No 13120, Wednesday 16 Dec 2020, Gussalufz

Solution to 19D has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS

1   Spiritual gatherings ending in drama, surrounded by chaotic scenes (7) SEANCES {SE{d..mA}NCES*}

5   Crash badly, sustaining extremely traumatic wound (7) SCRATCH {SCRA{t...iC}H*}

9   Solve: F times F (6,3) SQUARE OFF {SQUARE}{OF}{F}

10 Ultimately, one putting on three increasingly larger sizes before “Large” makes sense (5) SMELL {S}{M}{onE}{L}{L}

11 Regularly valued his tutor Daniel’s record (5,5) AUDIT TRAIL {vAlUeD+hIs+TuToR+dAnIeL}

12 Inclination to live with books (4) BENT {BE}{NT}

14 Contains forged permit (8) SANCTION*

16 Bird known to harass smaller birds and jeer after catching one and seizing a portion of grain (6) JAEGER {J{A}E{Gr..n}ER}

19 Must relax about ringing alarms! (6) ALERTS [T<=]

20 Somehow pardon inspiring setter’s talk about personal connection with Ximenes, perhaps? (4-4) NAME-DROP {NA{ME}DROP*}

23 Crack in rotten, hollow fruit (4) RIFT FRuIT*

25 Wife’s cramming Token Ring, perhaps, for this computer science subject (10) NETWORKING {W} in {TOKEN+RING}*

28 Squirrel’s tree behind road (5) STASH {ASH}<=>{ST}

29 Painful to include drunk robot in a game (9) SOLITAIRE {SO{LIT}{AI}RE}

30 Musicians of Year featured in records (7) LYRISTS {L{YR}ISTS}

31 Hapless resonators releasing bits of after-hours over-the-top tumult? (7) SNORERS RESONatoRS Semi&lit

DOWN

1   Walks with swagger and insolence after consuming grass (7) SASHAYS {SAS{HAY}S}

2   One’s rock and roll getting traded for wealth (9) ABUNDANCE {A}{DANCE}<=>{BUN}

3   Wine left out as a sign of change? (5) CARET ClARET

4   Essentially assessing the way to fix up a sales display (8) SHOWROOM {a..eSs..g}{HOW}{ROOM<=}

5   A sequence of letters that often follows right after some unwelcome flirtatious overtures (6) SUFFIX {FIX}<=>{Some}{Un...e}{Fl...s}

6   Deception of one on drugs, cycling (4) RUSE (+r)RUSE(-r)

7   Essence of an herb bringing energy for playboy, essentially (5) THEME TH(-y+e)EME

8   Case lost after misrepresentation is admitted by the woman (7) HOLSTER {H{LOST*}ER}

13 Crop no one’s seen in jungle? (4) MAZE MAiZE

15 Bear ate honey, stripping beehive, taking only seconds (4) TOTE {aTe}{hOney}{sTr...g}{bEe...e}

17 Short drink after spraying grime disinfectant? (9) GERMICIDE {GRIME*}{CIDEr}

18 Wanders across fence and ducks (8) GADWALLS {GAD{WALL}S}

19 Can a god go evil, ultimately? (7) A?R?S?L (Addendum -  AEROSOL{A}{EROS}{gO}{eviL} - See comments)

21 Baby hogs pies, stuffing a couple of globs and some toppings (7) PIGLETS {PI{GLobs}E{To...s}S}

22 In conflict with lover, suspicious to some extent (6) VERSUS [T]

24 Weak to switch sides for gift (5) FLAIR F(-r+l)LAI(-l+r)R

26 Correspondence regularly rejected by soviet cadre? (5) RATIO {sOvIeT+cAdRe}<=

27 So hot, getting cuddled by model, you, me! (4) THUS {T}{H}{US}

Reference List

Sizes = S,M,L, Books = NT, Wife = W, Left = L, Energy = E, Hot = H, Model = T