7-across – Maybe first or second row gets spoken about : ORDINAL

8-across – Upwardly mobile person must be more or less flexible : CLIMBER

10-across – See 22 : SENSES

11-across – Spinner and muscleman are ill-balanced : TOPHEAVY

12-across – See 22 : YOUR

13-across – 22 23 6 12 10? A penny for them : WHATAREYOU

14-across – Gardener’s aid to blackbird in fictional village : CLOCHEMERLE

19-across – See 13 : THINKINGOF

22-across – Every fool has easy avenue to nukes: organiser’s sanity is in question : HAVE

23-across – : YOUTAKEN

24-across – Refugee from alien regime : EMIGRE

25-across – Demeanour of singer captivating audience : BEARING

26-across – Nick’s not to play without a handicap : SCRATCH

1-down – Right to come in to eat, before time’s up, where there are no bars? : FREEDOM

2-down – Musician, a holy one, in devious Merlin’s grasp : MINSTREL

3-down – Martial epigram, perhaps, is capital : WARSAW

4-down – Wise man keeps speaker quiet, seeing the extent of failure : SLIPPAGE

5-down – Some current version of Dad after upsetting Mum : AMPERE

6-down – See 22 : LEAVEOF

9-down – Chaps who have cuppas take to booze in the home counties for a source of power : STEAMENGINE

15-down – Smart boys? Let them stand up before they are counted : CHICKENS

16-down – I had twice left off being refined : LAHDIDAH

17-down – Bird with a cough that faces work with uncertainty : WHOOPER

18-down – Covetousness is a bad thing without much art : AVARICE

20-down – Rugby score disallowed by intervention of a lawman : NOTARY

21-down – Deprive of money and escape from church : FLEECE

1-across – Wealthy woman, not healthy one, broadcasting during disorder : MILLIONAIRESS

10-across – Tell : RECOUNT

11-across – France’s good day down under unfinished by a stroke of luck : BONANZA

12-across – Scottish flower is out : FORTH

13-across – Random test to identify squared pattern : SPOTCHECK

14-across – Dostoievsky’s tale told the life of Macbeth : IDIOT

16-across – Wreck of the 15-a-side game by a type of Toryism : RUINATION

18-across – The West, going to flounder miserably, applied to Copenhagen : WONDERFUL

19-across – 15 man producing some-thing of an ego-trip : ROGET

20-across – Exposed again holding diamonds and hearts, so coloured on top : REDHAIRED

23-across – Architectural style from Greenland or Iceland : DORIC

24-across – French and British princess, the former foolish : ETOURDI

25-across – Looks at the Eternal City as Spooner did in the undergrowth? : RHIZOME

26-across – Royal chalice – his grammar needs correcting – of some age : MARSHMARIGOLD

2-down – Encroachment of over ten dogs into pub : INCURSION

3-down – Best end of crow? : LAUGH

4-down – Titus went off to sea : OATES

5-down – Do I learn about relations being divine? : AMBROSIAL

6-down – Film director’s children, one going off with chocolate cake : RENECLAIR

7-down – Introduce a note and nearly set fire to it? : SINGE

8-down – Deal with merry-andrew, who can give you … : TRAFFICWARDEN

9-down – … a parcel containing a royal sovereign – take it up : PARKINGTICKET

15-down – It housed the treasure of the Lizard : THESAURUS

16-down – Not a revolutionary creed, that is, of Mr and Mrs Turner : REFORMISM

17-down – US politician, admiral and watchmaker faking liner’s log : INGERSOLL

21-down – I leave 14 with a Greek vase : DIOTA

22-down – Artist that lasts? : DURER

23-down – Do it yourself, badly – no good for ending : DYING

1-across – Home counties, whatever their speed, have the marine spirit : SEANYMPH

5-across – See 18 : DEFEAT

9-across – Interval to find bear lost in wood : TEABREAK

10-across – 11 is here and here again with king replaced by aces in different places : BRECON

12-across – 11 shows king amid returning security : LAKES

13-across – Girl back later, possibly, crossing the circle : DIAMETRAL

14-across – Footwear from American football? : PIGSKINSHOES

18-across – Awfully kind offer to go in where Bobby may be almost finished? : ONTHEBRINKOF

21-across – Songs about detectives on return from soviet-style government : SYNODICAL

23-across – Confederacy on fire? : DIXIE

24-across – Spotted snake’s head in prude’s mouth? : MEASLY

25-across – It is not by way of encroachment following mother : MAINROAD

26-across – Would-be stripper causes hell among teachers : NUDIST

27-across – X-ray to remove top from around Indian city : SKIAGRAM

1-down – Agree to stop moving : SETTLE

2-down – You could say a nose-rag was a necessity for the Greeks : ANANKE

3-down – 11 gold sovereigns leased, with exterior locks : YORKSHIRE

4-down – 11 requiring obedience after vegetable upset kid : PEAKDISTRICT

6-down – Home for bird or fairy, say? : EYRIE

7-down – French food in the East containing a load : ESCARGOT

8-down – According to Lent’s use, rendered without melody : TUNELESS

11-down – Race to put your car here! : NATIONALPARK

15-down – 11 turned down when held by Mrs Gandhi : SNOWDONIA

16-down – Rider*s cape has the same turned in : HORSEMAN

17-down – The flag is nothing special : STANDARD

19-down – 11 used to play Othello? : EXMOOR

20-down – Models remodelled once in a blue moon? : SELDOM

22-down – See 3 : DALES

8-across – Sort out items : TITMOUSE

9-across – Epee with edges trimmed : PEEWIT

10-across – Head of large vessel : LARK

11-across – Wheatears fluttering : SHEARWATER

12-across – Cornish river trick : FALCON

14-across – Sailor in support : STARLING

15-across – Hollow pipe with a tap : PEACOCK

17-across – TV doctor with knotted rope : WHOOPER

20-across – Holster designed after Ford’s model : THROSTLE

22-across – Sloppy kissin’ : SISKIN

23-across – Streetwalker in a hurry? : ROADRUNNER

24-across – Queen in fresh setback … : WREN

25-across – … Princess in sports car … : GANNET

26-across – … caught in exhaust : SHELDUCK

1-down – A house at Bray : VICARAGE

2-down – A tailless donkey in a frenzy : AMOK

3-down – Explorer using hounds : HUDSON

4-down – Turn round behind the Queen’s Head : REVERSE

5-down – Means applied to fish : APPROACH

6-down – Cuts of meat served with honour and pride : MEDALLIONS

7-down – Homer’s gone astray after one of his letters : PIGEON

13-down – Playing around in cod Gluck composition : CUCKOLDING

16-down – Costumes fit for a Lloyd Webber musical? : CATSUITS

18-down – The height of distinction : EMINENCE

19-down – Cardinal property : REDNESS

21-down – Inhaler in a Turkish bath? : HOOKAH

22-down – It’s easy for the rich : STREET

24-down – Extra broad : WIDE

4-across – Hobbyists who sit ‘n’ pray and use forms : SUNDAY

6-across – See 4 : PAINTERS

9-across – How would bumptious Johnny come to be left at sea, say? : LATELY

10-across – Journey’s End restaged for 25’s traveller? : DEATHOFA

11-across – Sat in a bar with a book; or perhaps Sunday’s Observer : SABBATARIAN

15-across – What Democritus propounded, Plato mismanaged somewhat : ATOMISM

17-across – Observe sphere of confrontation? : EYEBALL

18-across – Hitting snag, dishing dirt, coming to a bad end – feeling worried? : ANGSTRIDDEN

22-across – Condition induced mainly by pressure of work? : THEBENDS

23-across – Something of Bloody Mary’s mother, seen in toto : TOMATO

24-across – Entire and high in Jerusalem : STALLION

25-across – Setter’s sick at heart with King Arthur : MILLER

1-down – Father Fitzgerald getting panned in Pamplona? : PAELLA

2-down – Harmful? Left iceman melting : MALEFICENT

3-down – New saint might be supported by the Church, say : INSTANCE

4-down – See 10 Across : SALESMAN

5-down – Journalist’s aid to be slumped in a corner : NOTEBOOK

7-down – London landmark found with ruler and map : EROS

8-down – Tickle with this make-up? : SLAP

12-down – A jolly old fellow from the final showdown : ARMAGEDDON

13-down – Subsidence sighted from the crow’s-nest? : LANDFALL

14-down – Sound making some Scots turn primitive : CLANGOUR

16-down – She was a devil to heretics, but an angel to Columbus : ISABELLA

19-down – Dry and smooth, I see : IRONIC

20-down – Sorry, can’t lunch! Miss her lift, did she? : OTIS

21-down – The pen of Zeus? : LEDA