CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

7 Talk at length about what vehicle may use as fuel (3,2)

8 Clear ship in preparation for going round globe (9)

10 Roman orator was top brass and king of old (6)

11 Pretend it’s a key dance skill (3,1,4)

12 Vent for hot air etc deployed for a mule (8)

13 Established couple reflected in same title (4)

15 Bag real elements of mathematical branch (7)

17 Reluctant to take Scotsman to central lowland region (7)

20 You and I have extreme bias against spikers’ lairs (4)

22 Wound up again when shrunk (8)

25 Places to stop fish going on boats (3,5)

26 Album spoilt with initially rigid part of spine (6)

27 Made nervous when tennis games could go one way or the other (3,2,4)

28 Is systematic practice a bore? (5)

DOWN

1 Call promise to pay underhand in a shady way (9)

2 Media reports show first child is too old (8)

3 Showed mercy to captured eel at first when harpooned (7)

4 Fundamental particle may dangerously run into orbit of energy (8)

5 Bohemian has joint with tart (6)

6 Highland town sees healthy atmosphere in numbers (5)

9 One alone may sink to such depths, they say (4)

14 Almost slowing down in recent times, moving sideways (9)

16 Prayers audibly ascended over star sign as ... (8)

18 ... prayer for bad weather scuppered right to wed (4,4)

19 Foreshadow era of print media, we hear (7)

21 Buyer substituted pro tem (6)

23 I leave Muslim leader with sacrificial animal, perhaps (4)

24 Bet on dog’s tail, for example, without original gallantry (5)