PORTRAIT: Romy Ash
THE CRYPTIC: Mungo MacCallum
ACROSS 1. Stew in old Texas, perhaps (4,4)
5. A graduate in a thoroughfare – blind, they say (2,1,3)
9. H – overbalanced (3-5)
10. Speak again about moss (6)
12. Cattle breaking up – a source of ridicule (8,5)
15. Raced back around the princess – that’s the pits! (5) 16. Bathe in short waves – remedy
for a tired air (9)
17. Decorator turns otologist (3,6) 19. Run into popular dog (5)
20. No I, perhaps – the receiver
pays! (7,6)
22. Not hip – 64, perhaps (6)
23. Transaction for a reservoir –
but it’s just water (4’1,3)
25. Studied view, they say – it’s
between Asia and Africa (3,3) 26. Mental compulsion to spy on
his downfall (8) DOWN 1. Feeble wager about gaunt party pooper (3,7)
2. Go round over mate (3)
3. Make keen that woman, if… (7) 4. … it’s not odd to resist clumsily on board “The Pleiades” (5,7) 6. Not a moon, a drug (7)
7. Craned over a kind of hoofer (11)
8. A place to gamble around alien books (4)
11. Nursery field ploughed – simple to operate (4-8)
13. One French with the German – German circle, perhaps in the Metro (11)
14. River trees suitable for dogs (10)
18. Heads river poetry (7)
19. Popular guy, but brutal (7)
21. American queen begins 11 (4) 24. Idiot American rear (3)