CRYPTIC CROSSWORD
No 16,549
FOR your chance to win, solve the crossword to reveal the word reading down the shaded boxes. HOW TO ENTER: Call 0901 293 6233 and leave today’s answer and your details, or TEXT 65700 with the word CRYPTIC, your answer and your name. Texts and calls cost £1 plus standard network charges. Or enter by post by sending completed crossword to Daily Mail Prize Crossword 16,549, PO Box 28, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GF. Please include your name and address. One weekly winner chosen from all correct daily entries received between 00.01 Monday and 23.59 Friday. Postal entries must be datestamped no later than the following day to qualify. Calls/texts must be received by 23.59; answers change at 00.01. UK residents aged 18+, exc NI. Terms apply, see Page 56.
ACROSS
1 Check out underground laboratory container (4,4) 5 Sort of angle that’s hard to grasp (6) 9 Sun might put off firearm manufacturer (8) 10 Cleric spread out seats in theatre (6) 12 The sort of list that causes a commotion (2-2) 13 A personal novel about large power generator (5,5) 15 Spooner’s cocky porters erect these to reduce accidents (5,8) 19 Where to fill tank and repair rotten oil taps (6,7) 23 25 eating hot food endlessly in church event (10) 25 Where skaters perform without one on a single occasion (4) 28 Independent firm backfires in do-it- yourself folly (6) 29 Team give up assistant (8) 30 Pigmeat or game with back scrubbed (6) 31 He notices fashionable post in school (8)
DOWN
1 This GT needs replacement hose (6) 2 Reader’s given up hosting Yankee church assembly (5) 3 Note about writer’s sentence (4) 4 Put money on U.S. writer’s promise to marry (7) 6 Balloon bulging at first, then sagging (5) 7 Lack of interest in a Parisian firm (9) 8 Such a lens, with parts exchanged, would be useless (8) 11 All the best old volunteers appear twice (2-2) 14 Ring around head revealed in encephalogram (4) 15 Religious Q & A schematic needs to be reformed (9) 16 Regularly blast player at Old Trafford (3) 17 Check rule golfers primarily ignored (4) 18 More costly business with China soon (8) 20 Look for Europeans in South Korean capital (4) 21 Writer’s supporting main document store (7) 22 Quiet British traveller from the south to feel happier (4,2) 24 Minister cut the page at the start (5) 26 Sound of horseplay from nearby folk? Not half! (5) 27 A drop of liquid runs out of loaf (4)
NEED A CLUE? Text TIP to 65700 to receive FOUR answers to today’s crossword, or call 0901 293 6236. Texts and calls cost £1 plus standard network charges. Today’s clues available between 00.01 today and 23.30 only.