CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1. A lot of Roman soldiers put half the horses in bed (6) 4. Give direction to mature class of passage by liner (8) 9. Admiring phrase for nothing off (2,4) 10. Public records are endlessly written on onion-like herbs (8) 12. Season hasn’t begun with free distribution so put one’s oar in (9) 13. Lesser one, no, in masculine address? (5) 14. They remark as to right being wrong: they say what’s going on (12) 18. At length they’re put up to dry things out (7-5) 21. Priest, fifty ahead, is of the camel family (5) 22. St Elmo’s fire seen in Etna, so proceeding backwards (9) 24. Rigid and unassailable, the actors playing to press (4-4) 25. The smallest amounts, two crotchets at start of aria (6) 26. Hydrophida the main comedown on board? (3-5) 27. Game, set and match? (6)

DOWN 1. Swindle little Vincent and satisfy him it’s so (8) 2. Twelve hours out of the twenty-four when ends are changed? (4-4) 3. Part of stair concerning schoolmaster going up (5) 5. Entente: carry out for 300 years’ celebration (12) 6. Lasting but a brief time here with ample potential (9) 7. The arrival of diplomatic leader in an air-hole (6) 8. Make certain measure of print safe (6) 11. To finish within time allowed, cheat bet anyhow and turn key (4,3,5) 15. What issues from some source sets me up with a country (9) 16. The overrunning by van is on, perhaps, after one (8) 17. Dog ends in these (3-5) 19. Locates a loss from Blenheim and Buckingham (6) 20. A fool in US Intelligence shows where senna comes from (6) 23. There’s nothing on the grape plant that concerns sheep (5)