Raced through a few easier clues, and then struggled a bit with this. Eventually got the four longer references to 22 (RHYME) around the edges of the grid, which helped a little. Had to check a few things after - 1, 24 and 26 ac and 7dn were all new words to me. Didn’t get 12ac.

An impressive puzzle where every clue has a sporty feel to it (although 2 and 3 seem to be stretching things a bit). Some very clever stuff here and more than one excellent surface reading. Two clues that I can’t work out though - 1 and 14.

A WEEDY PADDOCK

This one gave me a few headaches, particularly the word play of 30a, and SATORI led me cleverly astray in a few clues.

ACROSS

1.    RESIST  -   (’rest’-  to include ‘is’ )
4.    CAPSICUM - (cap -*music)
9.    PLANET - (p-lane-t)
10.  HOWITZER - (sounds like how - it’s-a)
12.  DELIVERY - (deli-very - short form of ‘delicatessen’ with ‘very’ with meaning of ‘real’.
                               Another cricketing fan as a setter.)
13.  AGENDA - (sounds like ‘a gender’.  We seem to get a lot of such titillating activity
                                       in crosswords nowadays!)                                                                    
15.  YAWN  - (< n way)
16.  ANTAGONIST - (*stagnation)
19.  NIGHTSHADE - ( *eight hands)
20.  REAM - ( double definition -’a ream of paper’ and ‘to use a reamer to enlarge a hole’)
23.  GAGGLE - (a flock of geese, when on the ground . {’a skein’ if in flight.} )
25.  ECLECTIC- (ec-l-ec-tic(<city without ‘y’)
27.  AROMATIC - ( a roma-N-tic - n short for ne or nee, born)
28.  STUCCO - (<cuts-co)
29.  DILATORY - (<lid-a tory)
30.  TWELVE - ( I need help for the explanation of this one.)

DOWN

1.    RAPIDLY - ( rap-idly - fast as an adverb.)
2.    SCALLYWAG - (’ally’ within ’swag’)
3.    SHEAVE - ( ‘he’ within ’save’. To bundle up the corn etc.)
5.    ALOE - (< ‘eola’ from ‘minneola’.  I don’t really think of aloe as a shrub, but apparently
                       some can even be the size of a tree.)
6.    SMIDGEON - (s-midge-on - a lovely word.)
7.    COZEN - ( ‘dozen’ with the letter before ‘d’ replacing it)
8.    MORDANT - ( *random -t)
11.  TRANCHE - (tranc-h-e.  Shares are often offered in tranches or blocks)
14.  PADDOCK  - ( pad -dock.  This held me up for a while as I had been beguiled
                                    into thinking of’ weed’ as always cannabis etc in crosswords!)
17.  IDENTICAL - (*in dialect)
18.  STALWART - ( st-alw-art)
19.  NIGGARD - ( Nig(H) <drag. Another very expressive word)
21.  MICROBE - (Mic-rob-e - ‘Loot’ used as a verb this time)
22.  BESTOW - (hidden in ‘baBES TO Whom)
24.  GROWL - (gr-owl)
26.  PIER ( pi-P-er )- a sad glance towards Weston-super-Mare this week!

Solving time, just under 20 mins.

* = anagram  < = reversed

1 DISSEMBLANCE   SE in (Lib Dems can)*

9 L EASE L END     Usually known as Lend-Lease but both alternatives are in dicts

10 TROOP   po(o)rt<   port = left

11 NU DE  <ed

12 SHACK LET ON

13 GALACTIC,  Gala for he in hectic

15 IN TACT

17 EXODUS   Book of the Bible - I did wonder tho if the two parts were very similar as that’s what the book is about.       Or maybe it’s Leon Uris’s book (Exodus) on the founding of Israel later made into a film.    In any event, no problems solving it, tho.

18 PO(MA)NDER

20 NIGHTDRESS    (shed resting)* less e (attire finally - last letter)   Elaborate construction & lit

21 GROT Double definition

24 LYRIC   Hidden, and referring to Cliff, perhaps.    Playing on meanings of ‘pen’

25 NECES(SA)RY    (scenery)*

26 MAKE ENDS MEET

DOWN

1 Bob DYLAN    Hidden (and an & lit touch perhaps)

2 SCAN DALMONGERS  (old Germans)*

3 (Sw)EDEN      I think this is why - ‘first couple’ referring to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the first two letters of Sweden.

4 BLENHEIM ORANGE  (one here blaming)*    A well-concealed anagram - even tho I’d never heard of it, I worked it out from crossing letters.    When checking after, surprised to find it’s in neither Chambers nor Collins but is in the Concise OED.    And it seems oranges can sometimes be apples after all!

5 AB DUCT

6 C (A TALON) IA

7 FORT LAUDERDALE  (Tearful lad rode)*

8 SPINSTER   N in (priests)*     Good surface

13 GREEN FLY   Ditto

14 CRUST ACE A

16 (CORSICA) N   (a croc is)*    last thing man wants = last letter n

22 TRY ST

23 IS IS

Perhaps slightly harder to get into than some FT crosswords but once started there were no major difficulties, apart from 26a which took me a while to see the wordplay even though the answer was obvious. In fact initially I thought there might be a typo in the clue and that ‘miles’ should have been ‘males’. This would have been quite plausible as a clue but would have been somewhat male chauvinistic, particularly given the presence of the question-mark.  

 Across

1 PANTRY  TRY (shot/attempt) on PAN (film) - pan is not actually ‘to film’ but to move the camera whilst filming

4 TRIBUNAL  TRIAL (hearing) about BUN (something sweet)

9 RIGHT  dd - ‘Cameron’s lot (the Tory party) so politically’ and ‘correct’ are both right (well, the former used to be a right wing party)

10 BRILLIANT  dd

11 DETRACT  T (last of freight) CARTED (transported) reversed

12 CLICHES  CLInCHES with ‘n’ (knight) removed

13 SOLE  sole is a fish and can also mean alone (away from school, ie the rest of the group of fish)

14 STARLING  STARING (looking) around L (pound)

17 BY THE WAY  dd

19 METE  MET (came across) E (end of face) - mete is a measure as is ‘hand’ (a measure of just over 100mm, 4″ in real money, normally used when measuring the height of horses). It has been suggested elsewhere that hand = hand out = mete but I am not happy with this explanation. As a verb, mete is to apportion (divide up) rather than to hand out and also the clue does not include the ‘out’

22 CHATEAU  CHAT (bird) EAU (water)

24 ITERATE  IE (that is) about T (time) ERA (time) T (time)

25 TARPAULIN  TAR (Jack, a sailor) PAUL (boy) IN (wearing)

26 AMISS  A MISS - from the saying “a miss is as good as a mile”

27 CREOSOTE  *(ROSE) in COTE (a birdhouse)

28 ORDEAL  DE (each end of defence) in ORAL (an exam or test)

Down

1 PARADISE  IS inside PARADE (show)

2 NIGHTCLUB  NIGH (close) CL (150) in TUB (bath)

3 RATTAN  RAT (desert) TAN (brown)

5 REINCARNATION  RE (religious education) IN CARNATION (flower)

6 BELLINI  BELL (call or ring) IN I (Italy)

7 NEATH  NEAT (orderly) H (hospital)

8 LATEST  LA (Louisiana) TEST (investigation)

10 BITE THE BULLET  dd

15 GRENADINE  *(GRADE NINE)

16 REVERSAL  VERS (verse unfinished) in REAL (actual)

18 TREPANS  *(PARENTS) - a trepan is an obsolete cylindrical saw for perforating the scull - Ouch!

20 ACETIC  ACE (one) TIC (little jerk)

21 REPAIR  REP (salesman) AIR (manner)

23 AGREE  A GREE (green cut short)