This was hard by Indy daily standards - and there’s one I don’t understand and fear I missed - any guidance welcomed! Solving time (if I’ve got it!) 60 mins (way longer than normal)

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 INTELLIGENTSIA (elitist-leaning)* The first clue in the puzzle (and my favourite clue!). Excellent.

10 OUTFITTER Out + fitter Had never heard of studly before (even thought it might be a misprint) but it’s in the dict!

15 TOP-LEVEL Very hard. Remove the third letters from each of Topple veal.

16 BLOTTO Liked this l in botto(m)

20 LITERATI lite + rati(on) “cut by a third”

27 BACTERIAL This is all reversed lair etc (the rest) a b

28 ANTIMONARCHIST A n Tim arch (chief) is t(beginning to turn)

DOWN

2 NOTEPAPER Indirect anagram just about within bounds (*one tear + pp = pages) 14 is MEMORANDUM.

5 GERBIL House = LIBRA (sign of the Zodiac) without a say = e.g. on rising (all up in a down clue)

8 ASYMPTOTICALLY A “stinker” Put MA in the middle of that word and you have “how infection may lurk”

9 BOPHUTHATSWANA Stinker number two. bop + hut + hat + wan in SA

17 TRAPEZIUS Rising means it’s all upwards Size around tip of ulna i.e. u + part = partially

21 GIBBON Also “set up” as in previous clue nob + big

25 The one I’m not sure of I’m guessing MESH from the definition but do not get the wordplay.

Apologies for the delay - a review of today’s debut by Nestor will appear shortly.

Solving time - 45 minutes. I feel sorry for anyone trying to do this on the train - after struggling in vain for 20 minutes to get half of it I resorted to the Internet, and it was still hard going. Probably not so tough for anyone from Oxfordshire, although all the lesser known towns have relatively easy wordplay. I’m fairly sure Pasquale (Don Manley) is from Oxford, so it’s an appropriate theme.

Across
9 H(0,I,POLL)O,1 - a lot of elements to put together in the wordplay
10 I,SLIP - first thematic answer, this was the birthplace of Edward the Confessor
11 PACKS (”pax”)
13 SET DOWN - I’m sure I’ve seen this clue before - first one I got
17 RAP(H)E - pretty obscure vocabulary, only got it once I had all the checking letters, confirmed afterwards on OneLook.com
22 HE,IN,(O),US
26 GO(l)FER - I wasted some time looking for a sportsman missing two Ls, but LSD (librae, solidi, denarii) = “pounds, shillings, pence”, not “pound, shilling, penny”.
28 S,HIRE - type of horse (half of 3dn), took me about 15 minutes before I cracked this and 23dn, which was the only way into the puzzle. I thought it would be plain sailing from then on with so many thematic clues, but it wasn’t to be.
29 ENA,MO,URED(rude*)

Down
1 I’ve got “WHIP” for this, but I’m open to suggestions - I don’t get the wordplay. [Correct answer is CHAP (E removed from CHEAP), as explained in the comments]
2 DID,COT - I don’t know why a traveller would have dismounted there though
3 HORSE OPERA, (”hopes are OR”)* - OR=”other ranks”, i.e. not officers. Other 2-letter possibilities for soldier(s) are GI (used in 6dn), LT, RE or RA. I considered most of these before hitting on OR.
4 B(LAD)ON - NOB rev - this is the famous burial place of Sir Winston Churchill
5 BICESTER (”bistre”) - easy enough if you know what bistre is! I looked up “pigment” in Bradford’s to get this.
8 SPAN - two meanings. A span of horses means a matched pair pulling e.g. a plough or a carriage
15 KID,LING,TON - a town I’d never heard of but the wordplay’s easy enough. Ton is French for “fashion”.
16 SILAS - Salisbury (southern city) rev. without Bury (northern town). Silas was a missionary in the Bible.
18 PONYTAIL (”tale”) - Ruby Ferguson was a writer of children’s pony stories.
19 WHEAT,LEY - another unknown town to me, but straightforward wordplay again. “Ley” is an alternative spelling of “lea”.
22 HURR(A)Y - A as in last letter of Paula, ref. Paula Radcliffe, who might or might not get cheered if she came last!
23 O,X,FORD - Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

[This is actually courtesy of loonapick who due to technical difficulties asked me to post... so please direct all compliments to him and complaints to me about the formatting]

Gordius is a regular Guardian compiler who tends to throw up the occasional unusual word or obscure reference.  Today’s puzzle was no exception.  I started slowly and then struggled to complete the SW corner of the puzzle.  Two of the four long down lights were easy enough.  Of the other two, I can’t work out the wordplay in one, and I’m not sure that the other is a valid phrase. 

Across

1.  OVERCAST SKY - Took a while to get this, but eventually had to look up Minack.  It is an open-air theatre on the Cornish coast.

12.   PRESS – “reported lack of ease” leads to removing the consecutive Es in peeress i.e. P(ee)RESS

16.   SCHERZANDO – anagram of DOZEN CHARS (I = one removed)

19.   ACRE – easy but don’t think the surface reads well.

20.   GATES – as in Bill Gates

23.   ABADDON – poetic name for Hell, as in “In all her gates, Abaddon rules Thy bold attempt”, a quote from Milton.

24.   TRIDENT – some publishers would frown on “intent” being used to indicate that a word or letters have to be placed in “tent” to get the answer.

25.   EARL MARSHAL – hereditary court officer, the post is normally held by the Duke of Norfolk since 1672.

Down

2.  ECLAT = electroconvulsive therapy = “shock treatment”

3.  CASH BOX = C (“bit of cash”)+ASHBOX (“under the boiler?).  Never heard of an ash box, but then I’m too young to remember boilers that produced ashes.

4.  SUPREME – REME stands for Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, a corps of the British Army

7.  ENGAGED SIGNAL – surface and crosschecks lead to answer, but not sure of the wordplay involved.  Anyone else have any idea?

8.   GNASH THE TEETH – GNAS (“sang up first)+HTHETEETH (anagram of “the” three times).  Is that a valid phrase?  ‘Gnash ones teeth’ or ‘gnasj your teeth’ are fine, but ‘the teeth’?

15.  CRUSADER – RU (“game”) invested in anagram of “sacred” with operation as the anagrind.  Don’t remember coming across that indicator before. 

17.   ACRONYM – CRONY in AM, but not sure how the wordplay fits. 22.  REITH – Lord Reith, BBC pioneer, sounds like wreath (“floral tribute”)

Some of you may have seen this post appear, disappear and reappear. That’s because I posted on the wrong day after looking at last week’s schedule and then removed it while I found out what today’s planned contributor wanted to do. Do not adjust your browser!

Solving time 8:40

Two Bedfordshire place names here, plus a couple of other British things. I wonder how Ilan Caron will get on …