CRYPTIC CLUES

ACROSS

1 Import fruit (6)

4 A French wine cartel broken up (6)

9 Tone down a painting emulsion (7) 10 Machine age? (5)

11 Maybe Poe’s a past master of fabulous tales (5)

12 Understatement in T S Eliot play (7) 13 Briefly where a squirrel finds food (2,1,8) 18 Part of a religious faction I get on with (7) 20 Pull in first behind another vehicle (2,3) 22 One sort of wood that’s without flaws (5) 23 Beginning a letter (7)

24 Public Relations in place? That’s the spirit! (6) 25 A new stage setting may include them (6)

DOWN

1 Catch ten out with a quick blow (6)

2 Is angry and emits smoke (5)

3 Depreciate each new writer (7)

5 Solicitors hold it to be permissible (5) 6 Novel article and story (7)

7 Religion is embraced by them (6)

8 Bat, net and lines set out for the game (5,6) 14 Type of explosion that blew Ur clean away (7)

15 Ordering a taxi when the weather is bad? (7) 16 Detects men who endanger Western security (6)

17 Doesn’t go in for reducing like posh people (6)

19 Opening for a craftsman (5)

21 Article in the wash causes a stain (5)