CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

▶ Across

7. Is answering to one when writing letters (13)

8. Aircraft’s wheels are dangling crookedly (7,4)

12. Flood in which one dug eel out (6) 14. Sully one but make Sergeant-Major rich (6)

16. Hug little son weighed down by worries (6)

18. Gather and store and somehow arrange it after a loss (6)

19. Exempted from being fined, I mined it anyhow (11)

23. Programme of compulsory redundancies should make it firm (13)

▶ Down

1. The model child may grow into an overdressed woman (4)

2. Quantity of herrings put right inside the tin (4)

3. Strive for high things – or one high thing (6) 4. Works in the smithy – on counterfeits? (6)

5. It cuts – and tots up, we are told (4) 6. Rang up to snarl at one (4)

9. Wing flap in a role it is adapted to (7) 10. Make plans to adapt if for a different instrument (7)

11. Fish tea for a Cockney (4)

12. Take it off one's pay to join spacecraft in orbit (4)

13. The main supply of idle conversation (3) 15. Some old bird gave Mother nothing to hold (3)

17. To try a little sulphur is more than enough (6)

18. Uses mill to provide the Navy with digs (6)

19. Something uncritically admired by one who is against it (4)

20. Of course, this may serve as an aerial (4) 21. Not to give one a letter from Greece (4) 22. Fate shows the state of one's emotions up (4)