Herald

[dave1948]

Struggling

7a
Honour soldier at the front breaking through to ship's control (7)
?B?E?S abbess or obsess ??

16d
Mount a tree to view over and take away the unknown factor (4)
?E?O

13a Stop at last a magnate being something in church (6)
???T?R

2d Lecherous river spirit is OTT...(6)
?M?U?E Impure??

[emeritus]

2d Impure looks OK

River = Ure
Spirit = Imp

Swapped = OTT

[dave1948]

Thank you Emeritus

[bibblebub]

7a) OBSESS = control

honour = OBE
soldier at the front breaking through = put S in the middle of that ^
ship = SS

[Baldric]

16 Veto ?

[dave1948]

Thank Bibblebub and Baldric

Not sure why 16d would be veto I was thinking more in terms of a mount eg Etna

[bibblebub]

13a) p astor

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/astor

[dave1948]

Thank you again Bibblebub

Pastor did come to mind but couldn't see why.

One more for your thoughts
14d Popular abstemious characters are many Asians (5)
A?A?S

[scorpiojo]

Arabs - in clue

[dave1948]

Thank you Scorpiojo I had no sooner typed it than I saw it.

Any ideas on 16d ??

[scorpiojo]

I haven't, Dave. Are you certain of the letters?

[bibblebub]

i'm trying to think of the wordplay that might give xeno which, as a prefix, would give an "unknown factor"

[dave1948]

Yes

Do you think it could be Nebo (a mount) but struggling to parse

[penelope2]

Xante is a liquer. Therfore remove the 'X' = ante, and then reverse = etna.

[Mamyalynne]

Could be

Ebon(y) back

[dave1948]

Thank you Bibblebub

[Mamyalynne]

Ignore that totally confused.

[slaney]

Maybe - NEBO (mount)
Ebony (tree) minus unknown (y)

[penelope2]

Slaneys answer looks better.

[dave1948]

Thank you Mamyalynne and Penelope 2 Not forgetting the wonderful Slaney! I think Nebo looks most likely

[penelope2]

Still don't get the bit of the clue "to view over" which indicates (to me) reversal.