Oh dear. My personal crosswording bugbear is when an obscure word is clued in a way that makes it impossible to get the answer with certainty if you don't know said obscure word, and in this week's puzzle we have an absolute doozy. How's your knowledge of East Asian palms? If it's no better than mine, successful completion of this puzzle is a game of chance.
If you have the requisite horticultural knowledge, this is a straightforward puzzle.
| Across |
| 1 | Pull outpassage from a longer work |
| EXTRACT - double definition. |
| 5 | Try and support young bird |
| GOSLING - or GO, SLING. |
| 9 | Tory tours a city in rich gear |
| CAPARISON - C(A, PARIS)ON. An ornamental covering for a horse. |
| 10 | Runoversomeone acting in a crowd |
| EXTRA - triple definition. |
| 11 | A loud attack makes one scared |
| AFRAID - A, F (for forte), RAID. |
| 12 | Beefy blokes required to box new chief's heavies |
HENCHMEN - HE-MEN around N, CHief. |
| 14 | Stick around and see WI batsman in America making fresh start |
| TABULA RASA - reversal of BAT (stick), then Brian LARA inside USA. |
| 16 | Athenian character seen on lake with others |
ET AL - ETA, Lake. |
| 18 | Put angler's gear around unknown fish |
| DORY - reversal of ROD, then Y (unknown). |
| 19 | Two girls talked about amphibious creature |
| SALAMANDER - sounds like "Sal, Amanda". |
| 22 | Briefly follow cat on a horse |
STALLION - STALk, LION. The words 'on a' are there for the surface, but they make the wordplay a bit awkward. If you imagine an implied 'with' before the word 'cat' is works though |
| 23 | Journalists scrap outside flat |
| BEDSIT - B(EDS)IT. |
| 26 | Silver and gold at a marketplace |
| AGORA - AG, OR, A. If you haven't come across this ancient marketplace before, remember it, because you will again. |
| 27 | Con left one boat inside as a replica |
| DUPLICATE - DUP(L, I, CAT)E. Cat is short for catamaran. |
| 28 | Magazine halted production a year later |
| THE LADY - (HALTED)*, Y. The magazine 'for elegant women with elegant minds' of which Rachel Johnson (sister of Boris) was the editor for a while. |
| 29 | Top and tail ugly palm |
| T_L_P_T - (TOP, TAIL)*. You have three vowels, and three gaps, so six possible answers. Only one of them is in the dictionary. Good luck! |
| Down |
| 1 | Hypnotise detective in hospital department |
| ENCHANT - ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat, the standard crossword hospital department) contains Charlie CHAN. |
| 2 | Spill milk on rising |
| TAPER - TAP (milk) then a reversal of RE (on). |
| 3 | Make public search for weapon |
| AIR RIFLE - or, er, AIR, RIFLE. |
| 4 | Get termination of employment and beg for work |
TASK - employmenT, ASK. |
| 5 | Doctor eats grannie's nutty biscuit |
| GINGERSNAP - anagram of GRANNIES inside GP. I'd have written this as two words, but Chambers at least has it as one. |
| 6 | Small swimmer creates pong |
| STENCH - S, TENCH. |
| 7 | Suggested private discussion, initially. |
INTIMATED - INTIMATE, Discussion. |
| 8 | Curious angler goes round ship's rear anchor |
GRAPNEL - (ANGLER)* around shiP. |
| 13 | Dawn has a freak body that moves all over the place. |
| BREAK OF DAY - (A FREAK BODY)*. |
| 15 | Girl in pub beginning to enjoy song |
BARCAROLE - BAR(CAROL)Enjoy. |
| 17 | Relevantstuff |
| MATERIAL - DD. |
| 18 | Notes minimal in this accompaniment |
| DESCANT - D, E, SCANT. |
| 20 | Climb down and negotiate again |
| RETREAT - DD. |
| 21 | Oscar winner - not in love with a wool producer |
ALPACA - AL PACino, A. |
| 24 | Being keen, start to strum string instrument |
SHARP - Sstrum, HARP. |
| 25 | Endlessly annoy hawk |
SPIT - SPITe |