A fun diversion from Paul, with some nice surfaces (e.g. 12ac, 27ac, 3dn). Not too hard.

  • 9ac: LAGER LOUT: Fancy rogue and tall yob: *(ROGUE TALL)
  • 10ac: HATER: One despising another mad character half-heartedly: HAT(t)ER
  • 11ac: CHICORY: Herb that's trendy with duck wings on rosemary: CHIC (trendy) + O (duck) + R(osemar)Y
  • 12ac: GOOD-BYE: Word used in separation – “a snip”, say?: sounds like “good buy”
  • 13ac: ROOK: Con man: Double Definition
  • 14ac: DETACHMENT: Unit chatted about outstanding soldiers: *(CHATTED) around MEN (soldiers)
  • 15ac: COARSEN: Make roughly a hundred rowers minus a thousand: C + OARSMEN - M
  • 17ac: SARDINE: Fish to eat by river while lying back: R(iver) AS reversed + DINE (eat)
  • 19ac: LIP-READING: University on the border studying speech: LIP (border) + READING (University?)
  • 22ac: SEMI: Half of house missed: houSE MIssed
  • 23ac: NEW YORK: A city doubled in number?: ?
  • 24ac: TEASING: Carol, after a drink, flirting: TEA (drink) + SING (carol)
  • 26ac: E COLI: Company crushed by priest, a sickener: CO(mpany) inside ELI (priest)
  • 27ac: IDRIS ELBA: A risible dickhead floundering as Mandela interpreter: *(A RISIBLE D(ickhead))
  • 1dn: ELECTRIC BLANKET: Exciting total one's charged for heating: ELECTRIC (exciting) BLANKET (total)
  • 2dn: AGRICOLA: Rowling character shaving head and bottom, sparkling stuff in general: hAGRId (ref. Hagrid) + COLA (sparkling stuff); ref. Agricola
  • 3dn: ARVO: A propotion of popular vote for Australian PM: populAR VOte; meaning “afternoon” (p.m.)
  • 4dn: TONY BENN: Popular political veteran an insubstantial figure, according to Spooner: BONY TEN, spoonerized
  • 5dn: STIGMA: Mark, Athenian character shackling Turkish leader: SIGMA around T(urkish)
  • 6dn: THE OTHER: Sex neither this nor that?: Double Definition
  • 7dn: STABLE: Secure horses: Double Definition
  • 8dn: ERNEST HEMINGWAY: Author writing about men – his weren't gay: *(MEN HIS WERENT GAY)
  • 16dn: STEP ON IT: Crush something underfoot – hurry up!: Double Definition
  • 17dn: SANITARY: Hygienic topless bar – madness?: this is tricky: we have (b)AR (topless bar) (in)SANITY (madness)
  • 18dn: INEDIBLE: Poisonous jerks lie in bed: *(LIE IN BED)
  • 20dn: POWWOW: Work having arisen, duck into internet meeting: OP (work) reversed and O (duck) inside WWW; life is probably too short to complain about the conflation of the Web and the Internet in crosswords...
  • 21dn: DIK-DIK: Antelope bringing up a couple of children: KID twice reversed
  • 25dn: ALSO: A capital's musicians on top: A + LSO (ref. LSO)