Crossword 1

CRYPTIC CLUES

Across

3. Persistent, the French make a record of events (9)

8. Tries to get 24 down in initial bargains in department stores (4) 9. Fat baker’s meal (9)

10. Eastern team scored first, but were banished (6)

11. Debar whiskers (5)

14. Just claim to noble name (5) 15. Low average? (4)

16. Military containers? (5)

18. Inviolable legal instrument included (4)

20. A flower came to notice (5) 21. Are they hard to hammer home? (5)

24. Only half stir unfortunate poet (6)

25. Trail a log made to look like a reptile (9)

26. Excursion ending up at ancient city (4)

27. One’s sin is making an awful row (9)

Down 1. Impartial aim (9)

2. In summing up, counsel first exposes drug dependence (9) 4. It’s not easy to be really rigid (4) 5. Hold forth in horror at election meeting (5)

6. Ailing as member of company? (6)

7. Produce a thought of a sort? (4)

9. Headgear taken from wardrobe returned later (5)

11. Additional payment for way bus is constructed? (5)

12. He puts money into creating poor diets (9)

13. A catalogue of creative imagination? (9)

17. Stray woodland deity (5) 19. Females sailed erratically (6) 22. Incline to include right to study (5)

23. Some internal sorting out needed, too (4)

24. Much may come under the hammer (4)