Across
1 Much and still fought-over country (7)
5 Beach popular with blokes and sheilas (5)
8 Vlad is the most famous such fixer (7)
9 Under bare Ben Bulben’s head in a Sligo churchyard he is laid (5)
10 German city more famous for steel than eating (5)
11 Cod war participant (7)
12 Foreign securities market (6)
14 A lot gets spouted and not just by balloons (3,3)
17 1920s and 30s style (3,4)
19 The King of rock and roll (5)
22 Legal ones can still blow your mind (5)
23 You may have to do so to your thumbs while waiting for orders (7)
24 Short reptile (5)
25 Canny rugger player (3,4)

Down
1 What Marx wanted the workers of the world to do (5)
2 To get started, you need to learn them and not just on a sailing boat (5)
3 Sea-surrounded and often a channel for tax-saving (7)
4 Eavesdropping insect? (6)
5 Battle which gets Orangemen excited (5)
6 Famous falls that produce a torrent (7)
7 A kind of trading frowned on by those in the know? (7)
12 Animal’s affectionate gesture? (4,3)
13 Nerves can make you so tense (7)
15 Big problem caused by big puddings or so the Government thinks (7)
16 Do you understand?  …. .. ( meaning  not fully) (4,2)
18 ‘Care-charming sleep, thou ….. of all woes’  Fletcher (5)
20 The Russians tank up with it (5)
21 You do not want to be left on it if you are the marrying kind (5)

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