A fair mix of hard and easy to give us a break into the puzzle and then make us think a bit over a few of the more interesting words. Some modern slangy things going here and a couple of underpants clues - because everyone loves a pants clue so the more the better!
I got really stuck in the SW corner and had to cheat to make sense of anything, the across clues being tougher that the down ones. Here's my pic:
7A - Shock for Tory in Slough (8) "Shock," is our definition and a "Tory" is the conservative RIGHT of the UK government (really stumps me why the Aussies call theirs Liberals when they're not. Is it some kind of sad irony) and "slough" = FEN and this was a thesaurus job because we needed a three-letter word and I was thinking of shedding skin cells and there's not many words available there but I didn't know "slough" also was a boggy marsh. Answer is F(RIGHT)EN. 9A - Ridicule setter ultimately for puzzle (6) "Puzzle," is our definition and "ridicule" = TEASE and "setteR ultimately " = R (after trying all the names of the setter, like "me" and similar first person options) to make a TEASER. 10A - Sarcastic American detectives (4) "Sarcastic," is our definition and "American" = A and "detectives" = CID to make ACID. I would never have thought "acid" was so high on the synonym list with "sarcastic" but it is. 11A - Trace toxin circulating in blood (10) "Blood," is our definition and this is a straightforward anagram clue with "trace toxin circulating " being fodder and anagrind to give us EXTRACTION . What I didn't understand was the connection. This is a new definition of the word for me and it's relating to bloodlines and heritage. 12A - Embarrassed about battle for payoff (6) "Payoff," is our definition and "embarrassed" = RED to go around a word for "battle" = WAR to become RE(WAR)D. 14A - Old soldiers scared to regroup (8) "Old soldiers," is our definition and "scared to regroup " is fodder and anagrind to make REDCOATS. 15A - Clean fight with oriental (6) I had to cheat. "fight" = SCRAP which I get but the "oriental" = E bit confused me. Is it supposed be a compass point? A way to "orient" ourselves? I know Brits prefer "orientate" and it's always been a tongue stumble for me. 17A - Arcade aboard ship supplies underwear (6) "Underwear," is our definition and an "arcade" = MALL or a covered shopping street area. Melbourne has some amazing ones, I love wandering through them. "Aboard ship" = SS where "aboard" is a container signpost to make S(MALL)S. The use of the word "supplies" is just to say the previous wordplay "supplies" our definition or is there another solution? 20A - A president has cause to be clear (8) I got this from cross letters and definition but couldn't parse. Fifteen squared says "A charade of ‘a’ plus P (‘president’) plus PARENT (’cause’) 22A - Second-best comic (6) I kept thinking this was a double definition but it's just a regular charade that I missed. "Comic" is our definition and "second" = S and "best" = CREAM as in "cream of the crop" to make SCREAM. 23A - Judgement of visitor with current partner (10)"Judgement," is our definition and a "visitor" = GUEST and one's current partner is their MATE to make GUESTIMATE. I always thought that was a GUESS-timate, and the dictionary only defines this on "guesstimate" but has an entry for "guestimate" that defers to the other spelling. Does that mean the dictionary is yielding to a common misspelling or it's not really a misspelling? 24A - Ruth's heartless devotion (4) Sneaky clue because "Ruth " is our definition and "heartless devotion" = PIeTY -E for PITY. 25A - People mature in a family unit (6) "Family unit," is our definition and "people" = MEN and "mature" = AGE to make MENAGE. It appears I've used this word incorrectly all my life as I thought it meant a mixture of different things. Now it seems kind of dull. 26A - She hates broken sporting trophy (3,5) "Sporting trophy," is our definition and "she hates broken " is fodder and anagrind to make THE ASHES. 1D - Mad cyber criminals (8) Double definition: CRACKERS. (mad) (cyber criminal) 2D - By no means all stage directors are old (4) "Old," is our definition and this is a hidden word clue. I got this from the definition as it's a pretty common clue/answer combo. What's not easy to spot is the hidden word signpost. I just did my usual seek and find to see "stAGE D irector" = AGED. I think "by no means all" is SOME which is the more common hidden word signpost. Nice way to change up and make a common clue harder to detect. 3D - Go to listen (6) Double definition: ATTEND. (go to) (listen) 4D - Foreign money found in scrap by chance (2,6) "By chance," is our definition and "foreign money" = RAND to be "found in" a word for "scrap" = ATOM to make AT (RAND)OM. I've not encountered "scrap" = atom before, that's new and something of an understatement, really. 5D - Sportsman lent a hat (4,6) "Sportsman," is who we ware looking for and "lent" = FAST as in the religious fasting period before Easter. "A hat" = BOWLER for a FAST BOWLER. 6D - Soldier gets wrong answer (6) "Answer," is our definition and "soldier" = RE which another new twist on the many abbreviations for a soldier. "wrong" = TORT as in a crime to give us a RETORT. 8D - Sailor in drama with youth leader and official (6) "Official," is our definition and we are after a noun here. "Sailor" = TAR and then I skipped to the "Y outh leader" = Y which left only "drama" = NO to try and figure out as our answer is a NOTARY. I thought of "drama" being a production, which is also a "number" abbreviated to NO but that be too many hoops to jump through? 13D - Flying officer's demeanour harms prince (3,7) "Flying officer," is our definition and "demeanour" = AIR with "harms" = MARS and "prince" = HAL to give us AIR MARSHAL. I've had the "Hal" clue before and remembered is was a Shakespeare reference. 16D - Propositions made in place of business (8) It took me far too long to realise this was a double definition. PREMISES (propositions made) (place of business) 18D - Examine fastenings of women's underwear (8) "Women's underwear," is our definition again - was there a lingerie theme I missed? "Examine" = SCAN and "fastenings" = TIES to make SCANTIES . I had to look that up because I didn't think that was the right word, but it was! 19D - Foolishly trust a royal house (6) "Royal house," is our definition and "foolishly trust a " is anagrind and fodder to make STUART. 21D - Father takes advantage of breaks (6) "Breaks," is our definition and "father" = PA, "takes advantage" = USES to make PAUSES. 22D - Transfix king found hiding in drain (6) "Transfix," is our definition and "king" = K going into a word for "drain" = SEWER to make S(K)EWER. 24D - Pole position (4) Double definition: POST. This took me a long time because I couldn't get my head to break from "pole position" and being first place and was looking at different ways of saying that.
I am done. I've not run through a complete spell/grammar check so if there's awkwardness there - I'm sorry. Don't hate the busy mom who can't blog quickly.
I'll have a crack at today's Paul and then the Age's NS because no one should turn down the chance to solve some extremely long anagrams. Practice makes perfect!
A joke for Thursday by my daughter: What do the French call a terrible Thursday?
A Trajeudi!
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