Monday 12 October

Across

1 Poet depicted in a university study (5) 4 Drug no good when engaging in battle (8) 8 Mmmmm … sporting achievement that was hard to surpass (4-6,4) 10 Voiced concern after order is dismissed (5,3) 11 Different offspring almost certain to succeed (4,2) 12 Patsy’s date of birth? (9) 15 Legal gag slapped on endlessly glib woman (5) 17 Show up abruptly at trade shows (5) 18 Cause of ludicrous honey wars (6,3) 19 Oddly, equal pay was enshrined in these regulations (2,4) 21 Surreptitiously deleting note would not be cricket? Actually it would (2,6) 24 Criminal reining in caper scamming royal family member? (8,6) 25 Classes by extremely lugubrious commanders (8) 26 Chose the final three classic test finishes (5)

Down

1 Suspect key servant of being a mass killer (2,5-5) 2 Bends over painfully having strong drink on top of another (7,2) 3 French name given to commercial traveller (5) 4 Collapsed having experienced reversal (4,5) 5 US writer in hospital after breakdown following split (4) 6 Creature with limb trouble and unwell inside (9) 7 Marine features covered in this lesson (5) 9 Rogue sees attorney rolling in it … (2,4,6) 13 … we see her gallivanting around Lima and other places (9) 14 Variable pay packet leads to such desires (9) 16 Girl entering fresh pasture finds ancient burial site (9) 20 River pilots brief crew from the centre (5) 22 England has Ireland in a spin; how weird (5) 23 Puzzling message insignias regularly reveal (4)