Sydney Morning Herald 2025-07-20

Some good words in here! There are some really lovely clues, but I'm not convinced of my parse of a few of them. 10A is the closest I could get, but removal after reversal is a new one to me! 26D has me really stumped, but I think I'm as close as I can get on that one. But other than that, 12A and 7D were pretty clever, so it almost balances out.

Across

1
Heroic visit to all bases in command (7)
HOMERIC — HOMER (visit to all bases) IC (in command)
5
Commanding Officer murmurs about point of silken threads (7)
COCOONS — CO (commanding officer) COOS (murmurs) around N (point)
9
Emotional control with initial bad influence (4-5)
WILL-POWER — W (first letter of with) ILL (bad) POWER (influence)
10
Introduce new thane around without hesitation (5)
ENTER — reversal (around) of RE (new) ThaNE without ah (hesitation)
11
Man has beer at ten (4)
ALEX — ALE (beer) X (ten)
12
Unnatural new clarification without study (10)
ARTIFICIAL — anagram (new) of CLARIFIcATIon without con (study)
14
Signal first half at half time initially. See? (5)
SIGHT — SIG (first half of signal) HT (first letters of half time)
16
Musical works, dry and played with best heart (9)
SERENADES — SERE (dry) anagram (played) of AND, ES (middle letters of best)
18
Carried around a liberal man in the city (9)
BALTIMORE — BORE (carried) around A L (liberal) TIM (man)
21
Can start erythema, a skin disease (5)
TINEA — TIN (can) E (first letter of erythema) A
23
Heavy balls having importance (10)
OVERWEIGHT — OVER (balls) WEIGHT (importance)
24
Lively fellow to work with royal (4)
GOER — GO (to work) ER (royal)
27
No soldier comes back to the Spanish, man (5)
NIGEL — N (no) reversal (comes back) of GI (soldier) EL (the Spanish)
28
Officer with temporary sides in navy building (9)
ADMIRALTY — ADMIRAL (officer) TY (outside letters of temporary)
29
Italian governor does tap dance (7)
PODESTA — anagram (dance) of DOES TAP
30
Senior constable dismissed, looked around (7)
SCOUTED — SC (senior constable) OUTED (dismissed)

Down

1
Seats held up in wild show (7)
HOWDAHS — reversal (up) of HAD in anagram (wild) of SHOW
2
Affray in Fairholme, Leeds (5)
MELEE — hidden in fairholME LEEds
3
Charges boom up (4)
RAPS — reversal (up) of SPAR (boom)
4
Sad crow, sad chickens (7)
COWARDS — anagram (sad) of CROW SAD
5
Woman beginning to run a warship (7)
CARRIER — CARRIE (woman) R (first letter of run)
6
Bill is less welcome to believe celebrity (6,4)
CREDIT NOTE — CREDIT (welcome to believe) NOTE (celebrity)
7
Ordered abroad for exchange and beaten on the lot (9)
OUTBIDDEN — BIDDEN OUT (ordered abroad) for exchange (switch words)
8
Spiral ornaments in Supreme Court registers (7)
SCROLLS — SC (supreme court) ROLLS (registers)
13
Wire stalls roughly built. They're stepped round (10)
STAIRWELLS — anagram (roughly built) of WIRE STALLS
15
Soldier and officer on border with diamonds of the highest quality (4-5)
GILT-EDGED — GI (soldier) LT (officer) EDGE (border) D (diamonds)
17
Make a mistake with English on rights (3)
ERR — E (English) RR (rights)
18
Enlarged and dynamited (5,2)
BLOWN UP — double def.
19
Fair enough, accepted mostly - away from the city (7)
OKINAWA — OK (fair enough) IN (accepted) AWA (most of away)
20
Uncovers old explorer starting to smell (7)
EXHUMES — EX (old) HUME (explorer) S (first letter of smell)
22
Ordered artist back on ready organisation (7)
ARRAYED — reversal (back) of RA (artist) anagram (organisation) of READY
25
No women permitted, just a little bird (5)
OWLET — O (no) W (women) LET (permitted)
26
A raven about to circle runs between banks in Italy (4)
ARNO — A RN (outside letters of raven) O (circle)