CRYPTIC crossword

ACROSS

1 Leaves fine crude oil to mature (7) 5 Concert starts to produce tunes on time (6) 9 Hunter’s call: ‘Correspond with Home Office’ (5-2) 10 A bad habit camouflaging a radical sin (7) 11 Leave nothing that’s sticky (3) 12 Groom roped in mate to be best man? (11) 13 Next race includes actor with nothing to say (5) 14 Measure top bit of marble missing from old gable (9) 16 Boxer entertains engineers in bulk carrier (9) 17 Cut back hair at the front, causing hilarity (5) 19 Palace manager, former PM (11) 22 Go and exercise quietly (3) 23 Worker opens short geography book in state capital (7) 24 Solve clue about touring northern Swiss city (7) 26 Tony nervously hosts business magnate (6) 27 After two 13s, start to snatch forty winks (3-4)

DOWN

1 Exhaust female with fever once, holding it back (7) 2 They’re fragrant and lovely if they all spread out (4,2,3,6) 3 The military sacked Republican woman (3) 4 Behave theatrically, aloof, heading off (5) 5 Fog in Portugal, as in Europe in different places (3-6) 6 Look! A pitiful animal’s trapped in there (5) 7 Squaddie’s uniform perhaps? It’s his exclusively (7,8) 8 Shattered steed, last in Ascot, can’t stand (6) 12 Crash — priest called (5) 14 Host’s countenance (9) 15 The genius of Claude Monet (5) 16 A group of agents in Florida give beauty treatment (6) 18 Unlucky pirate leader captured by sturdy ship (7) 20 Game requiring some rubbing out? (5) 21 Dial wayward bishop for offthecuff comment (2-3) 25 Line missing from this 5 Across (3)