Cryptic crossword - The Scotsman 30/01/14

ACROSS

7 Step over line in court (5)

8 Plotted with prisoner, having checked out with final warder (9)

10 Would correspondent like give-and-take (6)

11 With little power left, varies order so succeeds (8)

12 Clears the way to recommend small loans (8)

13 Start to give access through the shop entrance (4)

15 Inspects empty tombs for men of the cloth (7)

17 Blocked first payment in warehouses on the way back (7)

20 Create record, thanks to gym lessons (4)

22 Have to let spies jumble up their dispatches (8)

25 Try to come back with a country bumpkin, making a stout cotton (8)

26 Note the right rope to hold an animal (6)

27 Did Cabinet have scope to give firm direction? (9)

28 Set fire to small church on a hill (5)

DOWN

1 Runs aground catching long flat fish (9)

2 Sound precise like a first-class minister (8)

3 Set type in order to create some music (7)

4 To escort wedding guests to American route, hard to arrange (5,3)

5 Talk at length about one freebooter, in the main (6)

6 Trades in soft wood on sale originally (5)

9 Stand in the way of king leaving an alliance (4)

14 End up with free church, with respect (9)

16 Endless entertainment bound to follow great wealth (8)

18 Appeal for point in away tie (8)

19 May refer to citation in broadcast report (7)

21 A double century, or 500, could win award (6)

23 Is very interested in badminton, for example (4)

24 Sound fit to overpower cast (5)

Wednesday’s solution

Across: 1 Whitlow, 5 Coulomb, 9 French fries, 10 Toe, 11 Like lightning, 14 Tahiti, 16 Peculiar, 18 Nastiest, 19 Adhere, 21 Brave new world, 24 Old, 25 Time-release, 26 Elysian, 27 Express.

Down: 1 Wife, 2 Ideal, 3 Loch Katrine, 4 Waffle, 5 Clingier, 6 Ups, 7 On thin ice, 8 Beer garden, 12 Thunderclap, 13 Stony-broke, 15 Husbandry, 17 Essex man, 20 Swerve, 22 Drake, 23 Lens, 25 Tui.