No 14578, Tuesday 02 Sep 2025, Pixie Dust

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. 

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

ACROSS

7   That lady in a complex medical condition (6) HERNIA {HER}{IN+A}*

8   Spooner's instructions to batter and pummel minced beef? (8) MEATBALL (beat maul to meatball)

9   Transporter of stable beings? (8) HORSEBOX [CD]

10 Shabby wager about a state in India (4-2) BEAT-UP {BE{A}T}{UP}

11 Honey producer's bitter chase meets dead end? (8) SOURWOOD {SOUR}{WOO}{deaD}

12 Nut delivered a mouth freshener (6) C?S?E? 

13 Do these small broken pieces somehow endorse theism? (11) SMITHEREENS {SMITHEREENS+DO}*=ENDORSE THEISM [CA]

18 A fine and secure state (6) AFFIRM {A}{F}{FIRM}

20 Repudiate unfortunate ban on E Portal (8) ABNEGATE {BAN*}{E}{GATE}

22 Counter a mountaineer, say (6) SCALER (~scalar)

23 Damp date escapes for a bit of leftover modesty (8) HUMILITY HUMI(-d+l)LITY

24 Every now and then Mahomet procured cleaners in vehicles (8) MOTORCAR POS issue {MahOmeT+prOcuRed+CleAneRs}

25 Forlorn and bewildered, Noel's extremely laggardly (6) LONELY {NOEL*}{La...lY}

DOWN

1   Whoa! Eros (Olympian-God) smuggled an atomiser (7) AEROSOL [T]

2   Unit of measurement's converted? Not grams (8) ANGSTROM*

3   Tailless deer in fiction loves grass (6) BAMBOO {BAMBi}{00}

4   Oddly Beau robbed crude grill (8) BARBECUE {BeAu+RoBbEd+CrUdE}

5   Confused about small submarines (1-5) U-BOATS {ABOUT}*{S}

6   Chapters about the French Applications (7) CLAUSES {C}{LA}{USES}

8   Trash poem To hamper? Incongruous literary device! (5,8) MIXED METHAPOR {TRASH+POEM}* [RA] There's an extra S in the fodder See comments

14 Plant trees around malls, airports, restaurants and cemented kerbs from the beginning (8) TAMARACK Acrostic 

15 Ling repeatedly chopped up? It's bothersome! (8) NIGGLING Letter Bank

16 Secret sauce from unknown industry's restricted (1,6) X FACTOR {X}{FACTORy}

17 Section of Royalty let a Tsar make a comeback in August (7) STATELY [T<=]

19 Denied opening large toilets in accommodations for cold folks? (6) IGLOOS {bIG}{LOOS}

21 Specifically chap returns to city in England (6) NAMELY {MAN<=}{ELY}

Reference List

Chase = WOO, Fine = F, Date = D, Small = S, About = C, The in French = LA, Unknown = X