The Cryptic
ACROSS
1. Deserter returns to brown Scottish cloth (6)
4. Attributes, like cheat directions (8)
9. Soft drink score, becoming a place to secure loans (3-4) 11. Nervier sort of scale (7) 12. Passage? I say I will (5)
13. Raced back sculling, getting closer (9)
14. Place for donations – any rich bit received (7,3)
16. Princess’s hot meal (4)
19. Lore, located in part (4)
20. Unimportant person, bankrupt, right – but he runs 9! (10)
22. Italian food, thrown at the
pigs (9)
23. Put a lid over young bird (5) 25. Belgian, confused with the
man from Calcutta (7)
26. Fish having a nap? (7)
27. Keeping greens, roughly
sealing with a note (8)
28. Hair? Leave it on the
beach! (6)
DOWN
1. Cad parent collapses on stage – she’s a hoofer! (3,6)
2. Comic operas lose Australian ties (5)
3. Late itch develops into affinity to sport (8)
5. Gamble after old coin – but it could put the nation’s economy in peril! (9,4) 6. Sombrero often found inside? Put on new tiles! (6)
7. On top of the stumps, one fuse in one person’s area of operations (9)
8. Brush off quiet carpet (5)
10. Old coin, distant object of an old method of transport (5-8) 15. Last slain, wild day after Halloween (3,6)
17. Difficult, smelt intransigent (4-5)
18. Two drugs for a nutcase (8)
21. Slave of time – a short hour for
everyone (6)
22. Small, competent and black
(5)
24. Pastry, thanks to Michelangelo’s masterpiece (5)
Solution next week