Clues

1-across – Prosecuted corrupt abbey and its leader during way-out cat-call in the 20 23 : EXITPURSUED

9-across – See1 : BYABEAR

10-across – This type of bid is top, not bottom : NOTRUMP

11-across – Let’s sing to Silvia, that she is 90, in Pisces : EXCELLING

12-across – Sometime lonely, now more like a squash : MELON

13-across – Brand I can do with one finger : TYPE

14-across – The last word in ballet dancing is very bad : LAMENTABLE

16-across – Ancient bus conductor on the gin : RATTLETRAP

19-across – A magnet to get your gun out? : DRAW

21-across – Strapping youth on grass – remove your butt! : THONG

22-across – Composer at the end of months playing tennis : BERNSTEIN

24-across – One with two ears, possibly? That’s crazy : IDIOTIC

25-across – Language that goes badly in the hillside : BRAILLE

26-across – Fast entertainment – deep’s the solution? : TURNOFSPEED

1-down – Antipasto : EMANCIPATIONIST

2-down – I’m a businessman, one hundred per cent! : IDEAL

3-down – Girl of 20 23, pirated edition : PERDITA

4-down – Break promise to French boy and some of the guests : RENEGUE

5-down – An officer and a gentleman? I’ve got a friend at last : ULTIMATE

6-down – What sort of gun is the Lee-Enfield? : DOUBLEBARRELLED

7-down – Sailor told to go away : ABSENT

8-down – Beg for cake? : SPONGE

15-down – Pestilential fellow born on a boat : BLIGHTER

16-down – Tell and sell : RETAIL

17-down – To put money on and be in debt, say: it goes up in smoke : TOBACCO

18-down – Dress in rising water – they need free oxygen : AEROBES

20-down – Direction to bury a mate in play : WINTER

23-down – See 20 : STALE

1-across – Where, not before time, accounts may be kept : BEHINDTHECLOCK

9-across – Spiritual guides in the film industry : DIRECTORS

10-across – Sudden impulse to produce cotton fabric : DENIM

11-across – False notions in article on Lido scheme : IDOLA

12-across – Eglantine tumbling in clumsy fashion : INELEGANT

13-across – Wild clan raid on pillar of the church : CARDINAL

14-across – Live on others when drunk : SPONGE

17-across – Bird allowed inside pub : LINNET

19-across – Instrument for getting firm out of rotten mess : CORNETTO

22-across – Expression silver worker used for brawling woman : TERMAGANT

24-across – Dickensian dance : TWIST

25-across – Took a picture showing animal in Africa : OKAPI

26-across – Snaps done badly may have medicinal effect : SENNAPODS

27-across – Rough sketch showing an officer? : GENERALOUTLINE

1-down – Unsuccessful editor’s complaint? : BADCIRCULATION

2-down – Bar members taking time out for shelter : HARBOUR

3-down – Fruit providing a delicious beverage in the orient : NECTARINE

4-down – Hot redhead in local : TROPICAL

5-down – Time to help make a stern choice : EASTER

6-down – Wild dog found in the French beaver’s home : LODGE

7-down – To hold back is not unusual in a murderer : CONTAIN

8-down – Personal predilection in art or diet : AMATTEROFTASTE

15-down – Keen physical education entrant, perhaps : PENETRANT

16-down – Percentage paid for brown colour in a flower : CONTANGO

18-down – Manage to rise above tear about having to tell a tale : NARRATE

20-down – Journey to phoney oil town : TRIPOLI

21-down – Artisan endlessly turning out decorative inlay work : TARSIA

23-down – Priestly garb worn by French friend at church : AMICE

1-across – It’s nationalised, as everyone knows : PUBLIC

4-across – It’s not the French weapon that will get you in : PASSWORD

9-across – Gumption to the English is futile : NOUSE

10-across – Tricorn may be knocked into : COCKEDHAT

11-across – Schubert’s work distant by a mile – fishy business : TROUTFARM

12-across – It signifies time with stress : TENSE

13-across – Managing directors on vintage car : RUNNINGBOARD

17-across – Militaristic slogan of dandy with dog by the fire? : BLOODANDIRON

20-across – Group in music, etc to regroup : OCTET

21-across – Greeting the jewel that came down from heaven : HAILSTONE

23-across – Should there be a profit … I beg your pardon? : COMEAGAIN

24-across – Chess expert to be found in lodge : GRAND

25-across – See 1 : PROPERTY

26-across – See 24 : MASTER

1-down – Joke on cruet being upset in flat : PUNCTURE

2-down – Reticent, fight with heavyweight having been telescoped : BOUTONNE

3-down – I find the majority of the planet silly : INEPT

5-down – See 6 : ACCOMMODATION

6-down – Covered loan with warden : SHELTERED

7-down – Where fingers are available : ONHAND

8-down – The royal princess starts to vacillate : DITHER

10-down – Clue to earth producing second thoughts? : CHANGEOFHEART

14-down – I’m going to a tantalising person to be made uncomfortable : ILLATEASE

15-down – Go back into being out-and-out haughty : ARROGANT

16-down – Produce one that will stop reducing the language? : ENGENDER

18-down – Financial restrictions on the proletariat are old hat : MOBCAP

19-down – Say to the Post Office what was said to the Guards as fast as before : ATEMPO

22-down – Brand without the T that comes before it : SIGMA

8-across – Underground sportsmen in Likud upset monkey : DURUKULI

9-across – Protective layer for District and Circle? Vice versa : OZONE

10-across – Old woman about to get rhyming family home : SHOE

11-across – Endure transfer: outside left not returned : UNREQUITED

12-across – Propose to maintain king in health : PROSIT

14-across – Wine and cheese, unopened, to throw away : RIESLING

15-across – 1 9 /150 = gradient : INCLINE

17-across – Speaker about to spoil fishing gear : STENTOR

20-across – Instrument for putting spirit, hot, into excrescence : CRUMHORN

22-across – Obscure compiler’s inconclusive threat : MYSTIC

23-across – Ailment induced by Spooner’s blast on the French horn? : TRENCHFOOT

24-across – Far from cheerful actor, so they say : DOUR

25-across – Deal with rubbish round about : TREAT

26-across – Year in which eastern nation gets young leader, the nation’s backbone : YEOMANRY

1-down – Reformed faith ultimately neutral : LUTHERAN

2-down – Aristocrat right to receive monarch : DUKE

3-down – Bend after a blow, though dignified : AUGUST

4-down – Scales line to intellectual storehouse : LIBRARY

5-down – Victory for many aboard the Endeavour : CONQUEST

6-down – Shakespearean bird almost put in jail : CORIOLANUS

7-down – Point in time to an expanse of water : AEGEAN

13-down – Holy man eaten by smoother amphibian : SALAMANDER

16-down – Convert to the Pony Express, initially : NEOPHYTE

18-down – Witchcraft: spinning gold in attempt to get notice, finally : OBITUARY

19-down – Great lover married? Just the opposite : ANTONYM

21-down – Right one in cultured surrounds ã one in a million? : RARITY

22-down – Alternative to dole is cosmic waste : METEOR

24-down – Measure up to the barrel-bearer : DRAY

1-across – Minor member in pub taking it round in disguise : INCOGNITO

6-across – Show contempt for cereal on Sunday : SCORN

9-across – Lord Mayor says detective gets battering in Freetown : DICKWHITTINGTON

10-across – Footprint shows retreat of cat and dog : STEP

11-across – Tart married in church by pier without an end : MINCEPIE

14-across – I keep dressing with audacity, wanting love in the club : SAUCEBOAT

15-across – Make love to a half-sister in the spring : OASIS

16-across – Change the people in the commercial : AMEND

18-across – Dine poorly by hot cooker in the Netherlands : EINDHOVEN

20-across – Place an adder in medicinal liquid : LOCATION

21-across – United Nations party is free : UNDO

25-across – Dame Rebecca riding very good horse in Somerset : WESTONSUPERMARE

26-across – Silence enshrouds upper and lower prison camps : GULAG

27-across – Severe yet devious last night : YESTEREVE

1-down – Asian river does not end in dust : INDUS

2-down – French dramatist caught in his water bed on top : COCTEAU

3-down – Leave woman, top and toe, in this dress : GOWN

4-down – Garden flower in a kind of stew, nearly : IRIS

5-down – Open University above criticism for swindling : OUTWITTING

6-down – Oh! Decency’s different with eg New faces : SYNECDOCHE

7-down – Sea animal needing work after a month : OCTOPUS

8-down – An unknown Spooner gets mixed up between two names : NONPERSON

12-down – Wild nut, highly flavoured : HEADSTRONG

13-down – Make 100 and you’ve lost, corrupted with a jealous heart : COVETOUSLY

14-down – Rascal finds Lily among the valuables : SCALLAWAG

17-down – Pardon for former copper touching Sarah : EXCUSAL

19-down – High quality 6 no-trumps made with maturity : VINTAGE

22-down – Plump duck to be seen half done : OBESE

23-down – Tree not lying in bed, though : UPAS

24-down – Easy-going and available for nothing : FREE