With apologies for the later than usual posting.  Nothing desperately troublesome in this puzzle.
Given the grid structure, I was half expecting some sort of Nina message to emerge in the outside columns.  That possibility looked promising at first (with IS CLA…) but turned out to be wishful thinking on my part.

Across
1 INDELICATE  - (Idea client)*
9 SP(R)Y
10 THUMB’S,CREW
11 CU(S)TER - s in (truce)*.  I thought “formulated” was a bit of a clunky anagrind. Maybe something like “negotiated” would sit better?
13 LE(MON)AD,E - The grid-friendly distribution of vowels makes this a pretty common beverage in xword-land.
17 ASTI - (It’s a )*.  And here’s an even more popular tipple for setters.
19 TIGHT(W)AD - I like the “plastered poster” combo.
22 S(QU)ANDER
23 TRA(U)M,A - (a mart)<
25 NO,N(CH,ALAN)T - a wordy clue although, in fairness, it doesn’t strike me as a particularly easy answer to set.
26 S,KEW 
27 NA[-v]VY

Down
2 NEP,TUNE - (pen)<
3 E[-d]GY,PT - an admirable surface reading.
4 [-p]INTER,VAL - The “playwright” is Harold Pinter (Nobel Laureate and proud owner of several Tony Blair voodoo dolls).
5 AMUSEMENT ARCADE - (a cue tradesman)* incl. me
6 E,MB,LEM
7 BU(C(H)ARE)ST - I always seem to have a soft spot for double container/contents clues.
14 OLIGARCHY - (Log charity)* -t
16 A,GIT,ATOR - (rota)<.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, I tend to associate the word git with something far more derogatory than simply “idiot”. But that’s my problem, not Sleuth’s.
18 SE(QUO[-d],I)A
21 ED(WAR)D[-a] - The Edda is our “saga”.  For furthers details please consult your local neighbourhood Norse mythologist.

I nearly didn’t finish this puzzle. I was a page turn from giving up despite having completed the grid. I had no idea what the theme was and with a couple of ambiguous answers from the misprinted definitions I was uncertain that I had a correct grid. I reasoned that if I understood the theme then I would be able to resolve the ambiguities.

The preamble was a little confusing. Three local 32s and then several ways to get to them or with what they are associated. Why the multiple routes? If the 10 misprinted definitions are enough then why the 6 extra words. To start with I decided to ignore the theme and just hammer away at the clues. I managed to get all the answers due to the fair, if occasionally tough, cluing. My only error was writing in NERD at 15, seeing REN as a variation of RUN. This held me up on AINUS at 1 for longer than the clue warranted.

When I decided that 32 was WRITERS I wondered what ‘local writers’ could possibly mean. Local to where. So, the next step was to plug away at the misprinted definitions. There were a lot of ambiguities in these, deliberately I assume. For instance, I had Nard = Lard = GREASE (wrong misprint, wrong answer) and Old dish = Old dosh = BRASS (right misprint, wrong answer). When I finally got the first misprint as a J I had enough to guess at a phrase: JUST LOOK UP.

I spent the next few minutes looking up the vertical columns hoping to see something. I didn’t. Now, I often do the Inquisitor with a photocopy or scan of just the puzzle. Had this been the case here I would never have got this one. This time, however, I had the original but I had it folded in half on my crossword clipboard (yes, very sad). The penny dropped: JUST LOOK UP THE PAGE! I unfolded the sheet and, Yes!, three writers at the top of the page, the three games columnists—neighbours of the crossword setter.

So I got it, but only just. This would clearly not have worked as an online puzzle despite my desire to see the Inquisitor available online. I also take it that Lato would have needed Mike Laws to arrange for it to be published when the three standard columnists are up there. Over all an enjoyable if frustrating puzzle. I still don’t fully understand how all of the 6 extra words help, see below for tentative explanations, but hopefully someone out there will or the solution will make it clear.

Here’s the solution explained part by part, misprinted definitions first:

Six of these led to each of the three writers via a homophone, one very dodgy!—but the preamble warned about this, of their first name and an anagram of their surname:

The other four led to the games they wrote about via different word plays:

The six extra words are, I think: VICAR’S, PLACE, CLIMB, HILL, HELLO, HARRY. I think that as pairs they lead to the surnames, again, but I have two different interpretations, neither of which I am 100% certain about. In clue order these could be:

I just can’t quite tie these together so an alternative explanation is:

This is the one unsatisfying aspect to the puzzle for me, though it might be my stupidity or I might have messed up one of the extra words by misinterpreting one of the clues.

Finally, just to make things a little tougher, the clues to 3 and 4 were printed against the wrong numbers and 41 was 8 letters long rather than 7 as enumerated.

Solving time: 22 minutes

The usual high-calibre fare we have come to expect from Phi. Lots of clever clues and a smattering of new words. I was interested to see 3 down in Chambers, as I assumed it was one of those dreadful phrases imported from across the Big Pond.

Solving music: A collection of Eurovision Song Contest songs of the past. Enough said.

ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (R) = REVERSAL (CD) = CRYPTIC DEF.

1. SYLLABUB BALLY inside BUS (R) Syllabub seems to be having a renaissance on restaurant menus. What happened to good old blancmange?

 6 THRACE TH(E)RACE Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and European Turkey. In ancient times, Thrace stretched from the Danube to the Aegean, bounded on the east by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and on the west by the mountains east of the Vardar (Greek Axios) River.

9 WAGNER ENG (R) inside WAR

10 STRIKING Double def, one cryptic. The strikers of a soccer team are the forwards.

11 STAY ST(R)AY

12 QUEENCRAFT FREQUENT AC(T) *

13 JACK THE RIPPER JACK (TAR) = sailor HE inside TRIPPER

15 INTENSIVE CARE ANN RECEIVES IT* Nice “& LIT” clue

19 THORNINESS T (Tenor) + HORNINESS

21 ONYX ON + Y + X

23 BUDDLEIA BUDD(Y) + I in LEA

24 WEIGHT WE (F)IGHT

25 SEVENS EVEN inside SS

26 DARTMOOR ROOM TRAD (R)

DOWN

2 YEAST YEA + ST

3 SAND YACHT SANDY + ACHT I tend to think of Sandy as a man’s name (colloq of Andrew) rather than a girl’s name/

4 BAR-B-Q Q after BARB

5 BESIEGE E.G. (SAY) replacing D in BESIDE (next)

6 TYRANNISE IN A SENTRY *

7 ROKER RO(C)KER Roker is a seafront district of Sunderland. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/360/roker.shtml for a view of this lovely place.

8 CONIFERAE ON FIRE A* inside CE CONIFERAE - the genus of pines, etc.

13 JAILHOUSE J + AIL + H.O. + USE Friday Fasicnating fact. Elvis Presley refused to watch the film Jailhouse Rock as his co-star Judy Tyler was killed in a car crash just after completion of filming.

14 TINNINESS N inside TININESS

15 PLATONISM PLAIN MOST*

17 IRELAND IRE on LAND John Ireland is a Chamber Music composer.

19 RIDGE (B)RIDGE

20 SEWER W inside SEER

22 YAHOO HAY (R) + O +O

Thanks to Phi for a clever and entertaining puzzle.

The only HELMSLEY I know is the very wealthy NYC socialite Leona who I think recently died and was not well-loved in America. Well, I didn’t actually know her.
Across

Down