SUPER CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Wretch who hasn’t benefited from the wages of sin? (4,5)

6 A patient answer to ‘Who’s that in the cellar?’ (5)

9 Hear he went to war with very old-fashioned equipment (5)

10 Assumed to be sharp, perhaps (9)

11 A round before closing (3,4,3)

12 Cleans out the interior for her (4)

14 Very interested, which clinched it (7) 15 Giving the heavy ball to the dog ourselves (7)

17 In the pictures note they’re small creatures (7)

19 Dead wrong: theirs is not firm (7) 20 Steal and get rid of (4)

22 Logic that helped you escape when locked in the refrigerator? (4,6)

25 Can’t take the man to be a wrong ‘un at heart (9)

26 Spout, or tea-pourer (5)

27 Give the same interior, but a new, renovated. exterior (5)

28 Candidly, on seeing that bank (9)

DOWN

1 Get weaving on the hair (5)

2 Personally taking the vessel out after three-quarters of an hour (9)

3 The early morning rush (4,6)

4 As the Archers’ cellar was? (7)

5 Want to have a crack at, from way back (4,3)

6 Utter power or a little (4)

7 An air of despondency (5)

8 Goes to pieces when everything turns up in the woods (9)

13 Think something looks funny? (3,3,4) 14 Stop, say, to put back (9)

16 About the country, lay it on thick (9) 18 Selling saws perhaps (7)

19 The phoney has gone off in a huff (7) 21 Caught, blearily, the word ‘swarm’ (5) 23 Deny turning the key in it that’s bust (5) 24 Regard as a plus for the estate agent (4)