The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word APENNINES
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
P
E
N
N
I
N
E
S
More clues leading to the result APENNINES
- A writer figures in extended European feature
- Key coins used around northern Italian region
- A range of hills or mountains
- Write number appearing within a small range
- Write number in as in range
- A mountain range, a mountain range
- A group of English hills or Italian mountains
- Like touring state in eastern mountains
- Figure captivated by a writer’s range
- A writer’s traversing square in the mountains
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "range" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case range = apennines.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.