CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

No 16,426

ACROSS

1 Decayed U.S. sequoia is lacking liquid (7) 5 Colourful flyer about trim old vehicle (6) 9 About to come into money in the neighbourhood (7) 10 Bill’s wearing very old diamonds (7) 11 General manager imports European stone (3) 12 Edit parable and add on shorter sentence perhaps (4,7) 13 Louvre unfortunately loses rare part of plant (5) 14 Trots when changing direction (9) 16 Spider mite oddly wastes time forming part of skin (9) 17 Cyril translated words of song (5) 19 Make uniform and flag that is draping ship’s prow (11) 22 Run over tack (3) 23 Old clothing torn around end (7) 24 English forest cancelling last order for fencing (2,5) 26 Dealer’s one who travels by bike, so I hear (6) 27 Drunk deeply, ie left abandoned under the table (3-4)

DOWN

1 Run out after everyone, say, at a fast pace (7) 2 Agitated vain mum cut no ice, not saying much (15) 3 On odd occasions, Orwell is a rodent catcher (3) 4 Technique that carries a stigma (5) 5 Cooler offers inspire Republican cons (9) 6 Liberal writer’s radical organ (5) 7 Perhaps rifle part of capital? (7,8) 8 Place limits swimmer turning up source of oil (6) 12 Composition that is filling quiet church (5) 14 Miners muse on right part of fraction (9) 15 Very healthy stocks split in two (5) 16 Guarantee Poles are housed in French department (6) 18 Struggle against nurse (7) 20 Stay and prosper when nothing’s left (5) 21 Freeze one container with last of wine in it (3,2) 25 I’m surprised, say, about theatre’s closure (3)