4-across – Nasty skin complaint through sprawling outside : BITCHY

6-across – US barman serves awkward customer – a Yank : SODAJERK

9-across – Horse to take you for a ride? : RINGER

10-across – Barrister has a day to digest case in brief : ADVOCATE

11-across – Family group, mean and furtive : CLANDESTINE

15-across – Catching Hague out, Lib Dem tee-heed : LAUGHED

17-across – Waste time after game swings back : GARBAGE

18-across – Enter finally into agreement in spite of underhand dealings : MALPRACTICE

22-across – Cat with another injury : WHIPLASH

23-across – One may smoke over a packet : FUNNEL

24-across – Mutilated carcases, with initial number up 900, reveal the slaughter : MASSACRE

25-across – Back in bed, sick and wan : PALLID

1-down – Fateful lifeline? : THREAD

2-down – Vamp to make good dilapidated JCB : GOLDDIGGER

3-down – Wreck bears out type of destroyer : SABOTEUR

4-down – Prison term for quack, say : BIRDCALL

5-down – Treat as skin and bone old king denied sustenance : TANTALUS

7-down – Test for PM? : EXAM

8-down – Look up an’ doon : KEEK

12-down – Rode southern dales – badly chafed : SADDLESORE

13-down – Paper-chase? : NATIONAL

14-down – Beauty wearing red rose : REBELLED

16-down – House accommodation? : HOMELOAN

19-down – Leg’s game – in car crash with learner : CRURAL

20-down – Reeled from second stomach upset : SWAM

21-down – Likes making nasty remarks : DIGS

1-across – A river skirts Crosby, a town in England : ABINGDON

5-across – Son strode out when out of his skull : SPACED

9-across – Sovereign introduced to metalworker! That’s a fluke! : FLOUNDER

10-across – Spooks beset people returning from place of entertainment : CINEMA

11-across – Drink tisane brewed by Lawrence : ANISETTE

12-across – Native of seaside resort with no good hotel : BRITON

14-across – City in America canonised in Russia : PETERSBURG

18-across – Companion embraces sweetheart with desire – not as it’s reported : CLOVEHITCH

22-across – It is quite clear the monkey is wearing a hat : LIMPID

23-across – Bob’s making fun of needlework : SMOCKING

24-across – Reptilian soldier turned to university articles : IGUANA

25-across – Writer of note from Fair Isle : CLEMENTI

26-across – The Parisian follows requirement for a sewer : NEEDLE

27-across – The railway in an army camp on an island : BALINESE

1-down – A couple of fellows skate and row : AFFRAY

2-down – It’s incongruous that one club supports another : IRONIC

3-down – A shufti round site of air traffic control centre : GANDER

4-down – Public beneficiary receives a broadcast : OVERTHEAIR

6-down – Plain language written about border flower : PRIMROSE

7-down – Danish king receives ancient request for wood : CHESTNUT

8-down – Water soaking away from bedraggled gardenia : DRAINAGE

13-down – Statesman embraces one and all on the island. That’s sweet : PEACHMELBA

15-down – Kitchen staff gather in Israel : SCULLION

16-down – Rodent roomed with us unfortunately : DORMOUSE

17-down – Iron Age re-settlement looking initially to be from a certain area : REGIONAL

19-down – Tinker takes one kind of food : SCAMPI

20-down – Apron for local tucking into tart : PINNIE

21-down – Brown coal left off fire : IGNITE

1-across – Reportedly 20 13, or one fifth of 14! : SIXQUID

5-across – Turn into tree, as opposed to 25 : POPULAR

9-across – Annoys 1 downs : NARKS

10-across – Afterthought about stockpile of pickles : PRESERVES

11-across – Mutual sighting of sacred image spoken of with discretion : EYECONTACT

12-across – Sun King enters to cheers : SKOL

14-across – Turning ever, dropping verse 10, accepted by God’s 5across 25 1downs : THREETENORS

18-across – Manipulation of thread manacles midget : CHAINSTITCH

21-across – Relative not beginning to brag : AUNT

22-across – Dish for archer on hill in Italy : TORTELLINI

25-across – Girl in charge in state, as opposed to 5 across : CLASSICAL

26-across – Maker of dish for the advancement of culture? : PETRI

27-across – Northerners who’ve been pulled? : YANKEES

28-across – Having got into tabloid, fled – exchanging the Standard for the People : REDFLAG

1-down – A scorcher of a musician! : SINGER

2-down – Persian ruler upset Congress and King : XERXES

3-down – Untidy Gloucestershire opener’s tip: No runs?. That’s not cricket! : UNSPORTING

4-down – Drank up in the store : DEPOT

5-down – 101 in here showing foresight : PRESCIENT

6-down – Quiet hack’s sound of relief : PHEW

7-down – Look to 5 for intricate token – of commitment? : LUVEKNOT

8-down – Grapples topless with skinhead and becomes uneasy : RESTLESS

13-down – Mushroom ring, seedcase and seafood, potentially : CEPHALOPOD

15-down – Denies original story, admitting nothing, and is subsequently influential : RETROACTS

16-down – Second and Third of Borodin in memorable old recording, perhaps : SCRATCHY

17-down – Keep mum, thanks to one in the pub : MAINTAIN

19-down – Part of the architecture of artificial intelligence : LINTEL

20-down – Sloth and fish not doing too well : AILING

23-down – High-level worker left in middle of row : TILER

24-down – Man, say, whatever Donne said : ISLE