No 14479, Thursday 08 May 2025, Arden

Solution to 7A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance. 

Open for anyone to solve, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

1   Plant-eating dinosaur protects air pollution (11) TRICERATOPS* 

7   Talk openly about a vegetable (3) P?A (Addendum - PEA sPEAk See comments)

9   It's about writer's review, very clumsy (5) INEPT {I{PEN<=}T}

10 Pressure on one who stays in the White House (9) PRESIDENT {P}{RESIDENT}

11 Rarely represented - one follows an athletic event (5,4) RELAY RACE {RARELY*}{ACE}

12 Tense is not dirty (5) TAINT {T}{AIN'T}

13 Tax and depression - refuse to go in here (7) CESSPIT {CESS}{PIT}

15 Back up store transport (4) TRAM<=

18 Answer to ED, half a dozen leave for city (4) AGRA viAGRA

20 Tough to follow state summon (4-3) CALL-OUT {LOUT}<=>{CAL}

23 American city has to be included as a capital (5) LHASA {L{HAS}A}

24 "Ship's crew to eat raw fish" - official sources (9) SPOKESMEN {S{POKE}S}{MEN}

26 One takes a toll perhaps - never start suddenly (3,2,4) ALL AT ONCE {A{A+TOLL}*{Ne..r}CE}

27 "Die" they say in the heart of state capital (5) HENNA cHENNAi

28 Money gets money back, partly (3) YEN moNEY<=

29 Chicken on boulder in the park (11) YELLOWSTONE {YELLOW}{STONE}

DOWN

1   Another article about a water channel (8) TAILRACE {ARTICLE}* over {A}

2   Plantable in parts, one's a romantic (8) IDEALIST {IDEA}{LIST} Plan/idea//table/list

3   Admission after midnight for the rich (5) ENTRY gENTRY

4   Pave the way for Cleopatra's killer's arrest (7) ASPHALT {ASP}{HALT}

5   Binge on with occasional penalty (7) OVEREAT {OVER}{pEnAlTy}

6   Arranging nuptials - one invested American capital (5,4) SAINT PAUL {NUPTIALS}* over {A}

7   Bird - wee funny, in other words (6) PEEWIT P{WEE*}IT Anno not clear

8   Cunning like regular trustee (6) ASTUTE {AS}{TrUsTeE}

14 Call one to audition for show (9) PAGEANTRY {PAGE}{AN}{TRY}

16 Storm trooper, starts night duty operations (8) COMMANDO {COMMA}{Ni..t}{Duty}{Op...s}

17 Holy man's voice suppressed long time back (5,3) STONE AGE {S{TONE}AGE}

19 Central Park on top - ways to bring up a football team (7) ARSENAL {pARk}{LANES<=}

20 Confine one to start with nearby (5,2) CLOSE TO {CLOSET}{One}

21 Times coverage of the King - looking tired (6)  BLEARY {B{LEAR}Y}

22 Against including everyone for visit (4,2) CALL ON {C{ALL}ON}

25 Character of those from bottom to top (5) ETHOS (+e)ETHOS(-e)

Reference List

Pressure = P, Tense = T