CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1. Get close to Father who returns quietly with the fish (8)

7. Hated to change it, in the end (5)

8. Fabulous beast produced by roc in peacekeeping organisation (7)

9. Party record half-hinges on this animal being at sea (7)

10. Put ashore topless, with no single exclusion (4)

12. Agree to change ends of livery with keenness (7)

14. He takes off what’s on the hoof (7)

17. Week in the Algarve finishes the joint (4)

18. Call for one to appear as a Scotsman in adding problems (7)

21. What happens is nothing, in deep trouble (7)

22. An unmarried girl who is wrong (5)

23. Underlined the way puddings were sent back (8)

DOWN

1. Mother, up to the turn, is allowed to wear it for luck (7)

2. Royal personage at home to Charles I in the newspapers (8)

3. It gives the ‘A’ and starts opera before overture ends (4)

4. Is able to be misled by old-fashioned lighting (6)

5. Wood used in building the Hall at Hindhead (4)

6. The reason tavern is included is for it to sound like horse (6)

7. Make one very pleased to have held it around end of Spring (7)

11. Softens with age, as Monsieur is so well adapted (7)

13. Coloured arches brown as one could make them (8)

14. Scallywag takes the Academicians to California (6)

15. Begrudge what one must pay to be tenant round the Southeast (6)

16. Act as leader to top one (6)

19. The sea: it may have gas in it (4)

20. Craftsmanship in embroidery needs it, as it has needles (4)

SATURDAY’S SOLUTION

Across: 1. Gothic 4. Campfire 9. Allege 10. Scanners 12. Horsehair

13. Rally 14. Condominiums 18. Fish and chips 21. Riots

22. Rosewater 24. Disposed 25. Sateen 26. Deposits 27. Chaste Down: 1. Graphics 2. Tolerant 3. Ingle 5. Accordionist 6. Panoramic

7. Ideals 8. Essays 11. Parish priest 15. Omissions 16. Listless

17. Estrange 19. Graded 20. Gossip 23. Wrath

Note: more than one solution may be possible