1-across – Saw mistake in the lady’s cable : HAWSER

5-across – Weed on arch bent over canal basin : CHARLOCK

9-across – Tree in container seen in album, perhaps : LABURNUM

10-across – Turn up rare set of ornaments : PARURE

11-across – Precise moment to stop race : POINTTOPOINT

13-across – Hebrew measure used by the Pharaohs : EPHA

14-across – Negotiate across catwalk : TRANSACT

17-across – Gather in island dining room on return : ASSEMBLE

18-across – Favourites return to stage : STEP

20-across – Free hours with teacher in school : CHARTERHOUSE

23-across – Sudden exit from the airport? : FLIGHT

24-across – Deliveries executed, but carried too far : OVERDONE

25-across – Keep out of pickle : PRESERVE

26-across – Did he make hay in the RAF? : TEDDER

2-down – He designed a water container : ADAM

3-down – Dish for turning apples out : SOUPPLATE

4-down – Rank card in order : RANCID

5-down – Succeeded with the one act mother produced : CAMETOTHETHRONE

6-down – Right cricket ground applied first for confirmation : APPROVAL

7-down – Popular golfer, but somewhat slow : LARGO

8-down – Account king gives to historian : CHRONICLER

12-down – He soon learns about solar patch : APTSCHOLAR

15-down – Put off for a while, like old socks? : SUSPENDED

16-down – One who opposed something, or supports : OBJECTOR

19-down – Game to saucy prince : RUPERT

21-down – Speaks angrily about gears : RAGES

22-down – Previously at church : ONCE

1-across – Copper with 9 5 for the roads in Rome : LESTRADE

5-across – See 9 : HOLMES

9-across – Bombshell about fairy king breaks around setter and solver : SHERLOCK

10-across – Mug finds drug in 23 : BEAKER

12-across – See 22 : ADLER

13-across – Without time to choose I have been working : OPERATIVE

14-across – Desired contents of Keats’s 10 turned to mush post bellum : THEWARMSOUTH

18-across – Windjammer right up to chief blower : TRUMPETMAJOR

21-across – Port with towers has business round in fashion : TREBIZOND

23-across – Specially nice cakes, say, for 9 5’s place : BAKER

24-across – Breeding ground with bottle? : HOTBED

25-across – Polls with aesthetic tastes opposed to 9 5 : MORIARTY

26-across – See 23 : STREET

27-across – The Norfolk Pimpernel, poet and soldier : BLAKENEY

1-down – Sailor from the East left a hurtful mark : LASCAR

2-down – Tinker eating honey going up one’s nose? : SMELLY

3-down – Potential Poet Laureate hurries to get top job : RULERSHIP

4-down – 9 5’s friend to cowards, not converts : DOCTORWATSON

6-down – Times up at last : OMEGA

7-down – Romance – be friends again! : MAKEITUP

8-down – Like an owl finding loose bits of rock at centre of churchyards : SCREECHY

11-down – Fellow takes to painting plus music with great enthusiasm : HEARTANDSOUL

15-down – Wintry reflection by owl: NB sadly in decline : SNOWBLINK

16-down – Good fellow craves effect of good joke? : STITCHES

17-down – Old magistrate goes south, intersecting equator : QUAESTOR

19-down – Hide concealing game with piste : SKIRUN

20-down – Sounding like the sacred ambition, possibly, in somewhat colourless style : GREYLY

22-down – Wrath at hand, in which we get led astray by 9 5?’s The Woman : IRENE

1-across – Excited footballers wanting return game : AFLAME

4-across – Shipping company heard to make a profit : ACCRUE

9-across – Final date in the Julian calendar? : IDES

10-across – Iron rations? : STAPLEDIET

11-across – Hector – a good man to look out for : PESTER

12-across – Back number : EPIDURAL

13-across – Bolts are a requirement for old navigational aid : ASTROLABE

15-across – Attack the copper with acid : ETCH

16-across – Secure a position at Rugby : LOCK

17-across – A high wind in Blackburn? : JETSTREAM

21-across – Do without a holiday abroad : LEAVEOUT

22-across – Confesses one has escaped from Maidstone somehow : ADMITS

24-across – Insufficient money for cake : SHORTBREAD

25-across – Born in Paris, died in penury : NEED

26-across – Waterlogged turf needs study : SODDEN

27-across – Where rackets may be exposed : COURTS

1-down – Lecture a daughter on clothes : ADDRESS

2-down – Composer expressing an inclination : LISZT

3-down – Poor visibility – beginnings of rain and light wind : MISTRAL

5-down – Bill is to raise and set sail for French port : CALAIS

6-down – It’s hoisted by merchant ship with rudder set askew : REDDUSTER

7-down – Healey’s unusual facial hair : EYELASH

8-down – Pause for inspiration : TAKEABREATHER

14-down – Well now : RECOVERED

16-down – Suckers for medical treatment : LEECHES

18-down – Order to troops to prepare for action – reason may follow : STANDTO

19-down – She plays with key in a lock : ACTRESS

20-down – Indication of a low top speed : WOBBLE

23-down – One employed to unpick seams? : MINER