I have to admit that Chifonie is not by favourite setter, and in my opinion, this puzzle has too many loose definitions/wordplay, and at least one clue I can’t parse (see below).
Sorry for the lateness of this post, but today was really hectic at work.
ACROSS
1 BARRIE – BAR(RI)E – as in James Matthew (JM) Barrie, author of Peter Pan and The Admirable Crichton. I’m not convinced by RI = “divinity” Divinity can be defined as the “study of religion; theology”, but I’m not sure that is the same thing as RI = “religious instruction”.
4 CAMELOT – CAMEL-O.T. – “books” in a cryptic crossword often indicates OT or NT (Old and New Testament)
10 GAMMA – GAM-M.A. – a gam is a school of whales, and if you use the Greek alphabet to classify something, then gamma would be graded third.
12 AWESTRUCK – A(WEST)RUCK
13 THEATRE – TH(EAT-R)E
17 ATONIC – A-TONIC – having no accent, in phonetics
26 USHER – (g)USHER
27 SHELL SUIT – S(HELL) SUIT
28 DET(R)AIN – where R is “a bit of rubbish”. I’m not a great fan of “a bit of” in this sense, because it could equally apply to any of the 6 letters which appear in “rubbish”
29 CRATER – C(R)ATER – CATER = “outfit”??
DOWN
1 BIT PART – not sure of the wordplay here: the definition is clearly BIT PART and I assume that the “check” in the clue refers to BIT (as in part of the bridle of a horse), which would leave PART = “interest” (I could only see that in very loose terms)
2 RATES – RA(<=set)
3 ISLINGTON – I-SLING-TON
8 THANKS – T(om) HANKS – star of The Da Vinci Code
14 ENTRECHAT – ENTRE(CH)AT – I have seen CH=companion before, but don’t know why – anyone?
16 TRAVELLER – T(RAV(e))ELLER
18 CRIMSON – C(RIMS)ON –Modena shouldn’t have a capital in the clue as the definition “ modena” is a colour, not the city, but the surface wouldn’t work without it. Plus, countries have borders, don’t they, not towns? The setter should have found a way to put Modena first in the clue (something along the lines of “Modena’s outskirts toured by swindler”).
20 DEMETER – DE(MET)ER – MET = “weather forecasting” – just about acceptable
21 ROTUND – RO(TUN)D
25 SHUNT – S(HUN)T – Vandals and Huns were both barbarian tribes, but surely they are not synonymous.
1D: interest can be a share in something: Collins has: “a right, share, or claim, esp in a business or property” so PART seems OK.
29A: Collins has “outfit” as a verb meaning: “to furnish or be furnished with an outfit, equipment, etc” so again CATER seems OK.
Finally, 1A: I remember doing Divinity in prep school: isn’t that literally some sort of Religious Instruction?
But overall I agree, there quite a few loose clues here…
CH = Companion of Honour