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Finished, but with three questions. 29a: What makes bed dry (when spread)? Fibre matting (4) Answer obvious, but clue isn't. 1d: Liberally non-exclusive statesman loses badly in pursuit of crumpet? (11) Ditto- perhaps a statesman and a crumpet unknown to me if not to each other. 6d: Line from Spenser retained in head once- early part of a cycle? (7) I came up with PREWASH, but guessed at the W and H. Is PRASH an old word for head or something? Is EW a Spenserian word for line?

1d Broad (crumpet) Church(ill) loses badly

6d Pash (head) Rew (line)

29a Bast - fibre matting

B (bed) AS (when) T (dry)

Thanks, Tony. Had the right answers and two of the clues are perfectly clear now, but why B for bed and T for dry?

I knew that a broad could be a strumpet, but didn't know she could choose to be a crumpet too. You Brits seem to offer more subtly distinct options.

29ac. Bast. With B as T, bed becomes ted. Ted means "to spread (new-mown) grass for drying".

Ah, perfectly clear now. These letter-substitution clues almost always fly under my radar. Good old reliable peterm.

Not so much of the old!