Weekend crossword

ACROSS

1 Quiet girl absorbs epistle (6) 4 Selfpossession — my word! — left

the head (8)

9 An underground shelter is a hazard of

course (6)

10 Showy climber is sailor I met in West

Africa (8)

11 State of US communist, one apt to

crow? (5,6,3)

13 Riders, unreliable when morose (10) 14 Flight in yard? (4)

16 Timepiece, with front missing, to

become fast (4)

18 Disastrous tour by bachelor, sullen lyric

poet (10)

21 Fall overboard? That’s a very trivial

circumstance (4,2,3,5)

23 Annual record, endlessly long, by

reserve (44)

24 Pal roughed up by wild mob displays

composure (6)

25 Member of double act, proper

abstainer, is beginning to tope (8)

26 You must go back round New Zealand,

getting me a protein substance (6)

DOWN

1 Gown that’s right when receiving an

award (4)

2 Quiet worker given the girl’s big cat (7) 3 Regular sweethearts tease Sid

outrageously (8)

5 Awfully foul reptile with a bad name

(2,3,6)

6 Series of prayers inflamed some (6) 7 Listener let fall ornamental pendant

(34)

8 One who defames country before

settling in Southern Region (9)