Cryptic crossword

ACROSS

1. Try the right piece of needlework for practice (7) 5. Gem weight used as measure of gold purity (5) 8. Lady ran out with a whistle-cord (7)

9. Put me back in sable to stiffen the thigh (5) 10. A part that’s not PC, omen being wrong (9) 12. Impudent talk one gets in a record (3) 13. A drunkard might put the poet right (5) 17. Moisture starts dropping every weekday (3) 19. The spread of a rearming possibility (9) 21. Another name for a Lower Jurassic term (5) 22. Understood how one took hold of it (7) 24. Unfashionable way boy went out with girl (5) 25. Came on stage to be written up (7)

DOWN

1. A close arrangement may be of comfort (6)

2. I’m up to making Milan of the smallest significance (7) 3. Half a league of arable land (3)

4. Pontoon hasn’t been begun on rooftop (5) 5. Self-service counter where one can get ice after a shuffle (9) 6. Whip might have moral use (5)

7. Minute black insect dances round top of hollyhock (6) 11. Made the best of its poem, I’d ordered (9)

14. Fast ship, relic of which is very quietly included (7)

15. It is the king of the potatoes (6)

16. Last millennium finished as it was improved (6)

18. Joint writs may be served thus (5)

20. For example, our version of a knave (5)

23. Part of portrait given over to painting (3)