Normally Aardvark only puts in an appearance once a month, usually on a Wednesday, but this is his second outing in the space of two weeks.
Mostly straightforward, though I have a slight quibble regarding 10ac which to me reads ‘insert WI into an anagram of WEALTH’ rather than an anagram of all the letters.
Across
1 SICKLE SIC (thus) ELK (animal) reversed – this farm implement
4 AUGUSTUS AUGUST (time of year) US (you and I) – this Roman Emperor
9 BYPASS BY (times) A (article) in PS (footnote) [reader]S
10 WHITELAW *(W[age] I[nquiry] WEALTH) – this old politician
12 TACK dd
13 ASTRINGENT *(TRAINS) GENT (man)
15 GAINSBOROUGH GAINS (profits) O (nil) [manage]R in BOUGH (branch) – this artist
18 REINVIGORATE REIN (control) *(GATE IVOR)
21 MEERSCHAUM C (cold) in *(USE HAMMER) – this pipe
22 SKIP dd
24 DEEP BLUE DEE (flower {river}) PB (lead {atomic symbol}) L (left) [f]U[s]E[d] – this computer
25 CHARGE CHAR (cleaner) EG (say) reversed
26 TATTERED TATLER (glossy magazine) ED (editor) with L (latitude) changed to T (time) – this glossy magazine
27 ATTLEE [b]ATTLE (heading out of hostile conflict) E (eastern) – this former Prime Minister
Down
1 SABOTAGE *(BOAT) in SAGE (wise)
2 CAPUCHIN CA (Central America) UP reversed CHIN (part of one’s body) – this monkey
3 LOSS [g]LOSS (paint has lid removed)
5 UNHARMONIOUS *(MOURINHO AN) US (American)
6 UP TO NO GOOD *(TOP DOG ON OUR)
7 TALKER *([mo]RTLAKE)
8 SOWETO SOW (broadcast) [rac]E TO – this African urban area
11 OSBORNE HOUSE OS (huge) B (black) *(HERON) OUSE (river) – this royal residence
14 OSTENSIBLE S (son) in *(TO BE NEIL’S)
16 MACKEREL C (caught) in MAKER (Lord) [th]E L (lake) – this fish
17 BEL PAESE *(LAPSE) in BEE (worker) – this Italian cheese
19 AMIDST [roa]D in A MIST (a fog)
20 REPENT RE (about) PE (exercise) NT (books)
23 CHAT AH (I see) reversed in CT (court) – this bird
After 75 mins of hard labour I had only solved 18a,25a, 3d,8d & 23d.
4a Having ???u????, the answer had to be summer and you + I =we therefore the answer was “wesummer”. I’d never heard of it but that hasn’t stopped me correctly working out answers and then not putting them in. Probably something to do with the Catholic Church thought I.
13a Could there be a more obvious anagram indicator than “trains” and “drunken men” has 10 letters. So all I needed was to find a word for how wine could be described.
8d If broadcast isn’t an indication of a homophone, I don’t know what is. So I clearly wanted a word that sounded like a word for “end of race” and was a place in Africa. I tried “finish”, “chequered flag” “break the tape” and so on –but all in vain.
17d With ?e? for the first word, the answer had to be red something
10a, 5d Spotted the anagram material but couldn’t work it out.
The only word I hadn’t heard of was 21a.
Too tough for me but looked fair enough.
Thanks Gaufrid. I agree about 10 across. I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle, the last one I put in to finish it being 1 across. I was so convinced that “thus” meant “so” rather than “sic”!
Oh yes, and re. 10 across my first attempt was Autumnus!