8-across – Get up off yours and cheer on the team! : BACKSIDE

9-across – Something suspicious smelt returns to pinch one crown : TIARA

10-across – Revolutionary Guardian rebels – editor’s heading off to the right to find himself : ALAN

11-across – See 10 : RUSBRIDGER

12-across – Potential downfall of family requiring asylum? : BANANA

14-across – One caught by the actual crime : THIEVERY

15-across – Ruddy British abroad about to retreat : REDOUBT

17-across – Curtly announce that you’re not having any more vegetable : SHALLOT

20-across – Heady mixture of pale and chic : CEPHALIC

22-across – Work that’s outstanding, we hear, was a joke for a thousand drachmas a day : ODEONA

23-across – See 23 : GRECIANURN

24-across – Retiring satisfied with oneself, with toothless grin : GUMS

25-across – Fliers in pub sent round for a costly fiddle : STRAD

26-across – Pouting, having to blow instrument held the wrong way round : PETULANT

1-down – It shouldn’t be dangerous, but note: one false move … : FAILSAFE

2-down – See 12 : SKIN

3-down – Range of Ford models? : SIERRA

4-down – Blackwidow.com? : WEBSITE

5-down – The marine creature is fairly quick, according to Spooner : STARFISH

6-down – Say you naughty beast in farewell to the variety show : VAUDEVILLE

7-down – Calling for speed : CAREER

13-down – Old drug dealer offers a drug to man, Grant : APOTHECARY

16-down – Fat couch potato standing around, causing an obstruction to motorists : BOLLARDS

18-down – Date lacks a very soft, soothing influence : OINTMENT

19-down – Strong drink in free-for-all at artless get-together : SCRUMPY

21-down – P-Prokofiev turns up appearing way out : EGRESS

22-down – Speak about point that’s embellished : ORNATE

24-down – Catch bird : GULL

1-across – Bird on a plate – but he flew in the past : ALCOCK

4-across – Ambitious worker goes to Paris for a change : ASPIRANT

9-across – Fellows need help in getting her : MAIDEN

10-across – Name a ship after Joyce, perhaps : DUBLINER

11-across – Where Rupert is too conservative? : BEHINDTHETIMES

13-across – He maintains frequency by rescheduling one up train : PIANOTUNER

14-across – A French officer is unusual : UNCO

16-across – Drive is something in our genes : URGE

18-across – Drake’s boat could be adapted for youth transport : SKATEBOARD

21-across – Old time coppers? : BEATGENERATION

23-across – One sample carries exceptional load of sin : IDOLATRY

24-across – Memory recalled drink – spirit : MORALE

25-across – Discernment of age trouble with shelter to the old : EAGLEEYE

26-across – How a Cockney says he works with this : ARDOUR

1-down – Handout for a defunct railway : ALMS

2-down – Monster – we must have him taken into care somehow : CHIMERA

3-down – False direction gets one lost in town : CREDITON

5-down – Blow one’s top in it? : SOUTHWESTER

6-down – Where tenants may be up creeks : INLETS

7-down – Swiss banker takes on an extra name : AGNOMEN

8-down – Numbers reject Euro to delay entry : THRESHOLD

12-down – Saturnalia could be gory : DRUNKENORGY

13-down – Lead on a string : PLUMBLINE

15-down – A club to take up church teaching? It’s for killing : ABATTOIR

17-down – This with means to support : GOALONG

19-down – Trouble after a small case of fruit : AVOCADO

20-down – Father’s relative has his name in stone : AGNATE

22-down – Prophet sounds dry and withered : SEER

7-across – Gainsay headmaster reorganising schools : GYMNASIA

9-across – It’s difficult to get model aroused : THORNY

10-across – End of Guinness barrel, or of cigarette : STUB

11-across – Washing over – consequently gain forgiveness : ABSOLUTION

12-across – Rig out for soiree of sorrow : GRIEVE

14-across – Solemn air of old king rolling species of cannabis : GRAVITAS

15-across – Farewell to artist returning to the mountain : ARARAT

17-across – Dined, consuming barrel of pitch properly : ATTUNE

20-across – China has many an ornamental garden : CROCKERY

22-across – A case of silence stifling passion : SHEATH

23-across – Soda-server is absorbing Mahler’s First and Tchaikovsky’s : SYMPHONIST

24-across – Animal utterance involving trunk? : BARK

25-across – Demonstrative about alien goddess : THETIS

26-across – Overcome by exhaustion, so debated a treatment : DEADBEAT

1-down – Suffering this year from psychiatric disorder : HYSTERIA

2-down – Some think no better bit of butter can be found : KNOB

3-down – With a will unopened, what’s left in it? : ESTATE

4-down – Reliable tool hoisted in the beginning : STALWART

5-down – Do your bit, being sorry about second-rate turn : CONTRIBUTE

6-down – An ape’s ill, missing a rabbit : ANGORA

8-down – Post in the form of an omen : ASSIGN

13-down – Free terrorists snap title up : EMANCIPATE

16-down – What’s got into a parasite at the pub? : ALEHOUSE

18-down – Immortal carrying Cross inside and outside : EXTERNAL

19-down – Helpless dairymaid raised a great many : MYRIAD

21-down – Initially rock hard, yet the Hammersmith Mauler gets beat : RHYTHM

22-down – Belt encircling a tyrant : SATRAP

24-down – Live without a seaman’s doll : BABE