Clues

7-across – Wonder if there’s a motor-ing club within distance : MIRACLE

8-across – They have to stay in to take deliveries : BATSMEN

10-across – Variation in game may need explaining : ENIGMA

11-across – Drunk in an ugly situation gets awkward : UNGAINLY

12-across – Easy to reach but hard to touch : NEAR

13-across – Used to support worker : SECONDHAND

14-across – Well off? : SOUNDASLEEP

19-across – A rule uniformly applied? : MARTIALLAW

22-across – Aristocrat always preceded by a page : PEER

23-across – Soldiers roar and sing wildly : GARRISON

24-across – Golfing or boxing circles? : ROUNDS

25-across – A burnt-out pantomime character? : CINDERS

26-across – Sent to a prison store : PUTAWAY

1-down – Explorer, one given all-round support : PIONEER

2-down – Is the bounder brought before this court? : KANGAROO

3-down – Sounds coming from fold or stable : BLEATS

4-down – Sort of seat possibly alarming to an MP : MARGINAL

5-down – Prophet is first-class, given a head start : ISAIAH

6-down – Touching emotion? : FEELING

9-down – Going on a local tour : PUBCRAWLING

15-down – It floated a company to avoid liquidation : NOAHSARK

16-down – Marriage or adoption : ESPOUSAL

17-down – French complaint over song causes ill-feeling : MALARIA

18-down – Departed vessel, showing no emotion : DEADPAN

20-down – I am stuck in traffic – abusive words result : TIRADE

21-down – Prepare to run a race heat : WARMUP

1-across – Event formerly requiring work on winter sport vessel by record-holder in a bad mood : HOPSKIPANDJUMP

8-across – See 4 : TONES

9-across – Evil grips a cleaner at scene of tea party? : VICARAGE

11-across – Rechauffé chicken, not at the foregoing? : HEATHEN

12-across – Phone call to jolt a protector in the lab : BELLJAR

13-across – Meaty writer in modern art : BACON

15-across – I’m proud to be mother subedited : SORETHUMB

17-across – Change Poles for getting into the car : TRANSFORM

20-across – Name for a dove, perhaps, in dire need : IRENE

21-across – Small creature in cover, not the whole hog? : LIMITED

23-across – Meaty writer spoiled the walk : LAMBETH

25-across – Artistic friar speaks of girl to the victor of Jutland : ANGELICO

26-across – Home games? You cannot be serious : INFUN

27-across – League like 1 across, come to grief with loyal one breaking weapon : TRIPLEALLIANCE

1-down – Success with article takes nerve, so get liquored up : HITTHEBOTTLE

2-down – African knife for 11, swallowing his tail? : PANGA

3-down – Types holding unusual sash enter office : KISSHANDS

4-down – Flags of convenience in the wet garden : PAVINGS

5-down – Horse in wet weather returning to Indian islands : NICOBAR

6-down – Scots island, left and naturally right : JURAL

7-down – A jewel turns up – sounds like there’s another – a lot of work needed : MEGAJOULE

10-down – Opportunity like 27: live it up with Walesa in ecstasy : TREBLECHANCE

14-down – Pitman displaying singular charity when taken in by forger : COALMINER

16-down – Top people like 27 having some success fighting some of the Irish : TRIUMVIRI

18-down – Mole wandering around a government department long ago? : OLDTIME

19-down – Film producer gets fuel from yarrow : MILFOIL

22-down – Miserable specimen takes article from port : TWERP

24-down – Sprightly renderings of the conclusion : ELFIN

1-across – Tear up poster very quickly : PRESTO

5-across – Pastime causes the Queen to be cutting in analysis : INTEREST

9-across – I’ll break up a long morning if this shrub is put back : MAGNOLIA

10-across – Turncoat in spectacles right behind Cicero, perhaps : ORATOR

11-across – Kings, maybe, putting plastic money behind piano : PLAYINGCARDS

13-across – Cookers, when turned around, crack : SNAP

14-across – Birth occurs in native city, not East Central! : NATIVITY

17-across – The inadequacy of fleeting time : SHORTAGE

18-across – You have to go very slowly in Finchley : INCH

20-across – No good hiding garment by river, says this cornfield dweller : HARVESTMOUSE

23-across – I am shortly to be in charge, as is due from a son : FILIAL

24-across – Plain university astronomer almost seen in New York : UNLOVELY

25-across – Work to seek facts, if about to burn church : RESEARCH

26-across – I tarry with uncertainty, which is not common : RARITY

2-down – One for me, says drunken Dora : ROAD

3-down – Abrasive George, French novelist, to join the Guardian, perhaps : SANDPAPER

4-down – Well! He may own one even if he comes from Milano : OILMAN

5-down – European vermin half gone on opening it : ITALIANVERMOUTH

6-down – Thug shot unfairly and that’s not just one opinion : THOUGHTS

7-down – Rita has swallowed a lasso : RIATA

8-down – Promise to stay in steamer, having second secret weapon : SWORDSTICK

12-down – I burn, but break your heart? I can’t! : ANTHRACITE

15-down – Words of unseen talker putting love at the heart of immorality unduly : VOICEOVER

16-down – Paul’s sick in vehicle. Like some pills? : CAPSULAR

19-down – Non-PM : BUTLER

21-down – Thin material, nasty, with a hole in it! : VOILE

22-down – What the gardener digs up is left in the casserole : PLOT

1-across – Keep limb bony – OK in contest? : KNOBBLY

5-across – Deformed vampire, death and hell, not he; stakes a speciality! : VLADTHE

9-across – Gust of wind, blow! : BLAST

10-across – Sun’s exposure : PAGETHREE

11-across – Fly sets off, guided in its own image? : SELFSTYLED

12-across – Song without la is smooth on top : BALD

14-across – See 1 : COMPETITION

18-across – Cultivating grain, so most expert in their field? : AGRONOMISTS

21-across – Gin finds the mouth : TRAP

22-across – Clairvoyance reveals ghost around the Channel Islands : PRESCIENCE

25-across – ‘x’ co-ordinates make BASIC essay wrong, not ‘y’ : ABSCISSAE

26-across – See 1 : KNEES

27-across – See 5 : IMPALER

28-across – Moralist girl entertained by joke : PURITAN

1-down – Put it on to stop most of family nonsense : KIBOSH

2-down – Nothing clear confused seer : ORACLE

3-down – Mad support follows from fields first : BATSSECOND

4-down – City careerist raised money during the years : YUPPY

5-down – Indecision seen forming in cranial nerve : VAGUENESS

6-down – Book of information without introduction : ACTS

7-down – Reptile and one fish in net hauled up : TERRAPIN

8-down – Editing the denouement to grab me : EMENDING

13-down – Boar hunter takes the filth to heart : PIGSTICKER

15-down – One will remember Scrooge storing up capital : MEMORISER

16-down – Seasoned beef as Armpit Stew : PASTRAMI

17-down – Ends relationship, so begins the holidays : BREAKSUP

19-down – Where camping is determined? : INTENT

20-down – Nick for rogue trader? : LEESON

23-down – Abrupt and unreasonable : STEEP

24-down – See 10 : GIRL

1-across – Measure of tar? : HORNPIPE

5-across – Impact of special short whip : SPLASH

9-across – Sign of very little intelligence : MICRODOT

10-across – Price a pound of ribs : COSTAL

11-across – Sensation – effortless Victorian brilliance : GASLIGHT

12-across – Liquor quality : SPIRIT

14-across – Uncommonly loud, making it resonant : STENTORIAN

18-across – Office of a high court judge? : UMPIRESHIP

22-across – What makes Trent’s last marine mammal stagger? : TOTTER

23-across – Tube taken to theatre for three-act play : CATHETER

24-across – One gets up to see rainbows : IRISES

25-across – This creature is around no longer : DINOSAUR

26-across – Greek midshipman covered with oil : GREASY

27-across – Solemn, always, in Split : REVERENT

1-down – Great admiration of dwelling that is silver-lined : HOMAGE

2-down – The Hole in the Wall for a break : RECESS

3-down – In favour of appropriate percentage : PROFIT

4-down – Sibyl oppress the unorthodox? : PROPHETESS

6-down – Bear twins and think nothing of it : POOHPOOH

7-down – A hormone building a heavenly body : ASTERIID

8-down – BC, for example, in US? : HALFTONE

13-down – Suggestive mood : INDICATIVE

15-down – Stocktaking without authority? : RUSTLING

16-down – Battle-axe, one of the few in the second row : SPITFIRE

17-down – Release swarm of giveaways : FREEBEES

19-down – Select church circles over Home Counties : CHOOSE

20-down – Set far apart, fire from above : STRAFE

21-down – High peak for soldiers at the double in antitank setting : ARARAT