CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

3 Went slowly, but with credit, at a key point (5)

8 Saintly Alan embracing a blockhead! (5)

10 A game with plenty to it (5)

11 In opposition (3)

12 Where the whisky is sheer poetry? (5)

13 Maybe a man can’t sing this high part (7)

15 Playing it, is there little room for love? (5)

18 Covered in starch, ideally (3) 19 Chest expanders for servicemen? (6)

21 An odd piece of virtu to us (7)

22 Do you need pluck to play it? (4)

23 Something afoot that sounds frightening to cats, etc. (4)

24 Authorise some men to take ownership (7)

26 Where, in Italy, poetry heartens the new man (6) 29 Reminder to start the ball rolling? (3)

31 It exudes from the old soldier (5)

32 Colouring agent used by mother? (7)

34 As Sybil said, she’s a sorceress (5)

35 Dad’s right to be normal (3) 36 The man who came to dinner (5)

37 State of a crashed plane (5) 38 £50 notes held in lawful fashion (5)

DOWN

1 Ice-cold enemies round the corner (5)

2 Put right what the chap put wrongly? (5,2)

4 The balance negotiated in sterling, partly (4)

5 Puts at the head of the field, at last (6)

6 Trifled with a toy boy? (5)

7 Nevertheless, calm (5)

9 It came to a stop in a Marilyn Monroe movie (3)

12 Girl in a state? Quite the reverse! (7)

14 Excellent, never-ending melody (3)

16 Machine or article at the play centre (5)

17 Rosie’s willowy form (5)

19 Show the score to a pupil (7)

20 Friends much upset by a skinhead (5)

21 Coarse, cloth-headed, uncivil! (5)

23 One unconscious of being run over by a train (7)

24 In the Irish Republic, the New Testament is unabridged (6)

25 Tough? Oh no! (3)

27 Due to a duck having to fly (5)

28 Support for an artist’s views (5)

30 Has Jack a treatment for warts? (5)

32 Name my regiment (4)

33 Can you play it in your sleep? (3)