Mungo MacCallum’s Cryptic
ACROSS
1. Popular thrashing – but kept secret (2,6)
5. Switch money (6)
10. Sad and evil – the thing disintegrates in a song by Arlen and Mercer (5,2,3,5)
11. Bloody nuisances found on an air in Bruges (7)
12. Where to experience boredom? (7)
13. Man stood trembling at the giant hairy beast (8)
15. Spirit of German army (5)
18. Traps around small shelters (5)
20. Mother’s little fights with big dogs (8)
23. Unorthodox twitch after this place (7)
25. Forecast advertising demand (7)
26. Excuse nonsensical Italian orations (15)
27. Taking the medicine – do confess! (6)
28. Said, done, fixed and plated (8)
DOWN
1. I am born Irish, British and English – let’s drink! (6)
2. Hot, our good girl – and a provider of reliable periods! (9)
3. Drop – drop the aroma (7)
4. New song devised for idiots (5)
6. Suspend setter, perhaps – depressed (7)
7. African–American, it was said, found in nine gross (5)
8. Assess times – eat recklessly (8)
9. Oedipus’s city – around number 500 divers’ problems! (3,5)
14. American politician – damned traitor. Come inside (8)
16. Rotten boundaries – gone too far (3,6)
17. Popular, the communist – but insolvent (2,3,3)
19. Depressed after pose? Take the weight off your feet! (3,4)
21. Rage over country – it’s Patrick’s nation (7)
22. Small load for the journalist – wasted! (6)
24. Taxes 8s (5)
25. Publicity – Italian working for a bird (5)
Solution next week