CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Submarine command has superior one’s vestment (2,9)

9 Comes home easily _ or returns accompanied by military police (5)

10 Measure of heat with friendliness leads to disaster (8)

12 Giving weapon to a child _ you either love it or hate it (7)

13 Boat is not so wet with gutted float on board (7)

14 Claw-back from beano later (5)

15 When true scale is released it becomes an open sore (9)

18 Saint’s creator is following formal principles (9)

20 Balance found in having wife at nearly 80 (5)

21 Gives a heads-up about opinions (7) 24 Act comical with sleeping bag etc (7)

25 Chinese villain is a fun chum to knock about with (2,6)

26 Half of envoys desert package to run away, romantically (5)

27 Intended pen to be put radically to paper (11)

DOWN

2 Strong feeling may overtake one performing (7)

3 Treasury worker who lost job as inspector, we hear (9)

4 Behaved like 13 after I had been in front (5)

5 It’s more homely for mice in maze (7)

6 Small, foreign? Give it a stroke (5)

7 Take whisky from one trolley in theatre (8,3)

8 Blue marl mixture used for weatherproofing (8) 11 Sleep in charge of boat as employment trainee gets protective gear (5,6)

16 Affair certain to prove hard-backed (9)

17 French flag is mere drip, they say (8)

19 Bible translator, as a boy, sank in Northumberland river (7)

20 Eg down I collect from duck (7)

22 Grieve for a moment over funeral vessel (5)

23 French sugar used as currency in Ecuador (5)