Mungo MacCallum’s Cryptic Crossword

ACROSS

1. Favourite returns after summer wear – it’s a small piece of progress (5,4)

6. Cool and competent with a rope (5)

9. Dead right – after the event (5) 10. Falls down in submission – not right, it’s the glands! (9) 11. Master, a force ten, turns back very big gangster (7)

12. Wyatt to tow aural aid (7)

13. Rose and her boyfriend with twenty outsiders following in camera negotiations (8,6) 17. Rebellious Nationals are up for competition – tennis or golf, perhaps (10,4)

21. Distorted his wail in another language (7)

23. Small capacity, awfully blue –

but talkative! (7)

25. Councillor, I am popular with Pacino and Capone – crooks! (9)

26. Small Italian lake for our

prime minister (5)

27. Stern? Absurd – although

Boehm was a Nazi (5)

28. Unhappy, sole, little mug – and

being humiliated! (5,4)

DOWN

1. Last mate performs – could be a ham! (4,4)

2. Dismissed nothing, but a shortage! (3,2)

3. Tango mistake – the leader is a bomb thrower! (9)

4. Remind ten about cassava (7) 5. Demonstrate rhythm and blues – it might be an adage (7) 6. Supply a whip with the queen (5)

7. B – could be crown or screw! (6,3)

8. Small measure – an omen for the junior officer (6)

14. Due action involves the learning process (9)

15. Pavlova rolls for the chroniclers (8)

16. Bet on run – it could be

a wildebeest! (8)

18. A large trouble for the lady’s

maid (7)

19. Puts money in waistcoats (7) 20. Soul needs a return bet on an

unknown revolutionary (6)

22. Amin books a moron (5)

24. Obit a problem for all living

things (5)

Solution next week