the crosswords
CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS
1 Manage without an intermediary (6)
4 Minister arranged a truce (6)
9 An order to stop amber changing to green (7)
10 Put in last place (5)
11 Some vestige of sanctity? (5)
12 An empty form of recompense (7)
13 It is unbeatable at the card table (3,2,6)
18 Behave oneself, but romp around in bed (7)
20 Kind of vandal seizes mother (5)
22 Cured, perhaps, but not refined (5)
23 Topical version relating to what may be seen (7)
24 Unwilling to make up a piece of poetry (6)
25 Rain indicator (6)
DOWN
1 Gloomy doctor having a bad year (6)
2 A subject causing trouble? (5)
3 Disorders occur with a double liqueur (7)
5 One object of alliance (5)
6 Wept and ran from a Belgian port (7)
7 Corrective readings (6)
8 Contest the capitalistic thesis (11)
14 Come and put in estimate (7)
15 Remove all traces (7)
16 Bills going to one getting a shrub (6)
17 Fisherman shows displeasure when lake is filled in (6)
19 Begins with writers on love (5)
21 Parrot gives a Scotsman an awful start! (5)
QUICK CLUES ACROSS
1 Carelessly done (6)
4 Redeem captive by payment (6)
9 Solicit votes from (7)
10 Brownish-yellow (5)
11 Boldness (5)
12 A chance (7)
13 Diarist of 17th-century
London (6,5)
18 Reduction (7)
20 Worth (5)
22 Long walk (5)
23 Consigned to oblivion (2,5)
24 Breeding-ground (6)
25 Absence of interest (6)
DOWN
1 To support (6)
2 Proprietor (5)
3 Tableland (7)
5 Quickly (5)
6 Financial aid (7)
7 Optical illusion (6)
8 Comedy by Shakespeare (2,3,4,2)
14 Draw toward (7)
15 Wrap up (7)
16 Put an end to (6)
17 A serious crime (6)
19 Plentiful (5)
21 Ultimate extent (5)