Times 27265 – A little bit of whatever tickles your fancy

I really enjoyed this, a slightly above averagely difficult Monday offering, if my performance was anything like par for the course. There was quite a lot of man and woman stuff kicking around, as well as a nice bit of kink slicing right through the middle, hardly a chestnut and a couple of neat traps for the biffer – most notably 2d (‘outhouse’, anyone?) and 19a (the very plausible sounding – if not looking – ‘tea cosey’, which engaged my interest for a while). Nice one, setter!

I came in pretty much bang on my NITCH (35 minutes), but how did you all fare?

ACROSS

1 Girl in lead circling till race’s conclusion (6)
PHOEBE – tricky one to start with – hence one of my last; HOE (till) in PB (lead) last letter of [rac]E
5 Visionary stifling a detainee’s threat, in the main (3,5)
SEA POWER – A POW in SEER; liked this
9 Charged about drug experience, having no gear (8)
STRIPPED – TRIP in SPED; liked this too
10 One going on record wants pen, mostly drunk (6)
STYLUS – STY LUS[h]; I always called them needles
11 Male with some guts shows force (8)
MOMENTUM – this kept me busy thinking post-solve for some time; M (male) OMENTUM (never heard of it – ‘a fold of peritoneum connecting the stomach with other abdominal organs’). One for our resident sawbones…
12 Snippet is small, evidently (6)
SNATCH – S NATCH; NATCH threatens to become the cruciverbal chestnut of so-called street talk, get on down, man, like, you know, wicked, or wevs…
13 Swish clothing provided in catalogue? (8)
CLASSIFY – IF in CLASSY; nice
15 English penned by historian, one leaving draft (4)
LEVY – E in L[i]VY; Titus Livius Patavinus is famous for his monumental history of Rome, parts of which I translated in my raw youth
17 Perform sport, or cheat thereat? (4)
DOPE – DO PE, with the extended sense that if you dope, you are a drugs cheat. Allegedly. Do svidaniya!
19 Area roughly inside toy container (3,5)
TEA CADDY – A CA (Livy’s about, AKA circa) in TEDDY
20 Clodhopper Garbo bungled lead in Ninotchka (6)
BROGAN – anagram* of GARBO N[inotchka]; a brogan is a heavy, ankle-high shoe or boot
21 Vex one briefly slowing in speed (8)
IRRITATE – I + RIT (briefly slowing) in RATE
22 Calm man’s after some smut (6)
SOOTHE – SOOT HE
23 Place on phone record for mix of action and dialogue (8)
TELEPLAY – TEL EP LAY (place)
24 Delighted where financiers are still (8)
ECSTATIC – EC (part of post-code for the City of London) STATIC (still)
25 End of tyranny in good time in each revolution? (6)
YEARLY – Y EARLY

DOWN

2 Pipe outside grand garden building? (8)
HOTHOUSE – THOU (slang for a thousand quid) in HOSE; nice, innit?
3 English team needing authority, but not a crisis (8)
EXIGENCY – E XI [a]GENCY
4 Give details of displaced person one took in (9)
EXPATIATE – EXPAT I ATE
5 Enjoying suffering from stomach acid is so silly (15)
SADOMASOCHISTIC – STOMACH ACID IS SO*; naughty, but nice
6 Might copy off entertaining figure (7)
POTENCY – TEN in COPY*
7 Our group are going to bother with a lot of funds (4-2-2)
WELL-TO-DO – WE’LL (our group are going to) TO-DO (bother); v good
8 Place for the old theorems to get renewed (4,4)
REST HOME – THEOREMS*; how long till I can stay out of one, I wonder?
14 Scoffed before pal admits “I’m not sure how country may be run” (9)
FEDERALLY – ER in FED ALLY; 10 out of 10 for effort, and a B+ for attainment
15 A lot of meat to moisten with juices in pan (8)
LAMBASTE – LAM[b] BASTE; a culinary delight
16 Very obese queen’s dropped acid (8)
VENOMOUS – V ENO[r]MOUS; a lovely image of our wonderful sovereign having a chill sesh in Buck House
17 Deplorable state of poor sod — a pity! (8)
DYSTOPIA – SOD A PITY*
18 Slip and cloak worn by rogue female (8)
PRATFALL – my last; RAT (rogue) F (female) in PALL (cloak); cunning as Blackadder’s Oxonian
19 Drawing back, holding long tube (7)
TRACHEA – ACHE in ART reversed