This was tough stuff indeed, but ultimately satisfying, with some fine clues. It took a good half hour all told, i.e. half of my tube journey (the needs of work oblige me to read the news first), and a five-minute walk during which I chewed over the last two clues. 27ac hit me as I walked to my desk, and 20dn followed immediately. Phew!
ACROSS:
1. AS PIRATE. Obvious once you’ve got it, but I didn’t spot this until I had the P. I like it though.
9. D(ampness) WELLING. Is there a word for ‘seeping up’? Osmosis? Ah, welling, very good!
10. DE(IC)ER. This was one of the last for me – eventually I guessed that ‘integrated circuit’ might be IC. Not sure I would have guessed does = (female) deer though.
11. CO(LOSS)AL. Humongous word!
14. FORE(CA)STER. Sybil was a prophet, CA is California, so the writer must be CS Forester rather than EM Forster.
23. PR(ACT)ICE. Straightforward wordplay, but still took a while.
24. ‘ERRING. Quibble 1 – “‘armless” is not needed for the definition, but seems to have been added purely as an aitch-dropping indicator for ‘fish’.
25. BIG AMIS (me)T. ‘Overindulgent union member’ being someone who indulges in one too many marriages.
27. HE REWARD. The last to fall, for me. Hereward the Wake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereward_the_Wake is one of those figures from English history who I suspect used to figure a lot bigger in the curriculum in the days of 1066 And All That.
DOWN:
1. A(DDI)CT. Quibble 2 – ‘tripping’ tends to refer to hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, not the main addictive substances (heroin, alcohol, tobacco etc), so I don’t think ‘one who trips often’ is really a proper definition for ‘addict’.
3. R(ELI’S)H. I’m guessing the IVR code refers to Republique Haitien or such like.
4. T ANT A MOUNT. There’s some disagreement about the common use of ‘model’ for T; here it’s ‘car’.
8. LAR(BOAR)D.
13. TEA SE R VICE. Not sure I’ve come across R for rare before – at least not in a daily.
15. STRIDE NT.
20. MINIM A. So ‘note’ can not only be N, A – G or Do – me, it can also be minim. Well, it makes a change!
Couldn’t finish this but did get osculate for 7 down, an anagram of als cute and o(ld) I like 2d Pa (ella) fitzgerald too.
Thanks for 25ac: good clue. Are 5ac & 6dn too obvious to mention?
Had top-right-corner problems – didn’t get DE-ICER
20a. I had MINI-MA (MA is the degree)
I don’t think there was much in this that was too easy to mention, Muck, I just had to be selective. 5ac = S TROLL, and 6 dn = THE SPI(A)N. As for 20, Stan, Mini-MA seemed a nice coincidence, but I think the clue only works with ‘lowest possible degrees’ as the definition for what I think I’d actually tend to call ‘minimums’.
For MINIMA, I had note = MI and Academy I guessed there was a NIMA, like RADA. Turns out there is a New York Integrated Martial Arts academy calls itself NIMA, so…
Thanks Mick H for 5ac and 6dn. It was a fair puzzle but always good to have a challenge