Tunes 24686: in which a 13 may 23 for a 19, but after starting in 9, like a 10 before a 17, you 25.

Solving time : 18 minutes, and there’s the one patented “I’m not sure”, which I have since looked up in Chambers to find it fits the definition part, wordplay may come to me as I write this up. I don’t think I was exactly on the setter’s wavelength here, in a first pass of the across clues, only 11, 14, 26 and 27 jumped out at me. Did a bit better tackling the downs, but it was still a pretty sparse grid after a once over of all the clues. Had to bash away at bits of it before things came together. At the end, I rather like it, with a few little questionny marks, particularly the specific knowledge required to get 18 across and possibly 12 across. Can’t always understand everything, right? Away we goooo…..

Across
1	MALIGNANT: ALIGN(dress) in MAN,T(hroat) – got the answer from the definition, worked out the wordplay for the blog
6	HEID,I: HEID as Scots for HEAD sounds Listenerish, and the clue reminded me of the first time I’d heard of Gretna Green, in a Listener by Homer
9	LOW GEAR: double definition
10	RAMPART: parts of the ram indeed
11	HEADS: I think HEADS works as “goes for”
12	I CLAUDIUS: Or I CLAVDIVS as I remember from the telly. Anagram of U(from yoUth),SUICIDAL
13	BEG,INNER: SUE meaning to petition for here
14	SARI: IRA’S reversed
17	(s)TANK
18	JAR,N,DYCE: last part sounds like DICE. Court case in “Bleak House”. This is one I have as a little tricky, I am pretty lucky in that I was leafing through “Bleak House” the other day because for a Christmas show coming up I’m doing a piece about Charles Dickens prophylactics (please sir, can I have some more), so I was looking for things in Bleak House to make jokes out of
21	OFF COLOUR: brilliant! CO,L in OF FOUR. Makes up for the Dickens clue immediately!
22	TRUMP: at least from the definition (reliable person). Not sure how the rest of the clue works – anyone? Edit: read through the comments for interpretations
24	HOUSTON: HOUS(e) then NOT reversed. My brother lives there!
25	C,RUMBLE: a dessert I’ve seen more of in the US than elsewhere
26	LATTE(r): well it’s a drink with coffee in it
27	PLASTERED: P, then ASTER in LED
Down
1	MULCH: L in MUCH
2	LOW-HANGING FRUIT: anagram of UNFAILING GROWTH that took me a long time to put together
3	GREASING: G then REASONING without the ON. Have you greased your car today?
4	AIR MILES: (ISRAEL,I’M)*, though I’m sure it takes a lot of them to get back from Israel
5	THRALL: H (from smasH), R in TALL
6	tough to find one or two to omit today, this is probably the most straightforward answer in the grid
7	IMAGINARY(placebo) NUMBER(pain-reliever): Hats off to the setter here for that definition – in the other case, I becomes i and i is the base of the imaginary number system
8	INTESTINE: hidden
13	BE,TROT,HAL
15	PATRICIA(n): a word never too far from the mind of Terry Pratchett fans
16	INSTRUCT: I got this from the definition, and now see it’s IN,ST,sounds like RUCKED
19	SO,F,TIE
20	JOIN UP: double definition, become a private by entering the army, or joining up by writing cursively. Although my handwriting is so terrible I’ve gone back to writing non-cursive
23	P,LEAD: another really nifty definition, “To judge, plead, speak” (sorry about the brain fade typo earlier)