No 14250, Saturday 10 Aug 2024, Vidwan

ACROSS

1   Pick entertaining saints! Trick for media briefing! (5,10) PRESS CONFERENCE {PRE{SS}{CON}FERENCE}

9   Popular, young and just endlessly evil spirit (7) INCUBUS {IN}{CUB}{jUSt}

10 A magnet used for labelling (4,3) NAME TAG*

11 Pace of part-time love (5) TEMPO {TEMP}{O}

12 Leader of Tories, walking like a duck and writing nonsense! (9) TWADDLING {To...s}{WADDLING}

13 How one may dive into water rashly? (9) HEADFIRST [DD]

15 Watery discharge from nose and he stuffs rum! (5) RHEUM {R{HE}UM}

16 Magical trap traps head of imaginary animal (5) TAPIR {TAP{Im...y}R*}

18 Composing clues, so in isolation! (9) SECLUSION*

20 It helps to identify most efficient way of doing something like rambling about smuggled tusk (4,5) WORK STUDY {WOR{TUSK*}DY} 

23 Deliver passes and linger (5) HOVER Anno pending (Addendum - HandOVER = See comments)

24 Leer? Recite! (4,3) REEL OFF {LEER}* [RA]

25 Caught by passion, one surrenders her heart to commit adultery! (5,2) CHEAT ON {C}{HEAT}{ONe}

26 Need to bend rules perhaps for word plays! (6,9) DOUBLE ENTENDRES*

DOWN

1   How communists celebrate in public? (5,3,4,3) PAINT THE TOWN RED [C&DD]

2   Praises come in a rush (7) ENCOMIA*

3   Speaker bores with UFO fancy (9) SUBWOOFER {BORES+W+UFO}*

4   One having small time charge (5) ONSET {ON{S}E}{T}

5   Soft drink bar, most wonderful (9) FANTASTIC {FANTA}{STICk}

6   Loaded without power, frosty (5) RIMED pRIMED

7   Post-sunset ritual reportedly makes ester (7) NITRITE (~night rite}

8   Arenas for pre-marital fights? (10,5) ENGAGEMENT RINGS [C&DD]

14 Er...shake up! (9) RESHUFFLE {ER}* [RA]

15 Crudely shaped...when?! (5-4) ROUGH-HEWN {WHEN}* [RA]

17 Upstart's standard score at 66% of locations (7) PARVENU {PAR}{VENUes}

19 He asks to come to a Milan Club around six (7) INVITER {IN{VI}TER}

21 Small cattle with large frown (5) SCOWL {S}{COW}{L}

22 Year and a century, hard time for a sailor (5) YACHT {Y}{A}{C}{H}{T} Should have been SAILER

Reference List

Saint = S, Popular = IN, Part-time = TEMP, Caught = C, With = W, Small = S, Time = T, Power = P, Large = L, Year = Y, Hard = H