CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 During action, villain falls (7) 5 A series of notes proclaimed deal (6) 9 Drag swimmer back on the sheltered side (7) 10 A European nobleman absorbing Conservative’s story (7) 11 With which wife regularly cooks? (3) 12 No wonder DDT spread and was exploited (11) 13 Completely overhaul frigate damaged leaving Georgia (5) 14 Made known tavern left one abandoned (9) 16 Force very tough guys into English church (9) 17 Bath University invested in NASA complex (5) 19 Fancy coddling her sponsored kids? (11) 22 Cut out cube (3) 23 Artist on the fiddle not finishing Italian course (7) 24 US billionaire with gunmen initially trap big rodent (7) 26 Plastic factory employs one (6) 27 Pick outspoken lawyer (Yankee) in time for pancakes? (7)

DOWN

1 Coach drinks mature whiskey leading to tense period (4,3) 2 Look who’s just come in to talk about Dickens (5,2,3,5) 3 Military commander’s range (3) 4 Three points about party finance (5) 5 Flexible stuff one picked up on board (9) 6 A bean counter briefly stops company bean plant (5) 7 Having poor posture does undo hurdler badly (5-10) 8 Made good a unit blocking Irish MP (6) 12 Mare controls stud essentially — it’s a fact (5) 14 Criticise record broken by the Spanish TV pundit? (9) 15 Playwright elected to tackle cattle problem (5) 16 Unexpected change in Virginia– Georgia line (6) 18 A department extremely lucky with skill (7) 20 Bother amateur carrying decarbonised liquor (3-2) 21 Row about accepting male authority (5) 25 Watch match (3)