No 13826, Thursday 30 Mar 2023, Bruno

Artwork by Prasanna

Rangoli by Gowri

Solution to 8A 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   Fits bits of fastener and handheld drill separately to many equal parts (6) FIFTHS {Fa...r} and {Ha...d} in {FITS}

4   A great number in Computer Science have skills (6) CRAFTS {C{RAFT}S}

8   Worker left underwear pile at a school with nightwear (7) ?Y?A?A? (Addendum PYJAMAS {PantY}{JAM}{A}{S} - See comments)

9   Type of coat that is mostly cute elsewhere (7) CUTAWAY {CUTe}{AWAY}

11 12ac struggles to get into special gown for interstellar transport (5,5) SPACE PROBE {CAPE}* in {SP}{ROBE}

12 Headwear comes with essentially green cloak (4) CAPE {CAP}{grEen}

13 Headwear from Togo? (5) TOPEE {TO}{PEE}

14 Humour about silly dope at University getting destroyed (5,3) WIPED OUT {WI{DOPE*}{U}T}

16 Junkie wearing western-type garment (8) TROUSERS {USER} in {SORT<=}

18 Group of Joe six-packs extremely likely to include even racists! (5) LAITY {Li..lY} over {rAcIsTs} Why 'six-packs'?

20 Slick episode featuring fancy headgear (4) KEPI [T]

21 Type of garment from this waste product inundated river (10) SWEATSHIRT {THIS+WASTE}* over {R}

23 Medical examiner cutting edge of hair off - starting to test headgear (7) CORONET {CORONEr}{Test}

24 Stripper's outfit and tax-band? (1-6) G-STRING {GST}{RING}

25 Fabric's oddly drab on facewear (6) DAMASK {DrAb}{MASK}

26 Someone ate nothing clean? (6) NEATEN [T]

DOWN

1   Purify batter - remove oil in the middle and make breakfast dish (3-2) FRY-UP PURiFY*

2   Spooner's pet door has top cover (4,3) FLAT CAP (~cat flap to flatcap)

3   Deep ache I nurtured for protective wear? (9) HEADPIECE*

5   Ploy to conserve energy is one way to be green (5) REUSE {R{E}USE}

6   LAX's first 2 flights to Northernmost Canada blocked by a police force (7) FLACCID {FLi...s} with {Ca...a} in A}{CID} 

7   Tax to clean dusty apt? Million sunk in! (5,4) STAMP DUTY {DUSTY+APT}* over {M}

10 Seaman's hat or shoe often has urethane at the top with another chemical compound (9) SOUWESTER {ShOe}{Ur...e}{W}{ESTER}

13 Asked to include human resources fee - on review it was triple! (9) THREEFOLD {T{HR}{FEE<=}OLD}

15 Courtesy of politician 50% reduced, less when leader is off, gone finally (9) POLITESSE {POLITician}{lESS}{gonE}

17 Official clothing of International organization's chief mandarin needs to accommodate multiple conditions (7) UNIFORM {UN}{Ma...n} over {IF}{OR}

19 Girl's into money - having been raised after one's become rich (7) INHERIT {HER} in {TIN}{1}<= Not necessarily, one can inherit debts also :-)

21 Corrective instrument for small muscles (5) SPECS {S}{PECS}

22 Argument ending in plain destruction all round (3-2) RUN-IN {RU{p..iN}IN}

Reference List

Computer Science = CS, School = S, Go = PEE, University = U, River = R, Energy = E, Million = M, With = W, Human resource = HR, Money = TIN, Small = S