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In 9, the middle four letters of the entry is 'earth'.

I didn't fully understand 8 either.

Escuan, a relevant date seems the most likely option for 6 & 39. I did consider another choice but the date is topical so is the most compelling option.

9 is a composite anagram, though to my mind 'mayor' is doing double duty, which isn't normally allowed. The entry ('this') plus M(a)YOR ('no longer active' accounting for the loss of A) can be jumbled to make TODAYS ROME.

Wow! what a lot of interest. I have enjoyed this one but am struggling with my final two. 25D looks like ASTY. 29 looks like ATTRIT but I cannot fit it in.

Both of those are correct (in my solution, at least). Possibly an error in one of the crossing down answers?

Hi barretter
The downs look pretty solid though not sure of parsing of first part of 19D. Have you made attrit fit into the clue? There are other possibilities and ASTY is a bit thin in the parsing.

That trite line

The clue to (P)ASTY is &lit, but not a very good one in my view.
Re my earlier comment, I've just realised that 8d is also &lit, so MAYOR is not doing double duty. It's a much better &lit than 25d.

Rickye, I thought you meant you couldn't fit "attrit" into the crossword rather than into the clue, hence my comment.

19dn : look up the first 4 letters of the answer in Chambers.

For 20a I've got IS?A. I can't find any word to fit there except an abbreviation. Any help appreciated.