Double Crossword
CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS
1 Plant may liquefy in halfserves (7) 5 Puzzle must remain unfinished during spelling test (6) 9 Bit under the nail mistaken as fast-moving (5,3,3,4) 10 Bore moving out of river (4) 11 Ring doesn’t fit to where the nose is proverbially kept (10) 13 Net moderates noise of acrobatic gear (8) 14 Tape or tie up a plant (6) 17 Pull out again when skinned and bleeding (3,3) 19 Motorise devices that are most capacious (8) 22 Stuck to record that’s reversed, and wrongly reversed! (10) 23 Low person, small fellow or minion (4) 25 Inventor is a cost-ineffective environmental advocate (15) 26 Not empty during dinner, say? It’s all in the mind! (6) 27 One doing the dirty on a hectare of waste (7)
DOWN
1 Set apart from the second queerest sort (9) 2 Land of little merit, really (7) 3 Square key turned by one from Yorkshire (4) 4 Handed on with two hands in spinning feeder (8) 5 Sharp container to put in large box (6) 6 Turned to slammers after lots of turbulence (10) 7 Dock 14-across’s arrangements (7) 8 Keys merged into large island (4) 12 18-down to take in features of vandalism (10) 15 Merit late adjustment to navigation instrument (9) 16 Daily help, at different times, interrupted medico (8) 18 Enraged order to put out of order (7) 20 By way of illustration, to sit uneasily with a self-admirer (7) 21 Workforce gutted by wicked pest (6) 22 Bond raised hat ahead of thick head (4) 24 Add and, in the end, divide and carry (4)
QUICK CLUES ACROSS
1 Captivate, draw in (7) 5 Split within the church (6) 9 London police headquarters (3,8,4) 10 Animal fat (4) 11 Resourcefulness, get-upand-go (10) 13 Veil, envelop (8) 14 Pointed the finger at (6) 17 Monarch’s seat (6) 19 International humanitarian organisation (3,5) 22 Restoration, refurbishment (10) 23 Surrender, make over (4) 25 Trembling and hallucinations brought on by alcoholism (8,7) 26 Long thin coloured mark (6) 27 Rejection (7)
DOWN
1 Formal invalidation (9) 2 In the direction of (7) 3 Curved structure spanning an opening (4) 4 Element used in steel alloys (8) 5 Meagre, inadequate (6) 6 Fluid mechanics (10) 7 Sporting arena (7) 8 Slothful, lazy (4) 12 Crossways (10) 15 Distribution, scattering (9) 16 Journalist (8) 18 Long curl of hair (7) 20 First batsmen at the wicket (7) 21 Hit, punched (6) 22 Impolite (4) 24 Muscle, brawn (4)