£50 PRIZE CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Some ham – all sliced – in the American shopping centres (5) 4 So delicious you want extra – Homer is excited (7)

8 What a dreadful hat, Pete – a particular object of dislike (3,4) 9 Wee Christine planned to come back for a muesli cereal (5) 10 Get lost? Take a tip – oh, and do a U-turn (3,2)

11 Wanders here and there picking most of the brambles (6) 14 Anna followed Colin at first to a small Scottish island (5)

16 Le Bon headed west for the big international prize (5) 18 Marriages that made the nun and I so uncertain (6)

21 A sponge roll for the papal guard (5) 24 Sue is recollecting an edition of the Sunday Mail maybe (5) 25 Not carrying a weapon, like the Venus de Milo (7)

26 Spotted the male geese in Inverbeg and Erskine (7)

27 Tough clothing fabric? Dad at last took mine back (5)

DOWN

1 Become gloomy or apathetic when a poem has to be rewritten (4) 2 Disappointed and feeling disillusioned when Owen Ltd goes bust (3,4)

3 Ms Anita does circuit training, showing physical endurance (7) 4 Bump into Steven Spielberg’s alien following me (4)

5 Real end to fuedalism in the monarch’s land (5) 6 Urge and spur on mischievous child with the Spanish (5) 7 Truthfully? Yes, shy Elton is remarkable (8) 12 A bit forbidding, looking back, for a guy’s buddy (3) 13 Gino’s cut out for the Baden-Powell youth movement (8) 15 A sergeant or corporal was spotted in Vancouver (1,1,1) 16 Linda! We ordered the freshest egg at the farm (3-4)

17 Top guy at the wedding apparently? It’s not the groom (4,3) 19 Rab must leave busy Brisbane to see a Norwegian writer (5) 20 A girl of the family is trapped in Greece, intensely upset (5) 22 The skua flew back with other sea birds (4) 23 Mad Evelyn sliced up a wax-coated Dutch cheese (4)