CRYP TIC CROSSWORD
ACROSS 1 Chased snipers having blown hole in the wall (4,9) 9 Ban expert writer ( 9) 10 Indian mystic travelled through water to reach island ( 5) 11 It can put out article about Queen? On the contrary ( 5) 12 Fool told to join up (4) 13 Report on one late old item (4) 15 Support son beset by one running out of control ( 7) 17 Old rogue on TV’s energy to write ( 7) 18 High- spirited girl almost reaching US city means to gamble ( 7) 20 Match perhaps for attacking footballer ( 7) 21 Ordinary writer, quite accessible (4) 22 Murphy gets Northern Irish
party’s backing (4) 23 Plant from south facing
border ( 5) 26 Grand works using Oriental images ( 5) 27 Rare ombu tree initially cultivated here? ( 9) 28 Trade no longer carried out in
conurbation ( 7,6) DOWN 1 Reliable policeman prospered keeping clear of drink ( 6- 8) 2 Vice of heartless Lothario ( 5) 3 Award for end- of- year speech ( 10) 4 Some fishing equipment catching trout finally, a hard problem ( 7) 5 Like some verse, say, Alice gets excited about ( 7) 6 Special forces – hard band (4) 7 Police barrier catches a bold criminal in possession of precious stone ( 9) 8 Aliens enter telling me to get knotted ( 6,5,3) 14 I put on a show with one Italian character entertaining president ( 10) 16 Failing to start sleeping, being clumsy ( 9) 19 Road material, a tar spread round both ends of path ( 7) 20 Short article shows team
meeting lawyers ( 7) 24 Went out with American
lawyer then Irish priest ( 5) 25 A female Wimbledon
champion once (4)