5-across – Lives first lost in robberies : EXISTS

6-across – Tough material with zero camouflage : OXHIDE

9-across – Complaint of stock company with receding work : COWPOX

10-across – Show model pirouetting round American transport : AIRTAXIS

11-across – Popular eating area for Asian city : XIAN

12-across – America’s opponents thrashed 5-1 also : AXISOFEVIL

13-across – Communication problem during Vietnamese New Year period : TEXTMESSAGE

18-across – Grotesque capital city is a disappointment : ANTICLIMAX

21-across – Twirling figure is succeeding : NEXT

22-across – Do beers get drunk in official containers? : REDBOXES

23-across – Fool? Wrong, half a fool : OUTFOX

24-across – Order for players playing tune, following tab : EXEUNT

25-across – A contender to be a Catholic saint : XAVIER

1-down – School subject’s stopped because it’s of little value : SIXPENCE

2-down – Party animal regularly shows lack of physical control : ATAXIA

3-down – Affectionate, posh men given obligations : UXORIOUS

4-down – Be obsessed with order, close to compulsive : FIXATE

5-down – Eye-catching and stimulating Romeo’s dumped : EXOTIC

7-down – One poking needle around gets amazing remedy : ELIXIR

8-down – He’ll stuff fish covered in salt water droplets : TAXIDERMIST

14-down – Contacting relation, dropping line about Spain : TELEXING

15-down – Old lady having issue with complex integer : GENETRIX

16-down – English queen’s clothing is appropriate : ANNEXE

17-down – East African’s wild region in south-west : EXMOOR

19-down – One doctor touching Roman tile : IMBREX

20-down – South African sailor kidnapped by Chinese people : XHOSAN

9-across – Public strip show hit for six when covering election : HOIPOLLOI

10-across – Comment for the audience from a team with strange ideas : ASIDE

11-across – Morning gone, chameleon switches position : ECHELON

12-across – See 24 : QUARTER

13-across – It’s a virtue, yet returning to cover it would be daring : MERIT

14-across – High ebbs and flows, primarily catching nothing : STONEDEAF

16-across – Satchmo’s gripe? : STOMACHDISORDER

19-across – Not on in church to finally lose face for a drink container : COFFEEMUG

21-across – Lots of coal fires : SACKS

22-across – Scientist’s note in box : CHEMIST

23-across – Compiler again broke monitor? Good reason to 25 : MEMENTO

24-across – The south-east corner is in the 5th and 6th arrondissements : LATIN

25-across – Relish the moment I’m deep in trouble chasing vehicle : CARPEDIEM

1-down – 22 across use poorly written notes : SHEETMUSIC

2-down – Other arrangement supporting strike so far : HITHERTO

3-down – Try hitting net after start of Badminton Cup : GOBLET

4-down – Tribe with the magic lantern : CLAN

5-down – Messing up passage, turned to squirming right away : MISQUOTING

6-down – German approval on the rise of united China is hot stuff : JALAPENO

7-down – Cub stars? : LITTLE

8-down – See 7 : BEAR

14-down – Diagrams showing Lewis after school holding up one train : SCHEMATICS

15-down – Fierce protests arising from company’s internal store layout : FIRESTORMS

17-down – What helps one go without head on beer? A pint, possibly : APERIENT

18-down – A nice end for troubling decades : DECENNIA

20-down – Fnooze party? : FIESTA

21-down – In clothes? Emperor? Always! : SEMPER

22-down – Young creature giving rise to endless criticism : CALF

23-down – See 23 across : MORI

1-across – Style said to be warped by traditionalists for a start, anti-bourgeois : DADAIST

5-across – Soft item with no end to flatten, not this then? : FELTHAT

9-across – Person in book group : NONET

10-across – Desolate scene where love in poems can degenerate : MOONSCAPE

11-across – Machinations of Belgian in Poirot ultimately impossible to grasp : INTANGIBLE

12-across – Knee higher — this lower? : CALF

14-across – See 25 : TWOTOGETHER

18-across – See 28 : IMPROVEMENT

21-across – Step by entrance, we hear? : GAIT

22-across – Daydreaming male catching end of member on a zip : STARGAZING

25-across – Deduce how to make a square? : PUTTWOAND

26-across – Indian garment pinned back by pandit — oh dear : DHOTI

27-across – Material in bread, sharp : NANKEEN

28-across – Part of house in need of refurbishment? It could be better : ROOMFOR

1-down – Idiotic supporting cruel feeding swindle in fast food chain : DUNKIN

2-down – See 1 : DONUTS

3-down – Enthusiastic about country’s rise and fall? : INTONATION

4-down – After a rise, police on good rates : TEMPI

5-down – Moving freely, ankle screws removed? : FOOTLOOSE

6-down – Sumptuous boozer : LUSH

7-down – A bounder stood up amid laughter — why no sex tonight? : HEADACHE

8-down – Bird circling ridge to find tropical plant : TREEFERN

13-down – A marked village showed wart, unfortunately : WESTWARDHO

15-down – Plain wet to practise excessively : OVERTRAIN

16-down – For example, tit measurement spawning novel : WINGSPAN

17-down – Bread — Croatian money? : SPLITTIN

19-down – Hint — problem with cue? : TIPOFF

20-down – One tucks into revolting gruel, less appealing : UGLIER

23-down – Qualification for Bellerophon, say? : RIDER

24-down – Precious little deeper than bottom of pit : TWEE

9-across – Country said to to drop right to Roman port : OSTIA

10-across – See 21 : THECIRCLE

11-across – Colour transposed on double weapon : DERRINGER

12-across – Artist associates cobalt with moonshine : COROT

13-across – See 23 : COMPASS

15-across – Is oxygen rejected in rocky moss’s diffusion process : OSMOSIS

17-across – In love? No, mate, hate! : VENOM

18-across – See 23 : THE

20-across – Start a likely place for filming : ONSET

22-across – Bar turning up large American rye starters, followed by Bells? : TUBULAR

25-across – Set out to be Europe’s premier unknown poet? : EXPOUND

26-across – Number 10, when backing a settler in Britain : SAXON

27-across – Fancy gaiters required in upmarket transport — official : REGISTRAR

30-across – Game vetting managed by major organisation : VINGTETUN

31-across – Buddhist school said have working gas : XENON

1-down – Lack of bottle, but not hot dogs : COLD

2-down – Maestro conducted North American guy with the goods : STOREMAN

3-down – Hackney’s parking area burden, I utter : TAXI

4-down – Leg fixed, so all ready to proceed with the show? : STAGESET

5-down – Loose-wired ring card : WEIRDO

6-down – Wally’s new trendy web domain number two : NINCOMPOOP

7-down – Fallen legend : ICARUS

8-down – See 1 : FEET

13-down – Fancy Old Man Time : COVET

14-down – Grants helm needs moving to be within reach : ARMSLENGTH

16-down – Full day education reduced : SATED

19-down – Pure and simple, back to front man is burgeoning : EMERGENT

21-down – Catch: girls enquire about making the impossible match : SQUARING

23-down – Packaging with definitive range that involves a complete turn­around : BOXING

24-down – It’s not common for equivalence to replace power with resistance : RARITY

26-down – State’s up at the end of the reserve : SAVE

28-down – Inviting severely disheartened divorcee to enter : SEXY

29-down – See 3 : RANK

1-across – Dog in jelly, perhaps? : SETTER

4-across – Cut article by some caustic youth leaders : SCYTHE

9-across – Chief of Hopi also called for a war dance : HAKA

10-across – 20 bans bones : BARBAROSSA

11-across – British novelist, more crafty? : ARCHER

12-across – 20 not entirely 20, one providing a spark? : GUNFLINT

13-across – One fighting to write libretto in small opera, not on : SWORDSMAN

15-across – Moustache’s back, go for a blade! : EPEE

16-across – Pen for writer of contemporary music : CAGE

17-across – Discarding thin part of neck, soft leg eaten : SCRAPPING

21-across – Decree found in letters of RC priest : RESCRIPT

22-across – 20 member on end of yardarm : MORGAN

24-across – Charity event rent asunder, if ending in boozer : FUNDRAISER

25-across – 20 bluff, by the sound of it : KIDD

26-across – 20 pieces of eight : SILVER

27-across – Brief toss to catch gold coin once : FLORIN

1-down – 20’s bird : SPARROW

2-down – 20 school : TEACH

3-down – Boards having severe problem, scrub floors on ships : EMBARKS

5-down – Hole opening in road, careful to go round it : CRANNY

6-down – I’m going to work, entertaining idle fancy about project leader : TOODLEPIP

7-down – Concentrate, having put German city centre on the outskirts : ESSENCE

8-down – You’re expecting a possible result from this? : PREGNANCYTEST

14-down – As was Guy Fawkes, playing dice with a girl? : REGICIDAL

16-down – Possible bouncers in patterned cloth, did you say? : CHEQUES

18-down – Officer places space station in Russian machine, upside down : ADMIRAL

19-down – It’s in northwest London : NEASDEN

20-down – Copy one in to babble : PIRATE

23-down – Someone stopping to shave head, leaves tidier? : RAKER