Guardian Cryptic #27857

2019-06-26

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Across

1a

Fine cow, the best (6)

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5a

Broken-down Welshman joked on air (8)

9a

It's full of grated cheese that’s melting fast (3,5)

10a

Loops edges around hole (6)

11a

Australian birds scrub duds (5,7)

13a

Whiskey in Greek island is daunting (4)

14a

Monk controls a new church in Don's area (2,6)

17a

Tolerate bill involving Republican flag (8)

18a

Complain, putting away hot drink (4)

20a

Arab chemist packs cold beers for open-air markets (3,4,5)

23a

Lock on live bomb (6)

24a

PA woman accompanies posh colleague (8)

25a

Find new homes for letters edited by European (8)

26a

Current racket in mercury leads to a severe defeat (6)

Down

2d

Secure place with gates at both ends (4)

3d

Sink used to be stylish, compris­ing a special sort of graphite (9)

4d

Sheepish four regularly breaking new rule (6)

5d

What causes the middle to rot? (5,3,7)

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6d

Game's tacky, restricting home runs (3,5)

7d

Handle contents of shelves 1 or 13 (5)

8d

2, 7 and 23, say, keeping extremely slim (10)

12d

Dim friend put away oral part (4,6)

15d

Stall society occupying recent feature of arena? (9)

16d

In which sleepers lie on other sleepers (5-3)

19d

Picnic invaded by large seal (6)

21d

Start to go in, having shed clothes to get lighter (5)

22d

Are they all partial to Gaelic language? (4)