by Mark Taylor
ACROSS
8. Bishop’s office going back over rent list (provisional) to find letters from Paul, say (8)
9, 15. E-proofer, replacing folio with page, edited news item insert, helps to pick up whoopsies (6,7)
10. River Goddess (4)
11. Sake drunk during quake, with first foreigner thrown out. It’s nightmarish! (10)
12. Alter ego, funny guy shows credentials (1,1,4)
14. Travel to NZ for example, finished on the Indian Pacific? (8)
15. See 9a.
17. Priest scourged, initially doubting what’s in black and white (7)
20. Magician produces a rabbit, then three in a row! (3-5)
22. Seabird sounds like it can pierce (6)
23. No beginner, Prue’s toilet flushed on spin cycle! (10)
24. New way to meet and refocus (4)
25. Kiwi gutted about who chopped a tree? (6)
26. Grant, for example, said aquatic mammal sounded like all of us! (8)
DOWN
1. Finally (sic) in IPED, so I edited book in separate parts (8)
2. Piece of work, no end of it. Solicitor’s leading questions (4)
3. Got lucky! Took flight with UK included (6)
4. In the beginning, Adam sent out, feeling not of worth from then on (2,2,3)
5. Mum or Dad, getting overprotective first, or so it seems (7)
6,13. Often misused, Mark’s clinging on desperately, past hope or … (10,10)
7. … worrying, unable to see stellar group (6)
13. See 6d.
16. Widespread panic ends after IPED re-edited first edition—mostly in-house (8)
18. Canine, yet he flapped around first two ducks! (8)
19. Incomplete score in “A Shade of Blue” (7)
21. Was I moved in part by stellar author? (6)
22. Famous opener bowled seam, including in middle test (6)
24. Mag in uzi – never loaded (4)
ANSWERS
ACROSS
8 EPISTLES | 9 POOPER | 10 ISIS | 11 KAFKAESQUE | 12 IDCARD | 14 OVERSEAS | 15 SCOOPER | 17 STRIPED | 20 HATTRICK | 22 SKEWER | 23 PIROUETTES | 24 ZOOM | 25 KOWHAI | 26 HUMANITY.
DOWN
1 EPISODIC | 2 ASKS | 3 FLUKED | 4 AS OF NOW | 5 APPARENT | 6 POSSESSIVE | 7 NEBULA | 13 APOSTROPHE | 16 EPIDEMIC | 18 EYETOOTH | 19 SKETCH | 21 ASIMOV | 22 SESAME | 24 ZINE.