CRYPTIC CROSSWORD: NO. 28,698

Across

1 Syndicate’s caution about time taken by learner (6)

5 Wave from puny adult – hates all getting undressed! (8) 9 Repeated, looking embarrassed about force (8) 10 A second worker crosses line at an angle (6)

11 Muffler acquired by nieces playing around lake and river (8) 12 Refuse to acknowledge one’s surrounded by drink (6) 13 Making contact – how sweet! (8)

15 Thinks, having dismissed first of many applications (4) 17 Overseas earnings holding facility (4)

19 Labour’s chasing after tax, tries to improve contacts (8) 20 Attempt to cover rear with it? (6)

21 Drivers crossing Cape planned to go west for scholarly life (8) 22 He’s trapped in crush lacking protection for primate (6) 23 Prayer left mother in dangerous environment (4,4) 24 Small dish needed for spread (8)

25 Head professor retiring, led out (6)

Down

2 Workshops re-let, as I planned (8)

3 Floods coming from fissures beneath hill (8)

4 Despicable bloke trapping stray cats is a hopeless case (4,5)

5 Sick of alternative theatre when rude (5,3,7)

6 Improvement in golf technique? (7)

7 A prisoner going in with a snake (8)

8 Snarl, seeing approach after gent loses head (8)

14 Story of arrival in state (9) 15 Nouveau-riche people at university – with introductions (8)

16 Part of banquet here – almost heavenly (8)

17 Prestigious encounters in river on the rise (8)

18 Local landowner’s gripping runs with large animal (8)

19 Show agreement, but changed to underpin love? Indisputably (2,5)