Solving time – around half an hour in small doses.
I was very busy at work today and didn’t even have time for a lunch break, so I solved this in a few two-minute sessions and finished it when I got home. As a result I probably found it harder than it was.
Across
1 CLOCHE – cliché with the I changed to O
5 PHILIPPI – “fillip”, PI. It was a city in Ancient Greece.
9 AVIARIST – air* inside (A TV is)*
14 MO(RIB)UND
17 EMPHATIC – E, (at C mph, I)* – took me a while to figure out what the anagram fodder was.
20 STRANGLEHOLD (rag dolls then)* – very well-mixed anagram; I had to write out the letters and stare for a while.
23 PRO,TEA – very strongly associated with SA, an immediate write-in for me. All South African sports teams (except for rugby) are now nicknamed The Proteas.
24 SYLLABLE – cryptic def., i.e. one of com-pon-ent parts.
25 ABE,R,DEEN(need rev.)
26 RA,DISH – e.g. horseradish
Down
4 E(MIG)RE
5 PUT THE MOCKERS ON
6 IN(CAME)RA – never seen “another spell of” as an anagrind before, but it’s perfect for rain*
7 IDIOM – MOI is “me, pretentious” + DI=girl, all backwards. Au contraire is a slightly shaky reversal indicator.
8 PUT AN END TO (pendant out)* – another anagram I struggled with today.
12 HERM,IT,CRAB – Chambers gives a herm as a head or bust on a square base, no mention of a pillar.
16 STA(GNA)TE – GNA is “A N(o) G(ood)” reversed.
21 ASTIR – (Fred) Astaire without an “A&E”
22 PLUS – nonplus=puzzle, without no,n – I’ve seen an almost identical clue somewhere recently.
It seems a shame to leave a blog with no comments, so thanks for your efforts, linxit. I had one minor difference in parsing. I thought 24a was self-referencing, ie. the answer ‘syllable’ has three syllables. Loved 5d ‘put the mockers on’, and the brilliant anagrind for ‘rain’ at 6d. Good stuff, Brummie.