7  Slicker African cat, it's said (7)

 8  Troubled world, primarily armed and cruel, in state of political hostility (4,3)

10 Slates tattered clothing (4)

11 Guardian, for example, for paupers (not us perhaps) (5)

12 Tidings of all four compass directions (4)

15 Guarantees in certain situations principally (7)

16 Guides going back circling Troy's thoroughfares (7)

17 Consider rejected mushrooms devoured by rot (7)

20 Spanish girl catches the French fever (7)

22 Strangeness, in the manner of the French returning sadly (4)

23 Marsupials must finally settle for the night (5)

24 Rule we hear for precipitation (4)

27 Waterproofing material dispatched round a US city (7)

28 Overgrown with ivy covering or made of dentine (7)

29 Inform about shelter with people at first spending night in the open (8,3)

 1  Excavates silt from bottom of pond and river borders (7)

 2  Compassion's sententious with hearts not included (4)

 3  Intrusions within streets (7)

 4  People from Ambridge perhaps who have bows and arrows (7)

 5  Not keen to work, move furtively, failing to start (4)

 6  Currently in this place or out of the running (7)

 7  Redesigned big rare cars producing means of transporting purchases (7,4)

 9  Nastier dust peculiarly discoloured with corrosion (4-7)

13 Proclaims decay not accepted (5)

14 Genuinely utter refusal say, from time to time (5)

18/20       Witness person's assignment, we hear in residence for servicemen (7,7)

19 Couple of hours after midnight favourites upset dance (3-4)

20 See 18

21 One without illusions about a catalogue (7)

25 Partly defaced rising little restaurant (4)

26 Theatrical huntsman's call in London district (4)