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If you google 1849 you'll see numerous references to the California Gold Rush. A Forty-Niner is a prospector. Pacific Time was a further nudge.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Forty-niners

San Francisco's football team is the Forty-Niners

aristo, my knowledge of American history is woeful lol! I often struggle with 'real world' references in clues..I spend too much time with words but not enough time reading books!

Cheers for the education :)

The 8 hour time difference is a pain. I'm either asleep or at work (Sunday to Thursday) when all the action happens.

Les, when you post the solved grid, could you start a new thread. This one is getting unwieldy, especially as this site has no search function that I'm aware of.

Thanks Wendy @46, for confirming 27D.
I see you've come up with an answer for 29A. I'm still pondering.

Didn't see an answer to my question: verb or noun?

Maybe I'm a bit dense, but I've been diligent. Reread the discussion several times & tried anagrams for every possible word there, with a couple of 3-letter synonyms for "mine" - "dig" & "pit".
No luck, so assume the problem is there.

Thanks GK @49. That seems to confirm my choice, but still lost.

Where do you get those voodoo dolls? (-;

Re 15A, there were some questions @51 because of the cross at 7D.
It's an anagram with extra letters "SA". See Chambers. All clear?

Have a question re 7D.
Heavy water is D2O (vis-à-vis H2O).
"D", the extra letter required, is simply Deuterium (hydrogen isotope). Am I missing something?

Syzzy, re 29A

GK gave us the answer when he said the word is usually associated with "a fuss"

It's a verb and would be used as a substitute for "Make" as in

To MAKE a fuss

Yes Wendy, that was my reference to GK @49.
Problem is that I don't get the wordplay.
So, if I'm not spilling the beans too early, my answer was CREATE.

Is that what you got?

Hi Syzzy, I agree with your logic on 7d i.e. D + anagram of least.

oops, I should have said D + anagram of least + S (sulphur)