SUNDAY CROSSWORD — 945

ACROSS

2 Abnormal fear of being in open spaces (11)

7 Contributor (5)

8 Remedied (5)

9 Bellowed (7)

13 Tomb (9)

15 Consenting, not argumentative? (9)

18 Less common (5)

20 Creatures (7)

21 Shaping machine (5)

22 Stain, flaw (7)

25 Dublin is its capital (7)

27 Calls off (7)

28 In cinema, popular name for Academy Awards? (5)

32 Go up (5)

35 Elucidated, explained or expounded (7)

40 Confirms or preserves, defends (7)

41 A bone softening disease (7)

42 Feudal lord (5)

43 Downcast (7)

44 Kitchen tool (5)

45 An intervening period or episode (9)

49 Judges or computes (9)

53 To set, to place, to locate (7)

54 Used up (5)

55 Lees, leftovers (5)

56 Tilling of the land (11)

DOWN

1 Deal successfully (4)

2 Asian sea (4)

3 Mining and industrial region of western Germany (4)

4 Couturier Cassini (4)

5 Dull pain (4)

6 Came down (4)

9 Put into scabbard (7)

10 Psychologi-cal complex (7)

11 Hot pepper sauce (7)

12 Severe (7)

13 Scours (6)

14 Astrono-mical distance of 3.26 light years (6)

16 Christian Bale in "The Dark Knight" (6)

17 Corrects text (6)

19 Destruction (4)

21 Smile at with evil intents (4)

23 Spoil (3)

24 Berate (5)

26 Semi-diameters (5)

29 Albanian coin (3)

30 Centres of atoms (6)

31 Menace (6)

32 You are solving one just now? (4)

33 Neck of land (7)

34 A large, soft cloth used for warmth (7)

35 Jordan River terminus (4,3)

36 Warship (7)

37 In brief, sergeants and corporals (4)

38 Proper or seemly (6)

39 Evaluate (6)

46 Bites or nibbles at (4)

47 Duty-roster (4)

48 Capital of East Timor (4)

50 Let it stand! (4)

51 ___ off : departed hastily? (4)

52 Nervous and apprehensive (4)