This all seemed fairly straightforward for the most part, with Chambers just required to wrap up a few loose ends. The bit where I am stumped is 25 down.
The initial letter is unchecked, so could be C or T, but the wordplay has me beaten.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SPECIES – EC in SPIES. |
| 7 | EDNA – [wom]AN DE[finitely]<. |
| 11 | ARCANE – CAN in ARE. |
| 13 | AMEER – A + MEER. |
| 14 | COUNTER-ROLL – COUNTER + ROLL. |
| 15 | TARPEIA – RAT< + (A1 + EP)<. I don’t think I’d heard of Tarpeia, but the wordplay seemed quite clear. |
| 16 | CORRIE-FISTED – CO + (S in TERRIFIED*). |
| 17 | SWEET FA – WEE in FAST*. |
| 21 | UNGORED – UNDERGO*. |
| 22 | IATROCHEMIST – (SO + ARITHMETIC)*. |
| 24 | JUNINHO – (IN + H) in JUNO. |
| 26 | LEVI-STRAUSS – (TRAVELS + US + IS)*. Claude Lévi-Strauss, rather than the jeans guy. |
| 27 | MISOS – O in MISS. |
| 28 | PERSIA – PER + SIA[m]. |
| 29 | PESO – PES[t] + O. |
| 30 | NEEDLER – NEED + L[n]ER. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SACK – two definitions: bed as in “hit the sack”, plus this sort of thing. |
| 2 | PROMO – P + ROMO, a brief fad which I vaguely remember. |
| 3 | CANTRED – CAN’T + RED. I can’t quite find a reference for “red” being “to handle match”, but I suspect it’s there somewhere. |
| 4 | INTUITIONISM – (N + TUITION) in (I + M). |
| 5 | SARAFAN – (A + F) in SARAN. |
| 6 | CARRIAGE-FREE – (I in RAG) in CAREFREE . |
| 8 | DELETERIOUS – (ROUTE + DIESEL)*. |
| 9 | NELIES – LIE in NES[t]. |
| 10 | ARCADED – CAD in A RED. |
| 12 | CURRENTNESS – (TURNS SCREEN)*. |
| 17 | SKI JUMP – JU[ly]in SKIMP. |
| 18 | FUCHSIN – SUCH* in FIN. |
| 19 | LOMBARD – MBA in LORD. |
| 20 | SAULIE – SAU[l] + LIE. In this case, “mute” means a hired funeral mourner. |
| 23 | SUSIE – US in SIE. |
| 25 | ?SAR – Set on invoking special authority. |
Thanks for the blog.
25 is TSAR – TAR in Chambers = to set on, around S.
3d is CANTREF, actually.