CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Elderly, tubby, muddied in the mire, he carries a scythe etc (3,6,4) 10 Remote pantomime character (7) 11 Shoots mother in German city (7) 12 25 embroiled in brutal exercise (4) 13 Disinclined to leave out a section of hymn (5) 14 Get child off the bottle? (4) 17 Engage this to move away from layette? (5,4) 19 Fire’s raised in font (5) 20 Opening present _ noble gem (5) 22 Go, ceasing to bother footballer (9) 24 Credit account with hush money (4) 25 Pen alternative in 12 (5) 27 Are you prepared to go limp? (4) 30 Escort to exit when dog’s restraint’s failed (4,3)

31 Fish left in hat (7) 32 Things are soon in a mess when living with very limited finances (2,1,10)

DOWN

2 Last girl among kittens is not so big (7) 3 and 15 Ungrammatically expressed height of plinth (4-5) 4 Get in state about preference (5) 5 Certain to enter international displays of photos (9) 6 Return unspecified article, providing turnover for wartime Marshal (4) 7 May dire fiasco occur in June? (3-4) 8 A mouthful of sauerkraut, perhaps, is somewhat tricky (1,3,2,1,6) 9 Postie who’s a literary scholar? (1,3,2,7) 15 See3 16 Villa’s not erected by South American (5) 18 Why I get to reckon up four score and deuce (6-3) 21 Sailors from northern town don’t vote (7) 23 Sparkle with information on itemised record (7) 26 Cloaks out-of-body experience inside Royal Society (5) 28 Beginners, be off _ or suffer cries of displeasure (4) 29 Active person sounds cheerless (4)