No 10551, Saturday 25 Aug 12, Neyartha

Plenty of water today.

ACROSS

7   - Essential to be capable of distinguishing without help, in retrospect (8) - CRITICAL dia<-CRITICAL

9   - Oddly fear packaging the soft iced dessert (6) - FRAPPE {FRA{PP}E*}

10 - Issues resulting from one going missing in the straits (10) - EMERGENCES EMERGENCiES

11 - A break for the Oriental to move back to Victoria, say (4) - LAKE L(-e)AK(+e)E

12 - Pakistan keeps part of the armoured car (4) - TANK [T]

13 - Cook contended the head strike throughout (3-2-3) - END-TO-END cONTENDED*

16 - Perceived mop with a carpentry byproduct (7) - SAWDUST {SAW}{DUST}

18 - Sacred chant put by the king in the portrait of a Greek character (7) - OMICRON {OM}{IC{R}ON}

20 - Third note on the article wrapped in towelling fabric (8) - TERTIARY {TER{TI<-}{A}RY} (Addendum - {TER{TI}{A}RY} - See comments)

21 - One may fly across this from London to New York (4) - POND [GK]

23 - I replace the uranium in an extinct volcano in a Pacific island (4) - FIJI F(-u+i)IJI

24 - Fruit with lumps returned to the old French province (10) - STRAWBERRY {STRAW<-}{BERRY}

25 - Shopping centres coming back around the Eritrean capital’s watercourse (6) - STREAM {STR{E}AM<-}

26 - Antidotes prepared after time out in a medicated state (8) - SEDATION ANTIDOtES*

DOWN

1   - Hike with the vagrant (5) - TRAMP [DD]

2   - Tsar’s inapt dress burnt with the flag (5,3,7) - STARS AND STRIPES*

3   - Minced garlic containing vitamin and ice (7) - GLACIER {GARLIC+E}*

4   - Removes the louts after the female gets rid of the article (4) - OFFS O(-a+f}FFS

5   - Index of sorts in a contestable font was rewritten (5,2,8) - TABLE OF CONTENTS*

6   - Told to be in favour of being reserved (6,3) - SPOKEN FOR {SPOKEN} {FOR}

8   - Groan audibly on spotting the watercourse (5) - CREEK ~creak

14 - Upset unbalanced barrier (3) - DAM <-

15 - Renovations that may lead to heads being held high? (4-5) - FACE-LIFTS [CD]

17 - Main cryptography cipher has been reversed (3) - SEA <-

19 - Tree featured in a fancy pressmark (7) - CYPRESS [T]

21 - Mishandled the direction for Romeo to be docked (5) - PAWED PA{WED} Anno not clear (Addendum - PA(-r+w)WED - See comments)

22 - Heard an American defence rifle by the watercourse (5) - BROOK ~brooke

24 - A Lapplander’s uniform (4) - SAME [DD]

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