Independent 10,123/Tees

Another Tees cryptic to start the Indy week. Always a pleasure to solve and blog, and I always learn something.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

9 Also, this dishevelled one wears repulsive pants?
HALITOSIS
Loved this definition. An insertion of I in (ALSO THIS)*.

10 Time and time again, love is an inspiration
ERATO
I have a vague recollection of Tees many years ago casually petitioning for ERATO to be thenceforth banned as a solution in all cryptics, so perhaps age has mellowed him. It’s certainly still punching above its weight (naff all else fits E?A?O) but this was a lovely clue for it, with a great surface.  A charade of ERA, T and O.

11 Military body shedding tons in diet
REGIMEN
REGIMEN[T]

12 Examine pitch firstly in cricket?
INSPECT
An insertion of P for the first letter of ‘pitch’ in INSECT.

13 Oliver Cromwe?
NOLL
It took me longer to sort this out and parse it than the rest of the puzzle put together. The two Ls missing is obvious, so once I had the crossers, NOLL (for NO LL) made some sense. But why?  A furtle online revealed that ‘Noll’ used to be a common nickname for ‘Oliver’. And that one of Oliver Cromwell’s nicknames among the English people, when they weren’t calling him something worse or clamouring for him to be disinterred and hanged, was ‘Old Noll’. So now you know.

14 It’s used in Bush, but was there nothing from Halliwell?
DIDGERIDOO
Brilliant. Ms Halliwell, former Spice Girl, has the first name Geri. So if you were questioning her contribution, you might ask DID GERI DO O?

15 Some French in school exchange
TRADE-IN
An insertion of DE for ‘some’ in French in TRAIN. For those of you questioning whether you remembered your school exchange French correctly, DE can indeed mean ‘some’ in French. If you know this, look away now. The partitive article in French to express ‘some’ is formed by combining the preposition de with a definite article – le, la or les. De+le becomes du and de+les becomes des. Du pain/some bread; de la confiture/some jam; des croissants/some croissants; de l’eau/some water. However, if the partitive article marks a noun qualified by a preceding adjective, and the noun is plural, then des contracts back to de. So: elle a de bons amis/she has some good friends. Class dismissed.

17 Consistent lying may produce this painful result
BEDSORE
A cd, with the play on words relying on the two different meanings of the verb ‘to lie’.

19 Peeling wallpaper is so unconventional
OFF THE WALL
A dd, but let down surely by the fact that ‘wall’ appears in both the clue and the solution.

22 On small stages
SETS  LEGS
A charade of SET and S for ‘small’. The equivalence is seen in a sentence like ‘is the alarm set/on?’

Edit: as Hovis points out, the answer is given as LEGS (a charade of LEG for the cricketing ‘on’ side and S).  I think my answer works too, but I’m not precious about it.  It’s the wrong answer.

23 Militant spoke about Conservative
RADICAL
An insertion of C in RADIAL (think ‘spokes’ of a bike wheel).

24 River, northern one, a gelatinous substance blocks
NIAGARA
An insertion (‘blocks’) of AGAR in NI and A gives you the North American river which flows over the famous falls.

26 Persian ruler in Mediterranean island quietly removed
CYRUS
CY[P]RUS. You can always rely on Tees for a bit of classics. Cyrus II of Persia, aka Cyrus the Great (600BC-530BC).

27 Sees new Latin translation as vitally important
ESSENTIAL
Two consecutive anagrams, (SEES)* and (LATIN)* The anagrinds are ‘new’ and ‘translation’.

Down

1 Brazil is formidable opponent
A HARD NUT TO CRACK
A cd cum dd.

2 Bloke binds convict and whips
FLAGELLA
An insertion of LAG in FELLA. The small, whip-like structures on the outside of, for example, bacteria.

3 Support second article having expunged first
STEM
A charade of S and [I]TEM.

4 Ace setter against investing island capital
ASUNCION
A charade of A for ‘ace’, SUN for ‘setter’ and I inserted into CON for ‘against’. The capital of Paraguay.

5 How regent acts? This demands explanation!
ASKING
A whimsical way of suggesting that a regent might act AS KING.

6 Certainly into hydromel, but restrained
MEASURED
Having warmed up my French brain with the partitive article earlier, I should have guessed that ‘hydromel’ is another word for MEAD, since miel is the French word for ‘honey’. Whatevs, it’s an insertion of SURE into said MEAD.

7 Remnant lawman found in ward
FAG END
I had to dig around to parse this one too. It’s AG inserted into FEND. The equivalence is ‘fend off/ward off’ and the AG is short for Attorney General, who is the ‘lawman’.

8 Maybe cover trials only in contentious way
CONTROVERSIALLY
(COVER TRIALS ONLY)*

16 Moralist, ancient character here in Paris, on vacant seat
ETHICIST
More French. And Old English. A charade of ETH for the OE letter, the dental fricative represented as ð, ICI for ‘here’ in French, and ST for ‘seat’ with its innards removed.

17 Islanders having row in military depot
BALINESE
An insertion of LINE in BASE.

18 Wagnerian work perhaps uneven — second run cancelled
OPERATIC
A charade of OP and ER[R]ATIC.

20 Iron Lady displays top fashion
FEDORA
A charade of FE for the chemical symbol for iron and DORA. Referring to That Woman, as she must be called in our house.

21 Wife to go for French jazzman
WALLER
On se croirait en France ce matin. A charade of W and ALLER for the French verb ‘to go’ gives you the celebrated jazz pianist, affectionately known as Fats.

25 Whisking daughter away, intimidate family member
AUNT
[D]AUNT.

Merci to Tees. As always, a fun puzzle.