A relatively gentle stroll today but a very pleasant one due to the excellent surface of the clues. I had to smile at some of the clues, for example 14a, 25a and 11d though I did think that 8d might have been better without ‘primarily’.
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Across
1 ANACONDA homophone of ‘anna’ (girl) ‘conned’ (took in) A
5 SWEARS S (lead in spectator) WEARS (sports)
9 ESTIMATE *(TEATIMES)
10 LESSEE LESS (smaller amount) EE (mid-week)
12 STEER dd
13 EDINBURGH B (born) in *(HIRED GUN)
14 DREAMY dd
16 SIDECAR [o]S[r]I[c] (Osric ignoring the odds) RACED (hurried) reversed
18 OPPOSED O (old) P (party leader) POSED (sat for artist)
20 CANOPY CA (California) OP (work) in NY (New York)
22 BUFFALOES BUFF (polish) ALOES (plants)
23 BRICK dd
24 ATHENS A (Albanian capital) THEN (followed by) S (Serbian capital)
25 MINISTRY MINIS (short skirts) TRY (test)
26 SATIRE R (end of summer) in SATIE (composer)
27 PREPARED dd
Down
1 AVERSE A VERSE (one part of Chapter)
2 AT THE DROP OF A HAT *(FATER HAD POTATO)
3 ORMER [d]ORMER (window not initially)
4 DITHERY DIaRY (journal) with ‘a’ (article) changed to THE (definite)
6 WIESBADEN WI (group of women) *(SEE BAND)
7 ABSTRACT PAINTER ABSTRACT (take out) PA (old man) INTER (bury)
8 SHEPHERD SHE (female) PH (public house primarily) E (mile end) RD (road)
11 HISS hidden in ‘cottonmoutH IS Sibilant’ and dd
15 ABSTAINER *(SEAT IN BAR)
17 TOP BRASS POT (prize) reversed BRASS (money)
19 DROP dd
20 CASHIER dd
21 OKAYED KAY (girl) in OED (dictionary)
23 BLIMP becomes ‘blip’ (dot on radar) if M (miles) is removed