No 13345, Monday 06 Sep 2021, Dreamer

Welcome to the new THC setter. Bouquets and brickbats welcome.

Solution to 12A 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   Fellow’s harsh and unresponsive (6) FRIGID {F}{RIGID}

4   Centre for Science developed rare piece of silicon rubber (6) ERASER {sciEnce}{RARE+Si...n}*

8   A dry and largely useless experiment (7) ATTEMPT {A}{TT}{EMPTy}

9   Assume Frenchman killed outside entrance of coaching institute (7) PRECEPT  {PREEmPT} over {Co...g}

11 Perhaps harmonica/tongue — a nice term to describe this? (5,5) MOUTH ORGAN  [CA] {MOUTH ORGAN+A+NICE}* = {HARMONICA+TONGUE} (Correction - Semi&lit {HARMONIC+TONGUE -{A+NICE}* )

12 Deposit money, get returns (4) L?E? (Addendum - LEES {L}{SEE<=} - See comments}

13 Seize Greek viper (5) GRASP {GR}{ASP}

14 Top channel covering Cuba’s environmental problem (4,4) ACID RAIN {A{C}1}{DRAIN}

16 Right kind of shirt to spread bad substance used for colouring (8) DYESTUFF {YES}{T} in {DUFF}

18 One pound for a little rare raw meat (5) FLESH F(-r+l)ESH

20 Announced market price (4) FARE (~fair)

21 Lead-free granular substance, say (10) ARTICULATE  pARTICULATE

23 Youngster wears deteriorated helmet (4,3) SKID LID {S{KID}LID}

24 Doctor originally suggested to discharge one admitted for having depression (7) DIMPLED {Do...r}{IMPLiED}

25 Sibling backs procedure to remove bone for medical condition (6) SEPSIS {SIS}<=>{StEP}

26 Illiterate and slow to act? Not quite! (6) UNREAD UNREADy

DOWN

1   Obese person lost after making a comeback (to some extent) (5) FATSO [T<=]

2   After leaving university, I educate cooks to make a cold drink (4,3) ICED TEA {I+EDuCATE}*

3   India’s top politician to skip meeting with trade union leaders being unprepared (9) IMPROMPTU {In..a}{MP}{ROMP}{Tr..e}{Un...n}

5   Show again some insurer/underwriter (5) RERUN [T]

6   Civil clause regulated capital for research (7) SECULAR {CLAUSE*}{Re...h}

7   Provide helpers in resort (9) REPLENISH*

10 Decorated items could be fair gifts (9) SGRAFFITI*

13 Man and woman sharing copies with a famous English conspirator (3,6) GUY FAWKES {GUY}{FA{W}KES}

15 Division by 100 yielding finite number over 25 (9) INFECTION {C+FINITE}*{NO<=} (Correction - {FINITE}* divided by {C} and then {NO<=} )

17 Promote South Indian state without rich backing (5,2) SPEED UP {S}{DEEP<=}{UP}

19 Recurrent energy flow behind Earth’s oval shape (7) ELLIPSE {E}{SPILL}<= behind {E} 

21 Explanation given by the greatest British setter (5) ALIBI {ALI}{B}{I}

22 Time to study. It’s March! (5) TREAD {T}{READ}

Reference List

Fellow = F, Dry = TT, Frenchman = M, Money = L, Cuba = C, Pound = L, Bone = T, University = U, Woman = W, 100 = C, South = S, Energy = E, Earth = E, British = B, Time = T