Weekend crossword

ACROSS

1 Engineers in battalion can make a gun

(4)

3 Warship, a vessel ’eartily detested, is

vanquished (10)

10 Where fruitpicking may be easy, or

difficult, round about (7)

11 Big house the chap’s in, embracing love

(7)

12 Dolly shows little animal’s favourite

form of transport (8)

13 Artist enters with spirit (6)

15 Corpulent, seen around Euston

staggering ominously (12)

18 To oblige somebody, give Lorna a

rosette? (2, 3, 1, 6)

21 Leatherworker’s outdated money (6) 22 Delayed, dash back in a rush (8)

24 Pa, I err, I roam the open plain (7) 25 Time of day for making uniform (7) 26 Newspaper jokes about northern forces

in the navy (55)

27 Small room, not big enough for an

instrument (4)

DOWN

1 Curse what a smoker uses — it can be

fatal (8)

2 Those who’ve slipped out see scrap

developing (8)

4 See, below, a place for spectators (10) 5 Preserves German agreement over

manuscript (4)

6 Business chief provides officer and

soldier with assorted gear (7, 7) 7 Excursion cut short through

unimportant matters (6)

8 Holiday’s beginning in grimy boat (6) 9 A free spa diet — go wild for the hors

d’oeuvre? (4, 2, 4, 4)

14 Clergymen getting urge — not

altogether a good thing! (7, 3)

16 Mere inhabitants, parking on ploughed

field (44)

17 A professional, with gravity apparent in

face, but a waster (8)

19 Increase the power of pets! (4, 2) 20 Draw breath at home sound in body (6) 23 A Dame out of the average (4)

See next Saturday’s edition for solution to this puzzle.