1: Provoke Church of Scotland's absent leader (3)

3: With Starr finally out, Hyde's plan simply loses traction in a way (11)

8: Pronounced ability to smell negative votes (3)

9: Little friend of Barbie's returning red piece of luggage (9)

11: Correspondence with meal I cooked (5)

12: Make a deep impression, bound by ties initially thought to be most vexatious (9)

14: Company strongly recommend: after first scolding, apply the whip! (7)

15: Also-ran gestates, bearing fruit? (7)

17: Layperson to straighten us clear (7)

18: Allow feathers to disappoint. (3, 4)

20: He is round (grossly fed) (9)

22: Bit lots by half of tsetse flies (5)

23: Perhaps men sit and eat in a cafe (9)

25: Start reducing salt? (3)

26: Small drinks for each young man's agent (11)

27: Without it, set call for recompense (3)

1: Grows wrinkled (9)

2: Cook ran; ragout spilled; one might jump to conclusions here? (8,5)

3: Color red surrounds letters on a Cardinal's cap for all-out player (7)

4: Thats sensible; has the eagle perhaps landed? (4-2-5)

5: Raw material for Swedish coins (3)

6: Old physician in sheltered church (5)

7: Mis-trust this support (5)

10: Changes direction with care, as befits a benefactor. (4, 4, 5)

13: E.g., told story about cave-men (11)

16: Perhaps the sound of the beach is really rock? (9)

19: Be embraced by a giant like the Dalai Lama (7)

20: Wants - in fact, just has to have (5)

21: Brand of cat food containing bird's head and feet (5)

24: Odds of niece being born (3)