CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1. It’s a crime: take it as an affront (7)

5. Haul back to church by the narrow ravine (5)

8. Butterfly with its place on the bridge? (7)

9. Pythias’ friend returned, a wanderer (5)

10. Fleeting view of the lee her map afforded (9)

12. A tint and the cry of the chase (3)

13. Assumption of a mix that may have nothing in it (5)

17. Succour is offered by a topless servant (3)

19. A company’s security may need brute to arrange it (9)

21. The company we get is right to shrink in fear (5)

22. Then, can it be made to captivate one? (7)

24. A teetotal advertisement for a nymph in the wood (5)

25. Being rash, he had to get sorted out (7)

DOWN

1. A sort of grey-pink mushroom (7)

2. A flirtatious journey by air to capital of Yemen (7)

3. The raised surface is offered as a racing certainty (3)

4. The lesser rorqual shows there to have been a mistake (5)

5. A person of breeding might lament gen being distributed (9)

6. Fluid an elderly MP has to hold (5)

7. Did wrong, when bird was about, to have kept it secret (6)

11. Wandered about in Eden, dream having been broken (9)

14. Bottle of rouge: a top claret, perhaps (7)

15. Rank that managed the detective branch (6)

16. An animal surgeon Edward passed as being sound (6)

18. A girl’s marriage portion will serve, twisted though it is (5)

20. Put ashore, one is told, and find a tree (5)

23. Divide the pack and make it short (3) MONDAY’S SOLUTION

Across: 1. Meritorious 8. Daffy 9. Flapper 10. Chinese

11. Irony 12. Mental 14. Snitch 18. Deuce 19. Several

21. Cadence 23. Drive 24. Disappoints

Down: 1. Modicum 2. Ruffian 3. Thyme 4. Rafter 5. Oration

6. Sip 7. Berry 13. Avernus 15. Torsion 16. Helpers 17. Asleep

18. Decor 20. Video 22. Dud