Solving time, 30 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
6 P (O TAT) O The river Po, well-known to solvers
8 REST RAIN definition: hamper
9 TAKING THE LEAD Double definition
10 HE SIT ANT
11 INSIST Hidden
12 RA GOUT RA = Royal Academician (hence painter)
14 BYE-BYE bye = run (cricket)
17 MA CHOS(e)
19 G I’VE A WAY
21 LIGHT-FINGERED Cryptic definition
22 AN (‘TEC) EDE Investigator = detective = ‘tec in (a need)*
23 I N COME
DOWN
1 C(r)ACKLING r = right
2 JOANNA A piano (rhyming slang) Upright, a type of piano
3 AS P (ER) ITY Important woman = The Queen
4 GREENS Links refers to golf courses
5 NIL DESPERANDUM (pals undermined)* ‘Do not despair’ from Latin
7 O N T (HE) BREADLINE Complicated O = nothing He = bound i.e. contained (in the cryptic reading) in (dinner table)* Good surface
8 R O TATE
13 UP SETTER
15 BO A T RACE Oxford v Cambridge
16 (l)IGNITE
18 HIGHER Took me ages to see this. up = on a higher plane
20 V (EGG) IE A good &lit clue.