CRYP TIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Decision given by Italian who made notes before court (7) 5 Nickname promises to be questionable (7) 9 Over half of publicity is allowable (5) 10 Lying about joining with criminal (9) 11 Percussion in a medley above audible limit (10) 12 Stop in area to follow TV doctor (4) 14 Strangely enough it’s a large sum of money (5,7) 18 Part of body of country, large and wild to the west (7,5) 21 Composer has dropped in for some meat (4) 22 Vehicle for transferring property (10) 25 Fans staying behind (9) 26 Popular at present yet without any chance of success (2-3) 27 Pine needs support, one standing near the boundary (4,3) 28 Ruler more troubled for each being imprisoned (7)

DOWN

1 French dance in which I’ll get covered up, in case (6) 2 Formula for rice pudding and pie one’s left (6) 3 Knight invading being put in grave captivity (10) 4 Trunk found along equator somewhere (5) 5 Lying revealed in deft clue I compiled (9) 6 Married in bar — coming up, sign of baby on the way? (4) 7 Rigorous examination about catch at sea (8) 8 Places university knocked back, held by models (8) 13 Biscuit you’ll need spirit to break (6,4) 15 Laugh out loud, striding along and bounding about (9) 16 Fabulous being cooler — then caught island flu outbreak (8) 17 Stream and lake going over rising New York borough (8) 19 Menswear designed without accommodating this writer’s solution (6) 20 One laments being more intense (6) 23 Lacking precision against malaria? (5) 24 Snake Pass contains one (4)