CRYP TIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Son, unfriendly in front of

editor, gets told off (7)

5 Credit cards snap

around end (7)

9 Spoils game in seconds (5) 10 Half interested, ready for

Macron to explain (9)

11 Wife exercises with hoop after

the man’s muttering (10) 12 Person who’s smashing

plate (4)

14 Engineer repairs tip –

no sweat (12)

18 In spite of everything, neither vessel at sea ignores island (12)

21 Pool game with international

appearing for university (4) 22 Old politician in jail is gathering

acceptable friends (10) 25 Scandal in Eton as unruly head

of science is imprisoned (9) 26 Almost keen to capture

large bird (5)

27 Looking for Neptune,

we hear? (7)

28 Presume American quietly gets

ensnared by cult (7)

DOWN

1 Cons – and those who guard

them (6)

2 Nothing to cook in base (6) 3 Regularly find rising juice

before fruit goes off (10)

4 More withered veterans initially

dropped off by motorist (5) 5 Budding plant’s container –

lean it precariously (9) 6 Powerless couples displaying

affectation of superiority (4) 7 Time to misbehave with current female? One Conservative’s wicked (8)

8 Seizing animal by lower jaw

and tail in building (8)

13 People on buses perhaps see prangs developing and start to shout (10)

15 Training fish to follow reduced

group of whales (9)

16 Broken nails, say, producing criticism (8)

17 I have sent over study by the

Church for authentication (8) 19 Voice quality encapsulates

good, upper-class dialect (6) 20 Snake European caught with

tense appearance (6) 23 Rubbish boxers? (5)

24 Artist somewhat weird?

A little (4)