| Clues across |
| 1 | Take whisky to one island in the Med (5) |
| 4 | Have bite at Rod’s? At these you get your cheese and bread (5-4) |
| 9 | An advert with the first of dates is seen (7) |
| 10 | Smart little babies say what manicurists preen (7) |
| 11 | She fails to start, perhaps, and has no trust (9) |
| 12 | It’s heard within a narrow strait: “That’s free from rust!” (5) |
| 13 | If peg-leg has no ‘E’, shake this instead (3-4) |
| 14 | The German round the valley’s just a tramp – no bed (7) |
| 17 | Takes off some French, a water pipe to seize (7) |
| 20 | A queen turns back on insect – but with this it ‘sees’ (7) |
| 22 | A rowing crew with weight, but leaderless (5) |
| 24 | I’m taking sides; that means the opposite, I guess! (9) |
| 25 | Ship sails this way with chief in galley first (7) |
| 26 | Rotating G and T in urn (to quench your thirst) (7) |
| 27 | Charles starts with lance round ear to make a gap (9) |
| 28 | Inebriated, say, or not too loose, mayhap (5) |
|
| Clues down |
| 1 | Not safe to cross – there’s pit on meadow grass (9) |
| 2 | Is hiring out allowing things to come to pass? (7) |
| 3 | Achoo! Start cold? I’ll get confused with drink!(9) |
| 4 | To edge towards no job – there’s drink around (I think) (5,2) |
| 5 | Bill swore – missed start of race – appeared in dock (7) |
| 6 | Boys hold their strings – these birds of prey don’t fly in flock (5) |
| 7 | To this you may be called – and get the bill (7) |
| 8 | This drug, it seems, can make the waters flow uphill (5) |
| 15 | Make sense of this: it’s “Peter in RT” (9) |
| 16 | It should be red at back, not heavy (do you see?) (4,5) |
| 18 | One with degree’s in river, in disgrace (7) |
| 19 | An insect ’twixt two poles? It leaves this merest trace (7) |
| 20 | Perhaps meet up with one who’s lost an arm (7) |
| 21 | A hit-man’s job? Start nothing when you’ve come to harm (7) |
| 22 | A moral code the bad, I see, set down (5) |
| 23 | He perseveres, no doubt, within this German town (5) |
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