GUARDIAN CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

(27,541)

ACROSS

9 Cast her in lead? (9) 10 Mate ends this old duty husband introduced (5) 11 Runs large 21 down (7) 12 Performance in hat likely to touch people (7) 13 Baffling old cases that can be hard to interpret (5) 14 Envoy to dine with English earl now and then (9) 16 Scores of cinemas include it, oddly ignoring echo (10,5) 19 Posted over a pack for confirmation maybe (9) 21 Temptress wrong to restrict touching (5) 22 Arriving at airport, female leaves confinement (5-2) 23 Blackberry jam for one in authority (7) 24 Passed round plank, first of twenty (5) 25 Cashier collecting rabbi’s fare (9)

DOWN

1 Digital problem Bill fixed in series (10) 2 Cutting as printed describes a radical lecturer (8) 3 Game could spread across Spain (6) 4 Old newspaper put up charge (4) 5 Lutheran’s one for his books, not me (10) 6 Diamonds? Pick 99 maybe (3,5) 7 Crude TV family close to top getting stitched up? (6) 8 Feel sick to some extent, heaving, sailing here? (4) 14 Capital hoards 1,000 bananas and legumes (6,4) 15 Royal courtesan condemned yarn spinners (10) 17 Daughter’s unwell, losing energy, needing these? (8) 18 Grub that is given to hoi polloi (8) 20 This writer’s one among 160 to reach peak (6) 21 Endless plain in central Russia generating winds (6) 22 Game I play in Rome once (4) 23 Brief supporter of games above and other game (4)