Sydney Morning Herald 2025-07-22

A little trickier than the usual LR offering, I actually quite liked this!

Across

7
Barty is able to refuse receptacle (6)
ASHCAN — ASH (Barty) CAN (is able to)
9
Painkiller from doctors annoyed (7)
ANODYNE — anagram (doctors) of ANNOYED
10
Answer to soul in turmoil (8)
SOLUTION — anagram (turmoil) of TO SOUL IN
11
Commits heartless vandalism for TV show (6)
SITCOM — anagram (vandalism) of COMmITS (without middle letter)
12
Pretentious person returned to artficial intelligence plant, shrunk (6)
BONSAI — reversal (returned) of SNOB, AI (artificial intelligence)
14
Bright desire to awaken, mostly (8)
LUSTROUS — LUST (desire) ROUSe (awaken, without last letter)
16
Cases of censorship in Olympics sled event? (7)
LUGGAGE — GAG (censorship) in LUGE (Olympics sled event)
18
Progress commercial with Trump's VP (7)
ADVANCE — AD (commercial) VANCE (Trump's VP)
21
Split trip I won unfairly (3,2,3)
RIP IN TWO — anagram (unfairly) of TRIP I WON
23
Maybe Tell marchers to disown extremists? (6)
ARCHER — mARCHERs without outside letters
25
Pain in the neck and back from impassioned rubbing (6)
BURDEN — reversal (back) of hidden in impassioNED RUBbing
27
Delta entered to win cash, cooking square meal (8)
SANDWICH — anagram (cooking) of WIN CASH with D (delta)
29
New purse contains five euro to provide food (5,2)
SERVE UP — anagram (new) of PURSE containing V (five) E (euro)
30
Trump backed Republican leaving real proposition rejected (2,4)
NO DEAL — reversal (backed) of DON (trump), rEAL without r (republican)

Down

1
City band ditched slow ending (4)
OSLO — O (band) SLOw (without last letter)
2
Welcoming one to Nevada by biting head off (8)
INVITING — I (one) NV (Nevada) bITING (without first letter)
3
Slightly messy in flat 365D (7)
FAINTLY — anagram (messy) of IN FLAT, Y (365d)
4
Charges surrounding arson initially doesn't really work (6)
COASTS — COSTS (charges) around A (first letter of arson)
5
This year's crazy delirium (8)
HYSTERIA — anagram (crazy) of THIS YEAR
6
The lady's life saver!? (4)
HERO — HER (the lady) O (life saver), &lit
8
Captain embraces ship's sounds (5)
CHUGS — C (captain) HUGS (embraces)
13
Eyes off chocolate unicorn, lathered in toppings (5)
OCULI — first letters of Off Chocolate Unicorn Lathered In
15
Cryptic clue about Einstein's conclusion - a man of relativity? (5)
UNCLE — anagram (cryptic) of CLUE around N (last letter of Einstein)
17
Smiles, clenching inflamed back molars, perhaps (8)
GRINDERS — GRINS (smiles) around reversal (back) of RED (inflamed)
19
Opening drink and pouring - it causes exhaustion! (8)
DRAINING — D (first letter of drink) RAINING (pouring)
20
50 per cent chances of POTUS wrongfully imprisoning secret service (7)
TOSSUPS — anagram (wrongfully) of POTUS containing SS (secret service)
22
Kind offer (6)
TENDER — double def.
24
Daunted to marry after losing everything inside casino (5)
COWED — CO (outside letters of casino) WED (to marry)
26
Guests are regularly leaving this historic country (4)
USSR — even letters of gUeStS aRe
28
Potter's medium coffee launched at yelling faces (4)
CLAY — first letters of Coffee Launched At Yelling