Complete
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1 9 11 15 21 23 12 2 16 3 13 4 8 10 17 22 24 5 18 6 19 14 7 20
  1. 1a Hottest time of the year (3,4)
  2. 8a Small-time criminal (7)
  3. 9a Fast ball bowled aggressively short (7)
  4. 10a One in the know (7)
  5. 11a The ___ Man, 1949 film about Harry Lime (5)
  6. 13a Vacancy (9)
  7. 15a Intermediary (2-7)
  8. 18a Stealing (5)
  9. 21a Initially (2,5)
  10. 22a Joy or hate, for example (7)
  11. 23a Knot of hair arranged at the back of the head (7)
  12. 24a Hanging decorations of threads gathered at the top (7)
  13. 1d Payment still owed (5)
  14. 2d Spanish architect, greatest expon­ent of Catalan Modernism, d. 1926 (5)
  15. 3d Often involved in mishaps — it concerned PA (anag) (8-5)
  16. 4d Basis of a seafood cocktail? (6)
  17. 5d Painstaking (13)
  18. 6d Commit(ment) (6)
  19. 7d Hurts (6)
  20. 12d Visible indication of holiness (4)
  21. 14d Ego (4)
  22. 15d Hit at an angle and bounce off (6)
  23. 16d Egghead (6)
  24. 17d Full distance (6)
  25. 19d Enforced absence (5)
  26. 20d Chinese secret organisations (5)