CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Strip having turned brown bathing in river (6) 4 Shining silver items thrown out (8)

9 Crazy person from Northern Ireland area absorbed in computer (6) 10 Greek character cheers collecting ultimately excellent marks (8) 11 Rebel gent in revolution protected country (5,4) 13 Gangster with weapon creates panic (5) 14 Refined frigid brunettes I’d abandoned — one wouldn’t make much of a catch! (13) 17 Producer of decorative writing a spiral glitch ruined (13) 21 Scoffs at examinations (5) 23 Front of book, e.g. Master and Servant (5,4) 24 Temperature right in old Spanish kingdom to produce aromatic herb (8) 25 Bird of prey — something normally seen over hill (6) 26 Looks for food and shelter initially having no fixed abode (8) 27 Strapping king in private room (6)

DOWN

1 Spoil mother with advance of years (6) 2 Somehow ban novel about resistance using signals to communicate (9) 3 Curse about engineer briefly coming up in police hunt (7) 5 Learn precisely what to do for post in Greendale (3,2,3,3) 6 Some chasing rainbows to fix colour (7)

7 Note a Gunners headband (5) 8 Provide more weapons for East German last of all (8) 12 Curses director perhaps with shares (11) 15 Person in Crowd Scene One in movie, concealing head — fan? (9)

16 Classic sports car — Micra’s crashed catching it (8) 18 This month everyone gets put in place (7) 19 Nice tax breaks as a ballpark figure (7) 20 Pay agriculture department unknown amount (6) 22 Piece of bric-a-brac made of copper and gold turned up around India (5)