Solving time 8:20

One puzzling thing about my solving times is that 8:something puzzles are quite rare - since starting this blog, I've had (based on a quick manual count) 20 7-somethings, 17 9-somethings, but only 7 8-somethings. There seems to be some "gear-change" effect which means that once a puzzle doesn't look as if it's going to be fairly easy, I do things more slowly or maybe spend more time analysing clues on my first look.

This puzzle has quite a few relatively difficult things in it.


Across

1	PASS,MUSTER=gathering of troops
8	SET,SCREW=wage(slang/colloq.) - a set screw is one for adjusting or clamping parts of a machine. creep = "a slow relative movement of two adjacent parts, structural components, etc." - Collins
11	STREET,A,RAB=bar rev.
14	DIVES = the rich man in the Biblical parable often called "Dives and Lazarus" - "There was a certain rich man [...] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus" - from the Latin for 'rich man'
17	wESTERner - I leave it for chemists to comment on exactly how often an ester is a fat.
19	ATMOMETER - M.O. in anag. of 'treat me'
22	CONTIN(G)ENT
23	CANT = "Kant"
24	SKI-RUN - cryptic def'n.
25	G,ANGLING
26	(ch)ORAL - choral = a variant spelling of chorale - a hymn, esp. as in the works of J.S.Bach
27	SCHOOL,M.A.,R(oo)M - Roedean is one of the poshest schools for girls in England, on the coast road leading into Brighton from the east.

Down

1	PASS(ERIN)E - a type of bird including the ones that sing in your garden - from L. passer = sparrow, says the dictionary
5	(d)RUMMER = a large-stemmed drinking glass
6	FORTALICE - a small fort, ref. A's adventures in Wonderland.
7	E,PILATE - epilate = to remove hairs, Pontius Pilate was a procurator
15	STRATAGEM - reversal of "mega-tarts" - a fairly well-worn clue-writing path for this word
16	CON(TAN)GO - Collins: "(formerly, on the London Stock Exchange) postponement of payment for and delivery of stock from one account day to the next". The definition in Chambers is very confusing, telling you that it's the opposite of backwardation, but (as far as I can tell), failing to define backwardation in the entry for 'back'. [Correction: it's there, just before the long list of compound words starting "back-".]
18	SNOOKER - when playing snooker (or billiards I think), you can "lay a snooker", and unless your opponent can get the cue-ball to follow a curved path, he has to use a cushion to reach the object ball(s).
21	(b)ANANAS

Weekend:

Times 23,318: 12:17
Independent 6137 (Nimrod) 13:47 - nice set of 20-letter phrases in symmetrically corresponding positions.
Times Jumbo 646: 20:30