CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

No 16,551

ACROSS

1 Called out girl’s name (7) 5 Six tons filling island’s hole (6) 9 Gifted lecturer put away dinner at first (7) 10 Beast’s back, reptile originally, consisting of plates (7) 11 Cut top off grass? Just a little bit of it (3) 12 Prudish American votes surprisingly for camp article (6,5) 13 Choose to back some great celebrity (5) 14 A violent mob’s hiding burial place for weapons (4,5) 16 Parade around swine in a valley (9) 17 Proprietor won trips to meet Her Majesty (5) 19 Manger’s lice ruined dairy product (6,5) 22 Beat up and rob dope (3) 23 Nice old friend imports equipment for folding sheets (7) 24 Pass a solitary large officer (7) 26 Disturbance on entering Shetland island (6) 27 Customer endures mobile (3,4)

DOWN

1 Resolve to consider dropping temperature (7) 2 Overt tone in inn scuppered new policy of neutrality (15) 3 Bird of prey discarding last young animal (3) 4 Bones a sleuth found in middle of Africa (5) 5 Bosses keep calm about European carbohydrate (9) 6 Improvises accompaniment using five loudspeaker units (5) 7 Order workers under canvas to reveal contents of tablets (3,12) 8 Cheese for sale, primarily for lawyers (6) 12 Ring to collect sort of square part of flower (5) 14 A fussy Christian snubbing independent revolutionary (9) 15 Book space for shrub (5) 16 Space for flower (6) 18 Soldier’s uniform (7) 20 Abandon furlough (5) 21 Person introducing acts seems clever occasionally (5) 25 Cover swimming pool that’s not finished (3)

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