The Brain Teaser

ACROSS

1. Grandma when she was young and trying out her wings? (7)

5. Followed and nailed, right inside (7)

9. Go off holding a big perch (5)

10. Proved to have been expelled (6,3)

11. Slim and about fifty, you see (6)

12. Spoil "The Saint" by giving it a new look with space-men (8)

14. Why one wants so much to get the key to the plant (5)

15. Decolonised, which was upsetting (9) 18. Call out "Help!" on being put into the stand (9)

20. Speed is put on: nothing to speak of (5) 22. Generous applause is given to certain ones (8)

24. Sneers at the volunteers with a "Crazy nuts" (6)

26. He has the paper and will keep one posted, it seems (9)

27. Passage from a place such as Capri (5) 28. How the decision not to diet was defended? (7)

29. He's old, bald and wildly eccentric (7)

DOWN

1. Prudence got Rose involved in the conflict (9)

2. In Act One, forced one to have poison (7) 3. As the quarrel about the quilt was? (7,2) 4. Rubbish on a table (4)

5. "What's for dessert? Pie, what else!" (4,6) 6. Tear out the number inserted, to prevent it (5)

7. One of those bigheads who are no strangers to anyone! (4-3)

8. Instead, changed the times (5)

13. What £2.40 plus £1.60 amounts to? (3,2,5) 16. Joined in the effort to cut down unemployment? (4,1,4)

17. Be smart and have no trouble in passing the first-aid test? (5,4)

19. Go along, worrying over the past (4-3) 21. Means I, perhaps, have a mental block (7) 22. Waters and weeds, to let the sun through (5)

23. Points to the one on foot: a writer (5) 25. So again up and leave (4)