Crossword Genius

Singular pong surrounding gardens out of place (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

skewwhiff

'out of place' is the definition.
(skewwhiff means misaligned or wonky)

'singular pong surrounding gardens' is the wordplay.
'singular' becomes 's' (abbreviation sometimes used in dictionaries).
'pong' becomes 'whiff' (both can mean a smell).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'gardens' becomes 'Kew' (Kew Gardens in London).
's'+'whiff'='swhiff'
'swhiff' placed around 'kew' is 'SKEWWHIFF'.

(Another definition for skewwhiff that I've seen is " Crooked - out of alignment".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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