CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

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30 31 Is what hens do in the Hebrides (5)

A growing reason for my backwardness in an article (5)

Make a special item of a fine performance on the river (7) Skill in boatbuilding? (5) Angry with a charge at the medical centre (5) Make a mess of a confection? (5)

A country lover (7) Young socialite just starting (3)

Set among some pyramids (4)

Go back to bed (6) Something to do with a wheel (5)

For preference, take a bite out of a choc-ice (6) Takes a rest from veracity! (4)

A female in the news (3) Outstanding foreigner in the street (7)

Full of non-vegetarian substance (5)

This little fellow is a cross one when deprived of pie (5) Piece of sticky paper (5) Gossip to read to a backward lad (7)

Keep quiet about mum’s contribution to an accident (5)

Sources of water in Somerset (5)

DOWN

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19 21 china (6)

Still rising in late years (3) Strong drink (5)

A piece of a piece (7) Present her with a key (4) The question of how mother holds a tin opener (6) No way to play piano (5) Area or path around central Whitechapel (5) Athenian with his own way of working in metal (5) Down south, a team has to fade out (5)

Start back east with a donkey, say (5)

Early form of team contest (5)

Sound highly owlish! (7) It may cause the balloon to go up (6)