CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

No 16,203

ACROSS

1 Eager chap’s smart, employing special dubious tactics (12) 8 Change coaching to omit a dish in Italy (7) 9 Revolutionary firm imports fresh grain, grown naturally (7) 11 Part of train to carry crack Welshman (7,3) 12 Members of patriotic music group (4) 14 A fool enters the ground to get drier (3,5) 16 Mad botanist with no time at all for small growth (6) 17 Crude painting (3) 19 What workers collect in the vicinity around court (6) 21 Staying behind, attempting to entertain Arab (8) 24 Husband’s leaving 3’s wood supplier (4) 25 Moisturiser? I’d provided one to stop runny rheum (10) 27 Poles doubt little creature’s over sign of cold (7) 28 A sound from duck nearly keeps it turning in water (7) 29 Bobby ingests a rheumatic compound that’s drugrelated (12)

DOWN

1 State of country (7) 2 He claims deviously mother’s stopping feast day (10) 3 Dagger landed the wrong way during fight (8) 4 A letter’s read out in confession (6) 5 Initial indicator (4) 6 Guts pub before Republican put in plugs (7) 7 Clumps indicate a good surplus in exotic teas (12) 10 Bears note this, posing oddly in organised circle (7,5) 13 It interrupts flow to vessel quite dramatically (10) 15 Part of a thumping success? (3) 18 Put on film: ‘The Return of the Alien Beast’ (8) 20 That woman is going into church for treasure (7) 22 Foolish one follows papers to do with hearing (7) 23 Regret raising king in each triumphant cry (6) 26 Starts to advance from access road a long way off (4)