CRYPTIC CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Talk freely, giving the starting price away (5)
6 Manly Scot with a useless house (5)
9 Arrives to take refreshment after the performance (5,2)
10 Even staggering round the bend to a meeting place (5)
11 You can make tea with it (5)
12 Speedy coppers participating in a raid (5)
13 Cocktail a motorcyclist may have (7)
15 Water from the sidewalk (3)
17 One who exploits us with a half of beer (4)
18 The place for a strong, businesslike paper (6)
19 The rascal lived riotously (5)
20 Warm-hearted French friends of a Dumas musketeer (6)
22 Bit of a nasty eye (4)
24 Rob him of character! (3)
25 It’s decorative, possibly of stone (7)
26 Animal trainer whose act is less exciting? (5)
27 Badly bake a bit of bread, and it’s edible (5)
28 A tow-headed girl, in fact (5)
29 Many a part of London is ‘on-Sea’! (7)
30 Virginia’s condition, perhaps? (5)
31 Exciting present? (5)
DOWN
2 Summary of new prices (6)
3 He takes too much interest (6)
4 An article shared by mother and father (3)
5 Vow to give attention to certain points (5)
6 A show worth hearing (7)
7 Copied some landscape drawings (4)
8 Composer of ‘Messiah’ and ‘Elijah’, apparently (6)
12 Judges to be a wild aster (5)
13 Something refined brought back from Ragusa (5)
14 Notes a day out to be a bad thing! (5)
15 Do fully (5)
16 Have a rousing effect on (5)
18 For faultless service on the motorway, he doesn’t want to pay! (5)
19 To give a girl fur may leave her helpless! (7)
21 Bobby’s old-fashioned peeler, perhaps? (6)
22 As a novelist, rename Ernest as Laurence (6)
23 Lads giving a wild shout at the close of play (6)
25 Fight to make robbery profitable? (5)
26 With diplomacy, volunteers to go to court (4)
28 Drink, little one (3)
YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION
ACROSS: 3. Chest 8. Habit 10. Wit-CH 11. Cut 12. Older 13. Mascara 15. D-ebut (rev.) 18. Hid 19. Sedate 21. Redeems 22. Wood 23. Stir 24. Des-troy 26. Sl-Op.-ed 29. Ham 31. Ti-ta-n 32. Ce-me-nts 34. Tut-O-r 35. Her 36. Tax-Ed 37. Roy-Al 38. Realm.
DOWN: 1. MA-caw 2. Pitched 4. Hula 5. Swedes 6. Tir-E-d 7. Scout 9. Bus 12. Ordered 14. A-I’d 16. Batty 17. T-er-ry 19. Smother 20. Twist 21. Robot 23. S-ome-how 24. Denude 25. RA-M 27. Lilac 28. Pater 30. St.-ray 32. Cool 33. Ney.