I see that I dropped into the fifteensquared page for this puzzle to give a couple of hints, which I was then thoughtless enough not to elaborate upon. So I’ll do so here: this was the 400th grid I had designed for the Independent; I was casting around for something thematic and landed on ‘The 400‘, the Who’s Who of New York City in the late nineteenth century. They had a useful set of surnames that were often also dictionary words (even if the Wikipedia page, after reporting grumbles about the initial list having only 150, still only manages 265 in total). I actually had an additional entry (CROSS) at 22 down, but they were dropped because of the adjacency of CRISSCROSS.
ACROSS
1 MARCH; mar Ch
4 COFFEE BAR; beef (rev.) in Co. far
9 LEG BREAKS; e.g. br in leaks
10 ARENA; re n in A A
11 WILLING; 2 mngs.
12 STOKES; OK in sets (rev.)
14 SCHILLER; s chiller
16 WELLS; well s
18 HEELS; (W)heels
HEELS (car) without or ‘avoiding’ W (Welsh)
19 NEST EGGS; n e st eggs
21 NOTICE; not ice
23 CUTTING; 2 mngs.
26 LARGO; L Argo
27 EXONERATE; on era t in Exe
28 RINGSIDES; side in rings
29 MILLS; m ills
DOWN
1 MALAWI; law in mai(l)
2 REGAL; G in real
3 HORRIFIES; anag. in hors(e)
4 CHANGELING; angel in (a)ching
5 FISH; f is h
6 EXACT; axe (rev.) + c(u)t
7 BREAK A LEG; cf. 9a (LEG BREAKS)
8 REASSESS; asses in res(t)
13 CRISSCROSS; S in Cr is cross
15 CRESTA RUN; anag.
16 WHEAT GERM; anag.
17 CHANDLER; c handler
20 OGRESS; o (RE)gress
22 CHOPS; Ch ops
24 IN ALL; (f)inall(y)
25 BEND; b end
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