ACROSS
1 Semi-pros are letdowns?
(6,8)
8 Change at the stroke of noon
(5)
9 Desire for small French mimic going
around (8)
11 Worked and wanted to be
heard (7)
12 Upstart raven, flapping
wildly, surrounded by backup (7)
13
Passage from Rabelais – lewd! (5)
15
Therapist woman's mixing basil with a soupcon of tarragon
(9)
17 Line replacing number in insoluble
puzzle makes it damaging (9)
20 Cockney
encouragement to execute woman showing this?
(5)
21 Approaching a circle on Tyneside
(7)
23 Gateman turns to a captain of
industry (7)
25 Beer causes Frenchman to
slide backwards (8)
26 A quick drink at
one end of Swiss mountain chalet (5)
27
What every colonel wants? That is one! (14)
DOWN
1 Bailing out of US city with a
hundred thousand million – it's criminal!
(12)
2 Awards as charade comes to an end
are gross (5)
3 Led twice with new
arrangement and turned out all right
(5,4)
4 Dicky had ploy for making models
(4-3)
5 Recorded propane spill
(2,5)
6 Splintering centre of Bury
(5)
7 Meets up in a German gallery: not
bad really, considering... (9)
10 Star of
Spooner's film of Little Big Horn (6,6)
14
Function featuring rumba danced underwater
(9)
16 Freedom from pain, surprisingly, as
a nail gets half chopped off (9)
18 South
Africa supporting newspaper's fine material
(7)
19 Asia in turmoil: strange being held
up for a Japanese aristocrat (7)
22
Subject even kisses Queen (5)
24 Sauce
from oil spilled in road
(5)
