1-across – Tailless fish and a tailless baby feline : CARACAL

5-across – Drifting in front of juggernaut finally, lady perhaps exceeding 70 on the motorway : MIGRANT

9-across – Victory in bye for opener : VALVE

10-across – One defending a possible clue for raft? : RIGHTBACK

11-across – Politician — her purpose ultimately to go after Tory leadership, as about time for a general election? : THERESAMAY

12-across – Text with the other illustrations : KAMA

14-across – Turn forward, getting home in time for broadcast : DISSEMINATE

18-across – Where one finds only the cream consumed, say, with joint wrapped in cabbage : ETONCOLLEGE

21-across – Wearing Y-fronts, I kneel befuddled in front of pub, a beastly drunken vision : PINK

22-across – Lack of advancement, country in rut, perhaps? : STAGNATION

25-across – See 21 : ELEPHANTS

26-across – See 12 : SUTRA

27-across – Results in conclusion not entirely the reverse : ENTAILS

28-across – Coral snakes in reasonable fixture on boat : OARLOCK

1-down – Hole where rodent stores it : CAVITY

2-down – Car wheel? : ROLLER

3-down – Smart aleck fit to embrace daughter? Always going over the top : CLEVERDICK

4-down – Little wriggler runs inside red flower : LARVA

5-down – Publication with French article in European institution in Cambridge : MAGDALENE

6-down – Entrails in bottle : GUTS

7-down – Setter lifting a couple of Hindu melodies : AGARAGAR

8-down – Sit with chimp in garden under the arbour, initially : TAKEAPEW

13-down – Tree higher than one covered in rubber, that’s lighter : FIRERAISER

15-down – Possible reason for hair salon visit, as reconciliation occurs? : SPLITENDS

16-down – Cheese spread please after bacon and egg starters : BELPAESE

17-down – Private tucked into bed, quaking at a stroke of the baton : DOWNBEAT

19-down – Restaurant writer munching spelt crusts : BISTRO

20-down – Lid held up by topless Adonis to remove clothes from suitcase : UNPACK

23-down – Device inserted into frog is modern : GISMO

24-down – National draw announced : THAI

1-across – Surrogate father’s admitting obligation : VICARIOUS

6-across – Task for secretary, one retiring and shy : FLING

9-across – Overheard Blair struggling with a compulsion to hold forth : VERBALDIARRHOEA

10-across – Trade in Kentish Town : DEAL

11-across – Lumber covers frame of timber for bridge : STRADDLE

14-across – Reporter’s second witness quiet about hot tip from Egypt : BAKSHEESH

15-across – Tango roughly, revealing chest : TORSO

16-across – Look green, nursed by physician : DECOR

18-across – Frenchman’s fondness for robe wayward teen’s put on : TENDRESSE

20-across – Picaroon knocked back drink in anger : EMBITTER

21-across – Double First from Susie Dent : SPIT

25-across – Hum discordant note, one interrupting Cliff Richard’s opening song : SCARBOROUGHFAIR

26-across – Old local official respecting vigil : REEVE

27-across – Philosopher’s style is something hard to bear : MILLSTONE

1-down – 6 x 2 + 500 — clear? : VIVID

2-down – A lot in America fish on boat : CARPARK

3-down – Taking top off, what you might do in bed sheets : REAM

4-down – Democratic Party rejected second chances : ODDS

5-down – Apple produce this month, with pears rotting : SMARTPHONE

6-down – Maybe Thai food, first of all, back in steamer : FAREASTERN

7-down – Nun may be tidy : INORDER

8-down – Extra embellishment lit up once in fireplace : GRACENOTE

12-down – Liberal with two pieces of furniture, dropping one : CHARITABLE

13-down – Constrained by police, suspect is one getting beaten : KETTLEDRUM

14-down – China sensible to adopt English recipe for beer : BUDWEISER

17-down – Mathematician losing head after first glimpse of Cheryl Cole : CABBAGE

19-down – Treble on rocks a pro’s drunk at first : SOPRANO

22-down – Church service is brief for the audience : TERCE

23-down – Menander’s leading character has lines for muse : MULL

24-down – Syrian city’s head put down resistance : OHMS

1-across – Most cherished US state, where gun crime and drug trafficking are rife : FAVELA

4-across – County takes on workers : STAFFS

9-across – Song her partner picked up : HYMN

10-across – Don’t tell me! A modern composer in an old bowler? : SHANEWARNE

11-across – Rubber tree nearer India, across the river by all conclusions : ERASER

12-across – See 23 : PETERSON

13-across – Herb used to bandage limb, iodine then applied : SPEARMINT

15-across – Inscription in novella, no name? : ANON

16-across – Early man, firm and hard : SETH

17-across – Slimy scum in blaze, taking ages to put out : SLEAZEBAG

21-across – Confounded book imminent : BLOOMING

22-across – Take great pleasure in routine : GROOVE

24-across – Country garden ultimately covered in flowers — strong features? : ROMANNOSES

25-across – Yellow food, cheesy stuff : CORN

26-across – Vacillate, toying with third and fourth of December : DITHER

27-across – Scottish author railing endlessly : BARRIE

1-down – See 2 : FLYTRAP

2-down – Plant, a vision on the web? : VENUS

3-down – Combine passion and spirit for a number of years : LUSTRUM

5-down – Figure in time passed slowly in the end : TWENTY

6-down – Nice location to get over torment — Cologne? : FRAGRANCE

7-down – Organ whose top is red and blue, at the end of the day : SUNDOWN

8-down – Plot coming as a surprise in For Whom The Bell Tolls : CAMPANOLOGIST

14-down – Moving to Saturn, a space traveller : ASTRONAUT

16-down – Politician in Scottish leader, a nut? : SALMOND

18-down – Noble gas unlimited in US city : AUGUSTA

19-down – Unfortunate jingle, perhaps? : ADVERSE

20-down – Intended result of ex­tracting first of needles from back : FIANCE

23-down – Nothing matters, might you say, in issue for old musician : OSCAR

1-across – Where to conduct fight or flight may be patio to a real 11! : COCKPIT

5-across – The Bible says have sex with naughty nun outside X? : UNKNOWN

9-across – Paternal dedication: 5 across is a gem : TOPAZ

10-across – Press readers to take wine for promotion : REPORTERS

11-across – Put down heart for clubs, first to bid with queen but no jack : LANDLUBBER

12-across – Reverse into parking? Unspeakably tight : SNUG

14-across – Infirm state takes thin end of staircase to 11 : COMPANIONWAY

18-across – Cupboard is bare when one’s eaten out of this : HOUSEANDHOME

21-across – See 28 : TODD

22-across – Assisted departure in Europe in comparison with another continent : EUTHANASIA

25-across – Trivialize pool game, having lost the first half playing the accuser : EMILEZOLA

26-across – Crush seen in the sequel, Love Actually : QUELL

27-across – Seafood and tea, possibly for shipmaster : SHRIMPS

28-across – Fleet Street hacker weeded stony ground : SWEENEY

1-down – One with fiddle let off a group of moon jumpers? : CATTLE

2-down – Kinda saw Bobby in Golf : COPING

3-down – Be perplexed by Bill quietly, not loudly, getting sweetheart to embrace sweetheart : PUZZLEOVER

4-down – Heath Robinson’s component beat : THROB

5-down – Certainly not the first or last to swim up the net, struggling : UMPTEENTH

6-down – Looking for sex, crawl after this silly berk : KERB

7-down – Fifty percent of cattle found down here in coping situation : ONEINTWO

8-down – Goes off among those against flowers : NOSEGAYS

13-down – Message without a comma, most unusual : COMMUNIQUE

15-down – Writer with two performers around left us dangling : PENDULOUS

16-down – Talk at first to each leaseholder selling property : CHATTELS

17-down – More lovable copper solving riddle : CUDDLIER

19-down – To 11 backward oriental topped … : ASTERN

20-down – … 5 across on legal reform of kitchen to 11 … : GALLEY

23-down – … leads John to 11 … : HEADS

24-down – … and leaving troubled area, wheel to 11 : HELM

9-across – Bust into alternative artist’s group that’ll 8 1s : ORCHESTRA

10-across – Toll to import rare gem : PEARL

11-across – A little molehill on knobbly round mound : KNOLL

12-across – Heartlessly tricking society through PM’s novel … : CONINGSBY

13-across – … the fellow’s party chronicles : HISTORY

14-across – Abandoned 8ers not at 1 : CASTOFF

17-across – Joe Biden, say, turned on English in vexation : PEEVE

19-across – Extremely gruesome story keeps providing solution to all 1 and no 8 : GET

20-across – A woman, undressed after symbolic resistance, gets bouquet : AROMA

21-across – Back to location of damned old 8 : OTHELLO

22-across – Spin and dodge 1 you can 8 : PRELUDE

24-across – Vagrant tramp’s son, his 1 is to 8 : SPORTSMAN

26-across – Bank, with hesitation, produces one of eight? : ROWER

28-across – See 19 : ALIFE

29-across – Digital tools capture data : NAILFILES

1-down – Labour’s dispute about tip from Kinnock : WORK

2-down – Head off agents whose 1 is to 8 : ACTORS

3-down – Way to record music, two dances including cover of tango : REELTOREEL

4-down – Awkward moment? Extremely sorry about it : STICKY

5-down – Wide cravat conceals trendy lining : WAINSCOT

6-down – Begin the games, running round : OPEN

7-down – Old lady is French, large and round, showing way to 8 a 1 : MAESTOSO

8-down – 1 that’s not 1? : PLAY

13-down – River dweller in river : HIPPO

15-down – Step on ship — it’ll make 8 1 : STAGECRAFT

16-down – Fellow inadequate as a lover : FLAME

18-down – Land with patio, ie ground around front of house : ETHIOPIA

19-down – 21 turning up in spirit, with good hygienic habits : GROOMING

22-down – Princess interrupts high kick in the buff : PUNDIT

23-down – Where Ban Ki-moon gets water needing treatment? : UNWELL

24-down – Small, standard box : SPAR

25-down – Not US close to Soviet border : THEM

27-down – Touching way you could thus link 1 and 8 : REST