No 14442, Wednesday 26 Mar 2025, Afterdark

Solution to 26A 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. 

Open for anyone to solve, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

9   Manage a child, one's seven essentially (7) ACHIEVE {A}{CH}{1}{sEVEn}

10 Substitute agent with one lady initially (7) REPLACE {REP} and {ACE}<=>{L}

11 Big reptiles are litter-bugs (7) TURTLES [CA] {TURTLES+BIG}*={LITTER-BUGS}

12 School member hired in plant (7) COLLEGE {COL{LEG}E}

13 Dads cried uncontrollably when thrown out (9) DISCARDED*

15 Edgar's new rank (5) GRADE*

16 A college chief initially exploits then incriminates (7) ACCUSES {A}{C}{Ch..f}{USES}

19 Show one's place in time (7) DISPLAY {D{1'S}{PL}AY}

20 Time limits for nurses (5) TENDS {T}{ENDS}

21 Viewpoints contain advanced, rigid heartless principles (9) STANDARDS {STAND{A}{RigiD}S}

25 Weather in capital during Champions Trophy erratic from the beginning (7) CLIMATE {C{LIMA}T}{Er...c}

26 Sweden surrendering after leader was overthrown in a meeting (7) S?S?I?N (Addendum - SESSION {S}{cESSION} - See comments)

28 Chose to delete first composition as it turns out bad (7) ELECTED {DELETE+Co...n}*

29 Southern queen, reportedly with ease reached Zambia to primarily engage with press (7) SQUEEZE {S}{QU}{(~ease)EE}{Z}{En...e}

DOWN

1   Starters of tikkis, aloo-chaat, samosa, tandoori-paneer, eggroll, dhokla were sampled (6) TASTED Acrostic

2   Records created by child star; fantastic (6) CHARTS {CH}{STAR*}

3   Reconcile with a vagabond as per instructions (4) HEAL (~heel)

4   Seems daughter is troubled and upset (6) MESSED {SEEMS+D}*

5   Came first but quietly returned (8) PRECEDED {P}{RECEDED}

6   Regretted a game with new good side (10) APOLOGISED {A}{POLO}{G+SIDE}*

7   Support everyone embracing British game (8) BASEBALL {BASE}{ALL} over {B}

8   Mercilessly terminate and deploy odd characters away (8) SEVERELY {SEVER}{dEpLoY}

14 23 workers and helpers (10) ASSISTANTS {ASSIST}{ANTS} Should have been 22 and not 23!

16 New retail store at the launch stored cold items (8) ARTICLES {RETAIL*}{St..e} over {C}

17 Imprisoned cheat and punished (8) CONFINED {CON}{FINED}

18 Dismisses South American writer's daughters heartlessly (8) SUSPENDS {S}{US}{PEN}{Da...rS}

22 Mala's sister withholds help (6) ASSIST [T]

23 Congratulated first off and elevated (6) RAISED pRAISED

24 Son played tunes at dusk (6) SUNSET {S}{TUNES*}

27 Told to turn down right away (4) SPUN SPUrN

Reference List

Child = CH, Lady = L, College = C, Place = PL, Time = T, Queen = QU, Daughter = D, Quietly = P, Good = G, British = B, Cold = C, South = S, Son = S, Right = R