Pretty easy-going stuff from Chifonie here, with several rather obvious anagrams to get started with. It was enjoyable enough, though with nothing much to grab the attention, except I thought the surface reading of 9d was amusing. A couple of bugbears of mine have raised their heads in 19ac and 28ac.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | CLEANSE | LEAN S (saint – a less common abbreviation than ST) in CE | ||||||
| 5. | CAMPION | CHAMPION less H | ||||||
| 10. | EMMA | Hidden in “requiEM MAss” | ||||||
| 11. | OBLITERATE | OB (=old boy = alumnus) + LITERATE | ||||||
| 12. | MANTRA | R (reading, as in the “three Rs”, I suppose) in MANTA (type of ray – the fish) | ||||||
| 13. | PANTHEON | PAN (criticise) + THE (article) + ON (about) | ||||||
| 14. | NEAR THING | N[ew] + EARTHING | ||||||
| 16. | ANDES | AND (with) + E S (compass points) | ||||||
| 17. | LHASA | L HAS A. Capital of Tibet | ||||||
| 19. | STAVANGER | VAN in STAGER. As usual I don’t like “in Norway” as the definition of a place in Norway | ||||||
| 23. | AGNOSTIC | (ACTING SO)* | ||||||
| 24. | ORDEAL | OR (gold) + DEAL (market) | ||||||
| 26. | VAUDEVILLE | (VALUED LIVE)*, with “Doctor” as the anagram indicator. | ||||||
| 27. | VIAL | VITAL less its “heart” | ||||||
| 28. | ADDRESS | AD (Bill) + DRESS (Don), though as I’ve said before, “don” in this sense means “put on”, so isn’t the same as “dress” | ||||||
| 29. | STALKER | ‘S TALKER | ||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 2. | LIMEADE | MEAD in LIE | ||||||
| 3. | ADAPT | DA in APT | ||||||
| 4. | STOMACH | (HAM COST)* | ||||||
| 6. | ACTING | AC (bill) + TIN (can) + G (girl) | ||||||
| 7. | PARTHENON | HEN in PARTON. The second “ancient temple” in the puzzle. | ||||||
| 8. | OUTCOME | OUT (not allowed) + COME (reach). I don’t much like come=reach (“come to” would be more like it), and in any case the “come” part of “outcome” has pretty much the same sense | ||||||
| 9. | SLAP AND TICKLE | (INEPT LADS LACK)* – and a very nice surface reading. | ||||||
| 15. | RESPONDER | RES[olution] + PONDER (study) | ||||||
| 18. | HAGGARD | Double definition (H Rider Haggard is the author) | ||||||
| 20. | VIOLENT | N (abbreviation for Knight in chess notation) in VIOLET | ||||||
| 21. | EMANATE | AN in E MATE | ||||||
| 22. | STAVES | T[enor] in SAVES. | ||||||
| 25. | DEVIL | Reverse of LIVED, “Dickens” is slang for the devil, as in “what the Dickens” | ||||||
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