Wednesday 20 May

Across

1 Cheers one who’d expect to be paid to be an MP? (6) 5 Light material suffering more snags if not new (8) 9 Safe getting hot as Venus in the Louvre (8) 10 Official Aussie pick-up counter (6) 11 Putting two lots of uranium into affected corpuscles is dim! (12) 13 Marine fish in abandoned clay (4) 14 Oval’s pitch initially breaking up till ice melted (8) 17 Opera section with city situation (8) 18 Frame in which beauty pageant winner appears? (4) 20 A fibre carpet used to make flatpack kit, say (12) 23 Wow, performing with a cigar! (6) 24 Very into fancy lingerie but right off sweet-talk (8) 25 Expert: ‘Nessie is mostly brass’ (8) 26 Cat circling a rocking lead vocalist’s equipment (6)

Down

2 Fancy knocking off leader for paper? (4) 3 Mark’s house settlement’s not finished (9) 4 Lulu’s half escaping depression in the old city (6) 5 Cynically proposing futile measures – a ‘two-fingered salute’ way of governing? (7,8) 6 Lyricist dancing – time for one very popular show (8) 7 Foul’s legal – linesman’s heading off (5) 8 Sushi: meant to be prepared with relish (10) 12 End cut off cob stuffed with Parmesan cheese (10) 15 Notice soldiers pinching one’s bottom (9) 16 Church head one books into rave for a game (8) 19 Wonder if a motorhome’s possessed by a Spice girl? (6) 21 US state not allowed to mock (5) 22 Nut-covered Latin dish (4)