1-across – Starting point is no walkover for the bride : THRESHOLD

6-across – Watch open-mouthed as centre forward moves into space : GAWP

8-across – Business force established around the last millennium : COMMERCE

9-across – Slim elves play around a square : SVELTE

10-across – Depart agitatedly; it may explode! : PETARD

11-across – Erudite professors or their proteges, perhaps : SCHOLARS

12-across – Jack, given wrong date, lowered : ABATED

15-across – Torn between father and a love initially of mother? : PARENTAL

16-across – Elegant fashion on a bride : DEBONAIR

19-across – Expire, though previously fit as a fiddle : EXHALE

21-across – Parts that can’t be matched : ODDMENTS

22-across – Cyril’s playing with words in numbers : LYRICS

24-across – They may be spun to make briefs : FIBRES

25-across – Heather Lake’s underwear : LINGERIE

26-across – Experienced hat maker : FELT

27-across – One thing one doesn’t expect to be : SURPRISED

1-down – He’s to be changed, not these : THOSE

2-down – Up in arms : RAMPANT

3-down – She would pack a right in a scrap : SHRED

4-down – Reveals that one is being less reserved : OPENSUP

5-down – Perform for free? : DISCHARGE

6-down – Aviation spirit? : GREMLIN

7-down – Sudden drop of current — flaw later rectified : WATERFALL

13-down – About to enter poor occupation? May end up on this : BREADLINE

14-down – Ill-judgment : DIAGNOSIS

17-down – How promotion should be given to miner, after recovery : ONMERIT

18-down – Specialist in stock­taking? : RUSTLER

20-down – Fit to work like a horse : HARNESS

22-down – Ship in river south of the equator : LINER

23-down – Censured about money issue : CHILD

9-across – Tree providing cover in the middle of a kingdom : ARECAPALM

10-across – Girl getting diamonds cut in time : ERICA

11-across – Didn’t rush boy about to tell a story before dinner starts : DALLIED

12-across – I reflected about girl being too old : OVERAGE

13-across – See 4 : LINES

14-across – Most fastidious sort of diet — it’s not allowing for starters : DAINTIEST

16-across – Fiancee limit: one-off, never to be repeated? : ONCEINALIFETIME

19-across – Where one is kept in for ENT observation : DETENTION

21-across – Resin from joint buddy? : COPAL

22-across – Romanian readies animal to go around unknown city : LEIPZIG

23-across – Order some bananas with drink : HANDSUP

24-across – Cat returns with secret source of sweetener : SUGAR

25-across – One caring about lack of awareness : IGNORANCE

1-down – Tree destroyed a lawn? So odd : SANDALWOOD

2-down – Greek girl in elegant style, topless : HELLENIC

3-down – Disease that is found in some Scotsmen? : RABIES

4-down – Drug-free hell? Bad luck! : HARD

5-down – Puck’s set in place a punishing task : IMPOSITION

6-down – Drug writer put in mostly lower case : NEPENTHE

7-down – Vocal onslaught from Siamese? : TIRADE

8-down – See 24 : CANE

14-down – Row about inexperienced doctor in item destined for noticeboard? : DRAWINGPIN

15-down – See 23 : THESLIPPER

17-down – Air conditioning devices reordered — essentially wrong size, one’s admitted : IONIZERS

18-down – Making 5 grand : IMPOSING

20-down – Time to complain, say it’s a pain : TWINGE

21-down – See 19 : CENTRE

22-down – Stroke of luck — after seeing horseshoe, openings appear : LASH

23-down – Help! Instep hurt playing game : HUNT

1-across – Polish piece of advice for fly-by-night : BUFFTIP

5-across – Second 4, including a number of ranges : SPECTRA

9-across – Things are getting complicated with switched on Willy, the cottager and countryman, among the numbers : THEPLOTTHICKENS

10-across – Biblical region of gold in work by Damien : OPHIR

11-across – Out of the way manoeuvre, first against love — I get moving : AVOIDANCE

12-across – Dry US campaigner, one singing love songs : SERENADER

14-across – 4 got up — try 15 across, possibly — with lucerne : AROSE

15-across – Tick off for being concealed in church : CHIDE

16-across – Wrongdoing reported by Greek islander reconciling beliefs : SYNCRETIC

18-across – Fruit that’s scented with kummel’s possibly possible : MUSKMELON

21-across – Prospects for The Merry Wives? : VIEWS

22-across – See 14 : HALFASOLDASTIME

23-across – See 14 : REDCITY

24-across – Here’s Moonshine: where has ____? : SHEBEEN

1-down – Fasteners for page : BUTTONS

2-down – Suffer shirt being twisted by a boy as item on menu : FRESHFRUITSALAD

3-down – Range of variation in liberal principle? : TOLERANCE

4-down – Dog god’s place … : PETRA

5-down – Fish get moving — pity they can’t walk there : SCHOOLRUN

6-down – Hero for railway police? : ELCID

7-down – The last foot — with a fish to play? : THEENDOFTHELINE

8-down – An American tree, sadly lacking in decorative features : AUSTERE

13-down – Unplanned duels ruined Conservative : DESULTORY

14-down – Parvenu sees topless playwright about bottomless prospect : ARRIVISTE

15-down – Vehicle with no speed at all in it to go into mothballs : CAMPHOR

17-down – They say sea is seabird’s water supply : CISTERN

19-down – Setter’s goal when up in America : MIAMI

20-down – They have nothing on the menu, dessert included : NUDES

1-across – Back Nesbitt with one pound over beers here : PUBLICBAR

6-across – How to work with the foreign author of a 23 : MOLE

8-across – Fruit beds oust loss leader in springtime : APRICOTS

9-across – Capital is Bonaparte’s core Iberian destination in Fielding’s 23 : LISBON

10-across – Fixed savings account originally lacking insulting double-digit rises? : VSIGNS

11-across – As a favour, twice aim non-stop to turn over vote : EXGRATIA

12-across – Note shabby clothing for subject of a 23 : POOTER

15-across – Made quick call, ordering Kindle loaded with no-frills book : LOOKEDIN

16-across – Men in civil partnerships in 4’s destination? : HEBRIDES

19-across – Opposition wise, say, to implicate gravity after Soyuz regularly lost bits : SYZYGY

21-across – Writer is in Paris holding talks about Italy : ESSAYIST

22-across – 12 like inferior wine? : NOBODY

24-across – Draper perhaps, subject of a 23 : MADMAN

25-across – Take some credit for ward? : OVERDRAW

26-across – Interminably long time covered by Defoe’s 23 : YEAR

27-across – Correspondent’s last word after bank closes : SINCERELY

1-down – Various happy events haven’t escaped author of a 23 : PEPYS

2-down – Fielding’s heroine’s doctor tried to pen good book first : BRIDGET

3-down – Hagiolaters adore these pieces I set on top : ICONS

4-down – Author of a 23’s small intestine cramps : BOSWELL

5-down – I walk round institute beset by ground rules? : RELIGIOUS

6-down – Subject of a 23 in dubious arms deal one cut : MRSDALE

7-down – I confess supporting new painting upset treatment of star : LIONISING

13-down – Blow up at least 12 deliveries to gallery : OVERSTATE

14-down – Huge stars in Man Utd, as fans describe them? : REDGIANTS

17-down – Scale of river water in Seine lifted spirit : REAUMUR

18-down – Strike isn’t designed to comfort Jones’s Wall Street colleague : SITDOWN

20-down – On TV he breezed about absorbing energy for rear end : ZEBEDEE

22-down – Relative makes odd noises these days : NIECE

23-down – Daily Record’s inflammatory? Not half : DIARY

1-across – God is filling a noted hole — thinking to the contrary? : ATHEISM

5-across – A date of despair for Poland, cold — and clean : ASEPTIC

10-across – One part of a shoe : SOLE

11-across – Spreading of flu ensures sorry feeling : RUEFULNESS

12-across – European city’s action, which may be 13 : WARSAW

13-across – O such a letter? : CIRCULAR

14-across – Bear round object that may be 13 : BREATHING

16-across – Penny spent training here, not the full shilling : POTTY

17-across – Form of fish, a perch : SHAPE

19-across – Not as much to say, as one 6? : LEICESTER

23-across – Certain disgraceful riots captured on film? : CASTIRON

24-across – See 27 : PARROT

26-across – Bouncer’s son fettered by bit of a writer wearing a tie : TENNISBALL

27-across – Sketch of 28, say? : DEAD

28-across – 17 unknown, cut back, almost disappeared : POLYGON

29-across – Young player getting old, clutching right thigh at kick-off? : STARLET

2-down – Possible hand or paw, it could be? : TWOPAIR

3-down – Top card game, toss of a coin? : EVENS

4-down – Loosely scatter half of this oath : STREWTH

6-down – 17 behind the times? : SQUARE

7-down – Swinging crawler, not entirely supportive of Paul, regularly pinching bottom : PENDULOUS

8-down – Second engineer isn’t against taking foot off : INSTANT

9-down – Catholic among 19 converts in total forgetting biblical text relating to 1712 : TERCENTENNIAL

15-down – Desire topless lust after squeezing softly favourite uncle’s rear : APPETENCY

18-down – Man on board’s call for dismissal : HEAVEHO

20-down – Baldie holding nerve somersaulting, as assistant in the air : COPILOT

21-down – Summon from the grave the oldest woman to possess old Tom : EVOCATE

22-down – Island off Cornwall runs into what’s destroying the high street? : TRESCO

25-down – Tracker from the north or south? : RADAR