CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Before long, or following on, it must happen sometime (6,2,5)

10 Volunteers getting into 3 down draw a complete blank (3,1,5)

11 Put one off who is getting inside terminal building (5)

12 Used a foot-soldier from the old days to set up hot pile (7)

13 Play about one old character in a threedimensional scheme (7)

14 Odds on, eg, about baking a cake (6) 16 USA sure to get round old philosopher (8) 18 Communications about domestic shopping north of the Border (8)

20 A toff took the French to be soft-hearted (6) 23 Second-rate celebrity, say, suffered an abscess (7)

24 Rave about pun created by an upstart (7) 26 Have an advantage once more (5)

27 Put too much on an early sketch when in the red (9)

28 Have a lowly place, in the main, in front of a post (6,3,4)

DOWN

2 Beer kept in a cask is still readily available (2,3)

3 A small number had to object about drawing a blank, like 10 across (7) 4 Regretted having a new introduction that ended in bankruptcy (6)

5 Head off to a musical featuring a lively jiglike dance (8)

6 Laborious attempt to climb steep rock-face, for instance (7)

7 Could a bit-player ward off one turning inside out? (9)

8 We are all suffering identical difficult conditions, and are all at sea (2,3,4,4) 9 Used fishing expeditions to find valuable family servants (8,5)

15 To get round test ban, one had to become very stubborn (9) 17 Be afraid of a number of people who are intimidating (8)

19 Find a new model working with an old Shakespearean character (7) 21 Graduate dropped from melodrama turned out to have a place in the Lords (7)

22 The odds on the former EEC hard to address (6)

25 In the past, a manuscript appeared in tests at school (5)