The Brain Teaser

No. 8,659

ACROSS

3. A decrease in the number of riders who remain seated (7,3)

8. Zane Grey's pen (6)

9. Steal back over a pound (4)

10. His outgoings are few and far between (4-24)

11. It won't stop its leaves rustling! (3)

13. I stop out with her (4)

14. And with one arm twined round a girl (7) 15. Files, we're told, her name (4)

17. Do well to mount (3,2)

20. Move from Gateshead into somewhere in Cornwall (5)

22. Saw I'd spoken (4)

24. Where Roy's taken Ken touring (7)

25. Are such berries never grown in the prison garden? (4)

27. Not working? That's bad (3)

28. What the lad who went berserk in port got? (4,6)

29. An ice popular in the nursery, from what one hears (4)

30. Prints from the bullfight film? (6)

31. Plaques telling one where to sit at the dining-table? (4-6))

DOWN

1. Don't stop for one to get back into shape (8)

2. Sounded asinine and, yes, is inbred (6) 3. Butter more fat gets left in (7)

4. The teeniest bit of mistletoe caught up in the Christmas tree (5)

5. Slack is useless (4)

6. Got the boat repaired to take “13” out (8) 7. Neptune's soap? (4-4)

12. Food from uptown (4)

14. Nothing but the figure before (4)

16. Letters, say, from which one gets credit (4) 17. Continue to hide the cupola, which is lucky (4,4)

18. Deprive of, when you escort away (4,4) 19. Want to follow the river up north (4)

21. Signs the confused guests again in (8)

23. The money and everything will be back in Diana's keeping (7)

25. The strong Underhill is about to lift it up (6) 26. Where the sea battle took place? (5)

28. Tip somebody who's no good (4)