CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

3 Might it make a poker player affluent? (5)

No longer hired as a woodman (5)

Informal (and informative?) entertainment (5)

Good when used for cooking (3)

Refers to punishment that finishes men in the ring (5) Garments for show? (7) Curse that combination bottle opener and salt shaker! (5)

Unit of nuclear energy? (3) If duller, a gloss finish is poorer (6)

Hairy, but not necessarily dangerous (7)

22 We have a right to deteriorate (4)

Could have been spent in old Ireland (4)

Recover or obtain properly (3,4)

She romps, but doesn’t exactly toy with a lad (6) Also called “each way” (3) Sober, but said to be out to start trouble (5)

The payload can be something alarming, out East (7) To one fellow, looked in harmony (5)

Born in a bygone era (3) Moisten a garden plot two ways (5)

Easily grasped by many a listener (5)

A hunted creature, one imagines (5) 8 10 11 12

13 15

18 19

21 23 24 26

29 31

32 34

35 36

37 38

DOWN

1

Produce by spadework? (3,2) 2 4 5 6

7 9

12 14 16

17 19

20 Be hopeless at naming twins (7)

Lives heartlessly by deception (4)

Steady but, being old, about to start badly (6)

A greeting for one you hadn’t expected? (5) Friendly with Glenn? (5) Somewhat up-market animal? (3)

Did this star show inquisitiveness about stewed eels? (7) To growl at an egghead is the wrong thing to do (3) Terrible flaw in staggering round the bend (5) Honesty in a letter to a girl (5) Might he be wasted outright? (7)

Being smart, strikes! (5) 21 23 24 25 27 28 30

32 33 As played by Hank and a master? (5)

Play around in Leatherhead, obviously (7)

Work for the county and get demoted (2,4)

Make to last less than a weekend (3)

As a bit of a rotter, may be hounded (5)

But they don’t hurt the angler (5)

A bad peach is of little worth (5)

Be afraid of a noisy lug (4) Could you whiz after it with an excited cry? (3)