Tuesday 21 July

Across

8 Nick and Henry Bird (4-4) 9 Pink cattle pen? Not right! (5) 10 Articulated fruit is not fair (4) 11 Left and right wings of party turn back, collapsing into ruin (10) 12 Hair loss ultimately comes before anxiety (6) 14 Are fired (sacked), being thin (8) 16 Herald’s power decline (7) 18 Hearing of pub expedition, neighbours start off (7) 21 Panels damaged – try pitch (8) 23 Dialect reveals smooth love lives (6) 24 Kid’s rental bike fixed (5-5) 26 Bottle essential parts (4) 27 Crew strive to get leader replaced (5) 28 Shrewd US composer making records (8)

Down

1 Tough comedian without name (8) 2 Just a second to remove top? Doubtful (4) 3 A core island sun god (6) 4 Depend on getting in support for a music genre (7) 5 Wizard at foot of elder tree (4) 6 Fig, pear almost turn out to be the possible basis of fad diet (10) 7 Chestnut one replaced with ring for crop protection (6) 13 Drugs defence involving college that’s associated with Houdini (10) 15/17 Stand for election (ironic) and get through all the booze (3,3) 19 Game of kiss and tell, perhaps, with time for Latin (8) 20 Poet’s wife and enforcer (7) 22 Twin drying aid, lidless (6) 23 Devout, bawdy and buccaneering (6) 25 Ram’s a laughing-stock (4) 26 Easy: massive return with little initially invested (4)