CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

No 16,521

ACROSS

1 Mafioso robs Met violently (7) 5 Plugs obscure books (6) 9 Poles wear no vest all the time (7) 10 Analyses crowds pursuing peacekeepers (7) 11 Old fellows on holiday (3) 12 Aircraft’s wheels are dangling awkwardly (7,4) 13 Catherine’s clothes getting extremely tawdry (5) 14 Middle-class old individual in scruffy brogues (9) 16 Author Daniel briefly lays strips of trees (9) 17 Support for painter when cutting fish (5) 19 Call into a ground to go over copper’s assessment (11) 22 Bird’s tremulous to some degree (3) 23 Hide somewhere in North Africa (7) 24 Various sundries not completely covered (7) 26 Setter’s work leads to iritis, awful eye problem (6) 27 Ridicule artificial European track (7)

DOWN

1 Writer with soldiers avoiding Norfolk blokes (7) 2 Unusually gentle officer enters by sanction of church (7,2,6) 3 Gallery’s cut tasteless stuff (3) 4 Mature radical exercises in trousers (5) 5 Small shops, one garlanded in fancy bouquets (9) 6 Take clothes off line? It could be upsetting with tits everywhere (5) 7 Engineer researched globe, getting university award (9,6) 8 Egyptian god’s very large flower (6) 12 Liberal philosopher’s bed (5) 14 Order about drivers holding a November dance (5,4) 15 Obtain scrag end without much fat (5) 16 Suddenly leave 6 tents? (6) 18 Foreign articles desiccate dirty clothes (7) 20 Remove top headgear that’s blue? (5) 21 Dialect is described in old manuscript originally (5) 25 Nearly get rid of pouch (3)