unusual) + L[iby]A (case of)
6. Starry-eyed Romeo leaving in distress not long ago (9)
YESTERDAY
(STAR[r]Y EYED (r, romeo, leaving))* (*in distress)
7. My privates? Her Majesty’s always fondling them (6)
CORGIS
COR (my!) + GIS (privates)
8. Something that exhausts a soldier? (6)
SAPPER
14. One of us needing another large hint (9)
EARTHLING
16. Nightclub performer, one falling under bus in the end (8)
STRIPPER
TRIPPER (one falling) under [bu]S (in the end)
17. I was mistaken about books being buried (8)
INTERRED
I ERRED (I was mistaken) about NT (books)
19. Stupidly goes round to bug police (7)
GESTAPO
(GOES)* (*stupidly) round TAP (to bug)
20. Exploit customers at work (5,2)
TRADE ON
TRADE (customers) + ON (work)
21. Cries when wife rings? (6)
WHOOPS
22. Kit that you might need for car, I hear (6)
ATTIRE
“a tyre” (that you might need for car, “I hear”)
25. Agree Johnson finally must go? That would be a blessing (5)
ASSET
ASSE[n]T (agree, [johnso]N (finally) to go)
Moo channeling his/her inner Hoskins. This was great fun having lots of hilarious surfaces with CORGIS, ASSET & DORIS my personal favourites. Thanks to Moo and Teacow.
This is my 3rd Moo and I’d have to say I really enjoy his/her sense of humour and nimble cluing. I slipped up on one or two today but had too much fun to mind, really. 1ac, 20ac, 7d and 25d were my favourites. I’m already looking forward to the next one.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks Moo and Teacow
Another enjoyable puzzle from Moo – they are generally not too hard but always some work to do to understand some of the clues . Laughed at the CORGIS clue and even more so with the continuation on to the next clue.
Had some time convincing myself of the obvious PEEP OUT and ASSET wasn’t the first definition I would’ve thought for ‘blessing’, but all was good.
Finished with the clever EARTHLING, HITCH (that was harder than it should have been) and ATTIRE (similarly).
Thanks to Moo and Teacow. I agree – great fun. STAR ANISE was new to me, and I took a while getting HITCH and ORIGINATE.
A nice workout, with quite a bit of head-scratching, and we eventually resorted to a wordfinder for ATTIRE as our LOI (and a case of Doh! when we saw it). We liked TOADSTOOL and EARTHLING, but favourite, for its great surface, was ASSET.
Thanks, Moo and Teacow.
Even though it took me awhile to get into the flow of this crossword, the large number of witty surfaces made it more of a joy and less of a slog for me. I missed the very funny CORGIS because “my” being “cor” was beyond my current grasp. And I see that your beloved leader was honoured with not one, but two clues today! Thanks Moo and Teacow.
Very good crossword. Loi Toadstool. Lots of great clues – tough to pick a favourite but Corgis brilliant.
Thanks MOO and Teacow.
Sorry, a late post as I’ve just completed the crossword (Wed 19 Aug).
Re 20dn TRADE ON: I assumed that ON came from ‘at work’ being equivalent to ‘working’.
Is that what you meant in the blog?