CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

Across

1. Did some gambling on the choppingboard? (5) 4. Post in street of rod and ball construction (7) 8. Some of the soldiers have a special job made up of rackets (4-5) 9. Instruction to repeat first booking is to follow (3) 10. Has to depend on it: learn how to adapt (7) 12. Lose one's footing on the journey (4) 14. A crime involving first criticism of the potter's art (7) 17. The French keep such fever at a distance (4) 18. A taste of film to come in the caravan (7) 20. What printer uses in certain knowledge (3) 21. It's a prerequisite for the state (9) 23. When the Saint one is called for comes up in the calendar (4-3) 24. Prod dugout in the Northeast (5)

Down

1. Resolution made me tired of turning to the country (13) 2. Chess man otherwise known as a bird (6) 3. Indeed an apartment may have one feeling low (8) 4. It measures the atmosphere with a rod (3) 5. Make elephant upset, swallowing vegetable (4) 6. To the French, a stream of hair colouring (6) 7. A paper dance is arranged at which one ceases to exist (13) 11. Characteristic of one in putting 19 up (5) 13. A mention in dispatches for action it carried out (8) 15. Sort of bed starts under mattress – that's claptrap (6) 16. Having kinship with fifty in ideal form (6) 19. It bites up some of the medicament (4) 22. Vote against it making the sound a horse makes (3)