Crossbar No 1496

Across

1 Old amateur footballers, or top Brazilian players (11)

6 Some patriots in the NFL involved in a branch of the peace (4)

8 At a second time one had a bottle of Italian wine (4)

11 Choose to speak out to the voters (10)

12 Did a rugby player head off his flock? (4)

13 A novel character took me back to a graduate (4)

14 The total cost of a move to another club (8,3)

18 Have to spread out to be saved (6)

20 Classic venue has fresh place to buy and sell (9)

23 Did old midfielder start off at Rothes, Ayr and Elgin? (3)

25 Left former pupil; to hit a ball up in the air (3)

27 A national team dropped a line from another (7)

28 An Arab ruler was at Everton, Millwall, Ipswich and Reading, initially (4)

29 The return of spam was in the charts (4)

30 Flow gently, right away, in a plane (6)

31 A fortress had a river crossing to reach a Rugby League club (10)

Down

1 Did Helen match up at a racecourse in England? (10)

2 Working on set coming back with records (5)

3 Heard about leading man being damaged (6)

4 Valuable tree for winner of the Grand National in 2007 (6,5)

5 Draw up orals at that time in France (5)

6 Race off with top player to go over things again (5)

7 Mckean, say, got to take on a top miler (3)

8 Top marks for old athletics body (3)

9 Stick to the team working for the club (5)

10 Singular 2 down sent off with one’s principles (6)

15 Mean to turn up with a title (4)

16 Produce trifle, at the end. It’s quite prolific (7)

17 Losers were staggered to have danced away (6)

19 A deserter started off at Rotherham, Accrington and Tottenham (3)

21 English rugby club suspended, then relegated (5)

22 Large book for 7 down, at the end (4)

24 Former Brazilian star was in training (3)

26 Offer to run into a frequent flier (4)