CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

Across

1. Stuff describes Ulster University headcase (7) 5. Make a mess of lines at end of play, getting fuzzy (6) 9. Important game to decide who reaches final, if free (7) 10. Ronald managed to swallow one third, for example (7) 11. Leaders of all Indian districts give support (3) 12. The Queen and how she refers to herself (‘I or ‘We’) (5,6) 13. Smiley brings one GI back, bypassing motorway (5) 14. Simple prudish writer’s packing it in (9) 16. Conservative formerly inspired present consistency (9) 17. He scored a run after leg breaks (5) 19. Fierce fighting in totally bare ground (6,5) 22. Regularly cause tip on this (3) 23. Swimmer backs team in sheltered quarter (3,4) 24. Fatty Arbuckle’s debut artfully poised (7) 26. Son clutched one guard (6) 27. Acrobat’s glass (7)

Down

1. Scoundrel in suit falls (7) 2. Festooned with guns, he treated them to burst (5,2,3,5) 3. Fashionable northern watering hole (3) 4. It grinds tops of manky old leeks and radishes (5) 5. Scott’s problem: section covered by softer drifting (9) 6. Posh nude swimming is unwarranted (5) 7. Pupils look forward to this place to acquire Polish? (9,6) 8. Projecting rim makes odd angle under bottom of roof (6) 12. Man of habit, chippy worker, I hear (5) 14. Imprison fanatic kidnapping radical correspondent (3,6) 15. Unreal credentials each left (5) 16. Perhaps put sole on paving stone (6) 18. European monarch supporting evil doer’s game (3,4) 20. Learning about current, current in France (5) 21. Brewer needs it when filling still (5) 25. Unspecified doctrine’s winsome, lacking odd features (3)