DAILY MAIL CROSSWORD

NO 14206 PRIZES of £20 will be awarded to the senders of the first three correct solutions checked. Solutions to: Daily Mail Prize Crossword No. 14,206, PO BOX 3451, Norwich, NR7 7NR. Entries may be submitted by second-class post. Envelopes must be postmarked no later than tomorrow. Please make sure you enclose your name and address.

ACROSS

1 Exciting poker hand? It embarrasses some women (3,5) 5 Composer’s supporters included His Majesty (6) 9 Exercises in Sunday school during cooked supper (5-3) 10 Part of flower meant to burst after onset of summer (6) 12 Follow orders, getting award at start of year (4) 13 Transport for the police flying to rescue at first? (10) 15 Eldest son’s right to ring up 25 out east (13) 19 Menu coming? It’s unfortunately taking ages (4-9) 23 Late cleric worked with powerful connections? (10) 25 Commander of Euro–russian space station (4) 28 Weather phenomenon in online broadcast (2,4) 29 Mood of disheartened ambivalence (8) 30 Nabokov book: it all went wrong when love intervened (6) 31 Old money in river turned over and brought up (8)

DOWN

1 Cool river, small but ideal for these animals (6) 2 Topic of article on Middle East (5) 3 Girl left fool (4) 4 Drink more after training top man (7) 6 Relative measure in operation (5) 7 Powerless radio amateur sort of grunts (9) 8 Star forgets his words and miscellaneous items (8) 11 High-flier’s equipment on summit of Everest (4) 14 Metal discovered in quartz in Cairngorms (4) 15 Little red flower was literally elusive (9) 16 Energy supplier cut harbour off (3) 17 Girl from Dublin’s divorced husband (4) 18 Very refined but ghastly tale about this place (8) 20 Catch group of Italians up (4) 21 Scot-free, Henry left, carrying no weapons (7) 22 Chum runs into devilish character (6) 24 Belief, however one looks at it (5) 26 Painter, one in Montana (5) 27 Record exists in Washington (4)