CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

16 456

Across

1. Timber supplier spotted trouble on both sides of motorway (7)

5. Funny comic’s huge (6) 9. Sign of approval impresses new runner with good grip (7)

10. Poem about Ulysses essentially at journey’s end (7)

11. Varnish component and place in the middle (3) 12. Line up band’s best seats (5,6)

13. Pollute area in shade (5) 14. Poles get a superb racehorse that’s beaten (5,4) 16. Clumsy mother and boy go off touring India (9) 17. Substandard work accepted by King of Spain (5)

19. UN soldier exercises with top goalie (11)

22. Stable worker happy taking top off (3)

23. Force out former loyal duke making an entrance (7)

24. Person from Middle East

is actually caught (7)

26. Father accompanying one close companion (6) 27. About to agree second game (7)

Down

1. What vest is – and has! (7) 2. Raw cold – flinch with it, shivering (4-5,6)

3. Writing material popular with Keats at first (3) 4. Cooks use this 22 with foreign article (5)

5. Angry colonist eats one – for breakfast perhaps? (9)

6. They were used long ago to write some hasty lines (5)

7. Scatter pellets in centre – it should deter pests (6,9) 8. Where Lucy danced with me? (6)

12. Went out with old hat (5) 14. Possibly sedated? No, completely lifeless (5-4) 15. Dread forgetting first mistake (5)

16. TV character encountered hosting posh parish priest (6)

18. Revolutionary do-it-yourself recipe for tongue (7) 20. Play duet followed by English solo composition (5) 21. Earlier leader of monastery (5)

25. Sheep run in the morning (3)