DOUBLE CROSSWORD

CRYPTIC CLUES

ACROSS

1 Give a shellacking with two tongues (6,6) 9 Gold miner’s finally spoken of the dawn (7) 10 Decay below sound stage (7) 11 Top to take off with kiss (4) 12 Highlight and censor rude bits (10) 15 Slow coach instructed us in speaking (8) 16 Cafe worker put just the tip of the iceberg in Adam’s ale (6) 18 Reason auntie regularly stayed in farm building (6) 19 Silent about stranger met on drive (8) 22 Jack, say, dressed boss he abused in a chequered pattern (10) 23 New consul’s endless responsibility (4) 25 Kick in the teeth for kicking cottontail in the rear (7) 27 Win round one by a length of cable (7) 28 Indoctrination in war games during physical assault (12)

DOWN

1 Exchanged a beer can for abstinence (11) 2 Count on final acquittal and hold up hearing (4) 3 Factored relaying lino into price of planter (8) 4 Astronomical length of the average second (6) 5 Indolent sort of lout used chair with evener surfaces (5-5) 6 Second person around which the earth revolves, they say (3) 7 Rock the boat after axing every second sailor (6) 8 Calling nurse to put the end of the tube in (6) 13 Due to superior (11) 14 Mentor is so peculiar to the education system (10) 17 Straightens out crooked rectors under the leadership of the church (8) 18 Coal is firing up community (6) 20 Force used science to break drug runner (6) 21 Flatter Chinese vessel overturned by tug (6) 24 Unit beneath stretch hire car (4) 26 Find all railheads a long way off (3)

FRIDAY’S CRYPTIC SOLUTIONS

Across: 1 Dark secrets. 9 Hie. 10 Telegraph. 11 Catch. 13 Satanic. 14 Totter. 16 Ravage. 18 One-step. 19 Shelf. 20 Providing. 21 Die. 22 Get-together. Down: 2 Ace. 3 Ketch. 4 Enlist. 5 Regatta. 6 Train-fare. 7 Shock troops. 8 Chickenfeed. 12 Title-role. 15 Entwist. 17 Spying. 19 Sight. 21 Dye.