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9 Across, Caught in New York by Irish girl's annoying quality (9)

11 Across, Mount and enter with this small - scale difficulty (7)

12 Across, Fruit rot (7)

15 Across, Helping fool with present that's not new (9)

Compiler - MONK

Many Thanks

9 IRRITANCY

IR - Irish
RITA - girl
C - caught
in NY - New York

12a) rhubarb means rot and is cooked as a fruit not 100% therefore.

I've never heard "rhubarb" for "rot", andy. Other than the "fruit" (!), it's best known as the meaningless word that extras in crowd scenes murmur - is that the "rot" you are thinking of?

15 assi(n)stance

....and "present" = "instance" seems a bit odd too, zozozo!

It is given as a synonym in my Chambers Crossword Dictionary Chris, I've heard it used before.

Present and instance are synonyms as verbs apparently - to cite/give an example

Thanks for the explanations, both! Still not convinced about "rhubarb"...

Good Morning and many thanks to you all.