1-across – Retiring jester, hot and haggard : WITHDRAWN

9-across – Returned call by American feller? : AXEMAN

10-across – Bother to boast after Surrey’s opener is a fearsome presence in the field : SCARECROW

11-across – First Hanoverian king meets First Lady in distress : GRIEVE

12-across – Such characters unsuitable for bigheads? : SMALLCAPS

13-across – Bit of scandal? It taints flipping bellicose ruler : ATTILA

17-across – French place I left for some European capital : LEU

19-across – Maybe train, going back and forward in part of badminton match? : SHUTTLE

20-across – See 19 : SERVICE

21-across – Spots knight going for a whizz : ACE

23-across – Europeans punched by awfully grim politically motivated Leaver : EMIGRE

27-across – One’s driven, say, to interrupt regressing career : ESTATECAR

28-across – Board made from elm, oddly its outer part : EMBARK

29-across – Eating date, gains soft soggy sandwiches — it’s what you get from buffets : WINDSWEPT

30-across – What gardener may want — drier clothing right? : TROWEL

31-across – Cheap floor : KNOCKDOWN

2-down – Reward for work in mine, working around toxic gas : INCOME

3-down – Novelist grasps Latin only with real effort : HARDLY

4-down – Jacket in retro Chanel style : ROCOCO

5-down – Cry over nice house ruined, where synthetic gas explosion comes from : WHOOPEE

6-down – Defector to Labour, say, pens chapter on eliminating waste : EXCRETORY

7-down – Lacking sense, I climb high across rising rocks : IMBECILIC

8-down – A French revolutionary accepting revolutionary yarn is off-topic : UNRELATED

14-down – Girl Guide’s teeth sure to wobble : USHERETTE

15-down – Gold ring probed by policeman with caution in work we hear : AUDIOBOOK

16-down – Like chow mein from the can, not new in China : STIRFRIED

17-down – Field Australian league’s sides, at first : LEA

18-down – Speculate, losing millions in employment : USE

22-down – See 5 : CUSHION

24-down – Save coppers up like Homer? : BARDIC

25-down – What Persian maybe did in Middle East still to be paid : MEOWED

26-down – Fruit twice yearly gaining weight : PAWPAW

9-across – Egghead with book keeping close to picnic hampers : ENCUMBERS

10-across – Ladies content to go with you later : ADIEU

11-across – Begin with the French getting a lift : LEADOFF

12-across – More meaningless twaddle at the end — Truss turning on bank? : EMPTIER

13-across – Green target? : HOLE

14-across – Partner who’s gone to pot? Hardly : TROPHYWIFE

16-across – Angry soldiers locking one rebel leader in tower : MIRADOR

17-across – Boris who had central role in horror show : KARLOFF

19-across – Coren badly hurt by what intruders did : ENCROACHED

22-across – School board sacking head : ETON

24-across – Withdraw being caught having transgressed again : RESCIND

25-across – Means princess with child has left : CHANNEL

26-across – Get accustomed to duke leaving last : ENURE

27-across – Banker could be upset — hears bonus finally scrapped : EUPHRATES

1-down – Barker’s timeshare rarely used : SEALYHAMTERRIER

2-down – Reviews ultimately bug poor writer : SCRAWLER

3-down – Sly character’s stealing rector’s reading desks : AMBOS

4-down – He maybe crosses 25 as passenger when heat’s stifling : SEAFARER

5-down – Not alert, a PM’s making a U-turn : ASLEEP

6-down – Playing a sexy part, they’re continually assessed : TAXPAYERS

7-down – Wearing skirt to begin with at one Adriatic resort : RIMINI

8-down – One of eight failures in Qatar? Time for a reaction : QUARTERFINALIST

15-down – Hopping mad about PM concealing one name — it’s personal : ADHOMINEM

17-down – Vital periods of rest for Spooner and Bones : KNEECAPS

18-down – Phrase regularly repeated by Frost in a Torygraph piece : OSTINATO

20-down – Be overfriendly with firms? I agree : COSYUP

21-down – Old bloke and kid meeting Spice Girl who’s not current : CODGER

23-down – Join PM breaking rules? Quite the reverse! : MARRY

1-across – See 9 : STUDIES

5-across – Dwarf runs into Sleepy, essentially outside : ECLIPSE

10-across – Bring up leader of school form : SPEW

11-across – All hands below deck on this? Cheers round bar: one sailor returning : BANANABOAT

12-across – One on bed with tablet: that hurts : PILLOW

13-across – Is old hotel on seafront rejected? It’s very like another one : ISOMORPH

14-across – Season with this football manager getting a trophy : PEPPERPOT

16-across – Smoothly pass down wing, keeping inside line : SLIDE

17-across – American to fight roughly : ABOUT

19-across – Previous issues of Eagle go: obtain mag in jumble : EMOTIONAL

23-across – Tip: any horse at the finish struggles over Grand National : EGYPTIAN

24-across – Returns home: needs to move nearer : INCOME

26-across – Find attractive model: pose and dress down : TAKETOTASK

27-across – Type character at end of script : SORT

28-across – Refraining from relaxing on cocaine : CEASING

29-across – Taking out date that’s confident : ERASURE

2-down – Cut head and face : TOPSIDE

3-down – Pin to act on short spring : DOWEL

4-down – Shelter in trees by banks of elm with one bending over : EMBOWER

6-down – Tory party member getting protection : CONDOM

7-down – Tidy up room initially left in big mess : IMBROGLIO

8-down – Did substitute put feet up on training day? : SWAPPED

9-down – Flirt without fellow? Ms Denise Van Outen dancing around subject : ENVIRONMENTAL

15-down – Fat swelling under pressure point : PLUMPNESS

18-down – See 19 : BAGGAGE

20-down – Bigger hospital getting heart bypass? : THICKER

21-down – Fan and ventilator to tackle damp, occasionally : ADMIRER

22-down – Reject plant that’s in row : DISOWN

25-down – Patients’ chests? : CASES

1-across – Figure, by the sound of it, taken already : SPOKENFOR

6-across – See 13 : SLOT

8-across – See 14 : FESTIVAL

9-across – Separate cape rounded by unpopular revolutionary : DETACH

10-across – See 16 : ORDERS

11-across – Generate slops for grunter living in pigsty? : TEENAGER

12-across – Blank charter on Gibraltar not entirely backed : IGNORE

15-across – Nick, Paul etc wasted energy : PECULATE

16-across – Those such as eyes left in the sack? : MARCHING

19-across – Reportedly, wood supporter behind very rotten tree, back part : LUMBAR

21-across – See 19 : VERTEBRA

22-across – See 14 : FRINGE

24-across – Working body in Dog and Duck caught in drunken furore : LABOUR

25-across – Streaky appearance put stain on flashy stuff : MARBLING

26-across – Do little swivel, diver partially turns : IDLE

27-across – Machine possibly combined with server that almost crashed : HARVESTER

1-down – Pilot, one looking round back of cockpit : STEER

2-down – Month, eg October, not entirely busy : ONTHEGO

3-down – Icon in document allowing entry to Spain, briefly? : ELVIS

4-down – Writer experienced upset : FELTTIP

5-down – Sovereign taken from lender, price after adjustment correct : REDPENCIL

6-down – Trouble after groups go to sea : SETSAIL

7-down – Players beginning in harmony in interpretation of score: music, say, arising? : ORCHESTRA

13-down – Serious rubbish sadly, or time when few watch? : GRAVEYARD

14-down – Comically delivers a bunfight and something edgy — does this? : EDINBURGH

17-down – Something attractive: verse for just three of six wives? : CATHODE

18-down – Relation, though not well-spoken, accepted linguistic rules : GRAMMAR

20-down – Jersey’s post collection : MAILLOT

22-down – See 24 : FORCE

23-down – Person imprisoned by king, hopeless case : GONER

8-across – Write down almost everything? Never : NOTATALL

9-across – Money bringing sorrow, we’re told : DOLLAR

10-across – European peninsula having its air polluted : ISTRIA

11-across – Fly low round southern desert : MOSQUITO

12-across – Peruvian once driving right away : INCA

13-across – Now listening to Radio 4, say, with it : SWITCHEDON

15-across – Laughed at getting put away : SCOFFED

16-across – Spoke of politician with kind of wooden raft : KONTIKI

18-across – Depressed, fusses about a place for servants : DOWNSTAIRS

19-across – Reckless prang — not chauffeur’s first : RASH

20-across – Degree status of composer with new role : BACHELOR

22-across – Copies of the City shoe design : ECHOES

23-across – Five have a good look round fast : STARVE

24-across – Any rest unsettled Maugham, perhaps : SOMERSET

1-down – Dr Rory, a Scotsman, doctored in old county : ROSSANDCROMARTY

2-down – Cornish fare near ruin in old county : CAERNARFONSHIRE

3-down – Badgering girl brought up with small notebooks : HARASSMENT

4-down – Spinster’s game : OLDMAID

5-down – Wild beast’s regular date in March, say : IDES

6-down – Limits of council house register affected county : GLOUCESTERSHIRE

7-down – Roles from Ken Loach film first televised in fact in old division of Lincolnshire : PARTSOFKESTEVEN

14-down – X-rays girders : CROSSBEAMS

17-down – Sink or swim at first adrift in old borough south of Perth : KINROSS

21-down – Flee kitchen with food inside : LEEK