CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

Across

1. How I crave a mint to help relieve my flatulence! (11)

8. A top 9, maybe – take it or leave it (8)

9. One of unusual courage signed in July or August (4)

10. Leave off last of evidence in lawsuit (5)

13. Make a recording of a sort of worm (4)

16. The innermost nature of a sort of music (4)

17. Shorten sail in-shore effectively (4)

18. Expel you and me in occupational therapy (4)

20. Meat one will press, shaking hands (5)

24. A top soprano needed for Monteverdi variations (4)

25. Coming from part of Germany – via a barn, perhaps (8)

26. He got nothing from people with his furniture designs (11)

Down

2. Having painterly pretensions, attempt a mélange (4)

3. Animal will sound like a cow to the Southeast (5)

4. Gets close to possible answer when abandoned by the West (5)

5. Coastal feature that, at home, is tenanted (5)

6. It answers to the way one writes letters (11)

7. Bury the moving finger for being meddlesome (11)

11. Is stand-offish with a silly fellow who turns up (5)

12. See about a right way to wipe it out (5)

14. Save head-to-tail appearance for the birds (4)

15. Dogfish found at end of watch on American warship (4)

19. The sound of heavy footsteps on a cargo vessel (5)

21. Permission to put it in one’s will? (5)

22. Break top of skin and pound the potatoes (5)

23. A clue given to a sleuth in training (4)

year. yea, yare, yak, YACKER, yack, rye, ray, rake, racy, rack, race, key, kea, era, ear, cry, CREAKY, creak, crake, cay, care, car, cake, aye, ark, are, arc, acre, ace,