8a some Milanese rave about an Italian city (6) I have Varese.... rave and se from Milanese and it's not far from Milan - but is this correct? I'm finding this week's tricky!
6d story made up about conservative is brilliant success - (5) I have E-L-T and can only see EILAT which has tale up - but it makes no sense to me!! help!
23d No lead in pencil? that's material (5). Looks like RAYON and I can see that this is (c) rayon as in pencil and material,but what's it got to do with 'no lead'? Or is is no lead as in 'leed' so the...
16a skid at Monaco; team's on edge - this seems to be 'sideslip' and I can see that 'side's' is 'team's' and 'lip' is an edge, but what has this to do with Monaco?
20a Heralds put almost a whole month around castle. AU-U-S.I have augurs and can see that this is almost a whole month (august) but what has this to do with heralds of castles? Thanks