The Age Cryptic by LR #20,668

This Monday sees the return of LR which is going to be great for the next few weeks. My first thought was I liked the grid design. A new one to me and I noticed the large Fs on their sides resembling keys. I'm a bit aware of grid oddities and what they could mean after Phi posted on his blog about his puzzle that had an interesting theme which created a unique grid as well. If anything else was going on here, I didn't find it. No Ninas to my eye.

This puzzle stood out as so many of the clues had answers that were a (4,4) which took me a while as I solved 4A first and then went right to its down clues which aren't (4,4) and once you do see that it makes the longest clue, 15A make much more sense. Here's my pic and an explanation of the scribbles:

Definitions are underlined
Actionable signposts or words are circled
Anagrinds are in rectangles
Anagram fodder has a squiggly underline
Dashes above/below letters are beginning/end letters or odds/evens 
Some clue elements I try to separate are in parantheses
Underlined numbers are not fully parsed unless ticked, and circled numbers are ones I share with the Facebook Cryptic Crossword Learners club.

4A - Begin bible studies with king from sci-fi series (4,4)

"Sci-fi series" is what we're looking for and "begin" = START and "bible studies" = RE (for religious education) and "with King" = K to make STAR TREK

8A - Close contest? (4,4)

A cryptic definition clue: HOME GAME.

9A - Refuse to reduce volume (4,4)

Double definition: Refuse / to reduce volume = TURN DOWN.

10A - Pots banged by band very loudly on second of brief visits (4-4)

"Brief visits" is our definition and "POTS banged" is partial fodder and anagrind with "band" = O and "very loudly" = FF (forte forte the music instruction) with "second" = S to make STOP-OFFS.

11, 14A - Reefer I'd smoked gave welcome lift (4,4)

"Gave welcome lift" is our definition and  "REEFER I'D smoked" is fodder and anagrind to make FREE RIDE, nice cheeky clue.

12A - Kidnap quintet to relax briefly (4,4)

Double definition: Kidnap quintet / to relax briefly = TAKE FIVE.

15A - Curses this puzzle theme! (4,6,5)

Double definition: Curses / this puzzle theme = FOUR LETTER WORDS.

19, 24A - Slack cop lost key (4,4)

"Key" is our definition and "SLACK COP lost" is fodder and anagrind making CAPS LOCK, the keyboard key.

I had a short but funny mental block with this clue because due to watching some videos on Buzzfeed about men wearing women's g-strings for a day, for some reason the anagram I saw first was COCK SLAP.

23A - Teens messed with horses in reserves (4,4)

"Reserves" is our definition and "TEENS messed" is partial fodder and anagrind, "with horses" = GGS (and this is one of those cryptic elements that's purely used only in cryptic crosswords. It's a pretty old term now I believe and its origins are up for debate. British slang for horses is "gee-gees" and it's used around horse racing. I don't know if it's used around horse tracks these days, I'm not a horse person so I've just made a mental note in the puzzle solving section of my brain in case it comes up sometime)  the answer is (NEST E)GGS

25A - Very cool journalist's furniture (4,4)

"Furniture" is our definition and "very" = SO ("It's very cool" and "it's so cool" type of synonym. One that has tripped me up before), "cool" = FAB and "journalist's" = ED'S (short for editor) to make SOFA BEDS.

26A - Popstar in city with a daggy disguise (4,4)

"Popstar" is who we're looking for and "city" = L.A. (for Los Angeles) "with A DAGGY disguise" is partial fodder and anagrind to make LA(DY GAGA)

27A - Miserable divorcee froze (4,4)

"Froze" is our definition and "miserable DIVORCEE" is anagrind and fodder to make ICED OVER.

28A - Aggressive campaign to get tradesmen evenly into corridor (4,4)

"Aggressive campaign" is our definition and "tRaDeSmEn evenly" = RDSE as we remove the even letters and they're going "into" a word for "corridor" = HALL to make HA(RD SE)LL.

1D - Thus loud team leader thanks company for Mexican food (4,4)

"Mexican food" is what we're looking for and "thus" = SO, "loud" = F (forte), "Team leader" = T, "thanks" = TA (British slang or baby talk for thank you) and "company" = CO all together to make SOFT TACO.

2D - 2016 for one jumpy listener? (4,4)

"2016 for one" is the definition and "jumpy" = LEAPY (It's not a real word, how cheaty) and a "listener" = EAR for a LEAP YEAR.

3D - Mitch, Alf, Tim enjoyed parts of interval (4,4)

"Interval" is our definition and the key signpost here is "parts" telling us it's a hidden word clue and there in "mitcH ALF TIM Enjoyed" is HALF TIME.

4, 25D - Begins voyage to collection's auction we hear (4,4)

"Begins voyage" is our definition and "collections" = SETS and an "auction" is a SALE and "we hear" is a homophone indicator making "sale" into SAIL for SETS SAIL.

5D - Goddess starts an ugly rumour over rental agreement (6)

"Goddess" is who we're looking for and "starts" is a beginning/ends signpost telling us "An Ugly Rumour Over Rental Agreement" = AURORA the Roman goddess of the dawn.

6D - Cleaner got IT round to get pass right (6)

"Cleaner" is our definition and "IT round" = TI as we spin it around, "pass" = DIE and "right" = R to make TIDIER.

7D - Prince made three notes about battle (6)

A "Prince" is who we're looking for and "Three notes" means music notes (EGBDF and FACE)  going "about" or around a word for "battle" = WAR and the notes we need are E, D and D to make ED(WAR)D.

13D - Dine at home from each can (3,2)

"Dine at home" is our definition and "each" = EA as its abbreviation and "can" = TIN to make EAT IN.

16D - Knight raises $1000, for no cost, in safe (4-4)

"Safe" is our definition and "knight raises" = SIR being reversed to RIS (raises for a down clue means to enter the word backwards going up), "$1000" = K (metric abbreviation) and "no cost" = FREE to make RISK FREE.

17D - Honest person to ring and write to jeer king (4,4)

"Honest person" is our definition and "ring" = O, "write" = PEN, "to jeer" = BOO and "king" = K to make OPEN BOOK.

18D - How a miner finds courage? (4,4)

Cryptic definition: a miner DIGS DEEP.

20D - Fleet Alpha Romeo has crazy acceleration (6)

"Fleet" is our definition and "Alpha Romeo" = AR (from the phonetic alphabet), "crazy" = MAD and "acceleration" = A to make ARMADA.

21D - Destroyed a yard in toboggan (6)

"Destroyed" is our definition and "A Yard" = AY (To be fair, Yard is usually abbreviated to YD and not just Y)  going "in" a word for "toboggan" = SLED to make SL(AY)ED.  Let me know if there's another way to solve this and I'm wrong about the y/yd thing.

22D - File predicament (6)

Double definition: SCRAPE.

There we are, finished! A nice kickoff for the week. I've had a struggle with Friday's DA and may just slip it into the DNF folder for when I'm in a better state of mind. I've not been in the mood for anything too deep. I got over half done but was hung up in the SE corner and just didn't have the fight in me to push through. My husband had been away and returned from Korea that day and it was better spent with him watching a few episodes of Columbo

As always if you have questions, comments or alternate solutions or funny stories to share please leave them in the comments. Stay dry if you're in Victoria and have a great day.