CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

8. Now I mash like a female (8)

9. Leader of the singing in a vacant oratory (6)

10. Fear of being in the open air: gap a hobo created (11)

11. Mother backing one friend from France (3)

13. Finished, the first time it’s done in public (5)

15. Do the country’s gifts (9)

17. About the science of man on gallop to chair maybe (15)

19. Inca tract reformed farther south (9)

21. Stop being in a place as entertainer (5)

23. The best way to kill one? (3)

24. Ghosts come out atop in Paris (11)

27. How one got two bob for nil (6)

28. Having run, as hose, when snake was led about (8)

DOWN

1. Pardoned foreign disturbance five were involved in (8)

2. It is just that it’s light-complexioned (4)

3. Is game for about a thousand mouth parts (5)

4. In time order company blasts horn – and with reason (15)

5. One getting things going takes victor at a roundabout (9)

6. Whichever starts at New Year (3)

7. A sectarian will gaze vacantly round the Leathernecks (6)

12. Having an end, is not heavy about it (6)

14. Produce a réchauffé dish for the afterburn (6)

16. Up among the swinish, a prickly creature (9)

18. He’s not there to be seen at variance with it (8)

20. Strip of pasta - old one, possibly (6)

22. Is scared, ie has the breeze up (5)

25. Changed side mid-month, as a Roman (4)

26. The mound is among the major bijouterie (3)