CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

18/9 ACROSS

2. We have ignition and I’m inside – that’s the end! (5)

5. Sound like a child or a churchwarden, perhaps (4)

7. Cigarette holds start of lung-trouble to make one droop (4)

8. No husband or wife is around at home, so put name forward (8)

9. Recommend a party around five before Tom goes East (8)

11. Not long to wait for double-duck among bridge partners (4)

12. They have passed the score that’s been quadrupled (13)

15. This head is a numskull – or just a skull, maybe (4)

17. An occasion for getting some in? (8)

19. Get in touch with the right inside and reach legal agreement (8)

21. One is in the wrong bed, but must wait awhile (4)

22. A short cut the rider may have in hand (4)

23. Slight colouring of metal for instance being turned (5)

DOWN

1. One with cold, perhaps, following me with a tune (7)

2. A chunk of wood that tells the story of a voyage (3)

3. An obsessive madness for chap with first-class set-up (5)

4. Sort of colour Academician needs after place of great beauty (7)

5. Verbal joke that gets back up at end of sermon (3)

6. In a work-up, at one with the courtyard (5)

10. Supercharged atmosphere of the ring-belt? (5)

11. It’s a loose dress: move it! (5)

13. The Spanish worker for example, taken in, is nicely turned out (7)

14. Up-and-down little number, five hundred? Yes – at twelve! (7)

16. In our surroundings a party has a whiff to it (5)

18. Seat men, topless, who have dined (5)

20. The most important toy to sleep like one? (3)

21. Manufacturer of combs in return of the ebony trade (3)

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION Across:

Down: