CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

Across

1. In the main panic, I'll pry into it (11) 8. This sort lack a form of halite (4-4) 9. What tennis player starts with is passion (4)

10. Funny man not always clever to admit it (5)

13. Schoolboy's warning looks hollow (4) 16. Neat way to get one's balance (4) 17. It's a duke's handwriting (4) 18. Irritating person to see in dinner dress (4)

20. The right supporter for a motoring event (5) 24. Like a salamander found on leaving Sir Isaac (4) 25. At sea, girl can come to nothing but the harem (8) 26. It gives the effect of distance to obsolete optics (11)

Down

2. Rush for the groove that holds the ballbearings (4) 3. Of the nose that turns up in Pamela's ancestry (5)

4. Working as a solicitor related by marriage (2-3)

5. Pale mauve is all one can make with carbon (5)

6. Finger thing that may be causing alarm (11)

7. Enjoyment of cattle in ode written about it (11)

11. A bid made for possible contents of iron (5)

12. Name of a grandparent concerned with the fleet (5)

14. Dry raid carried out (4)

15. A buttress that may be put out to sea (4)

19. Put one off making bucks around the end of August (5)

21. Up to it, hugging English tree (5) 22. Was inclined to allow an insert to be made (5)

23. Eastern European has almost given up the French waltz (4)