"AMATTEROFCOURSE" IS THE Answer TO THE FOLLOWING CROSSWORDS

1. Someone covering aintree? it's routine
2. Standard procedure
3. Something customary
4. Third from last stake produced by writer initially upstaging lieutenant and one friend

OTHER CLUES

1. Corner keyboard key
2. Bottled gas used as a fuel
3. Railroad terminus: abbr
4. Attach to
5. Avert fighting next to shed
6. Bombing, as a comic
7. Blazing, as the eyes
8. Poison ___