DAILY MAIL CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Cold warrior angry about working with constant scavenger (7,4) 9 Legion managed to besiege British base (7) 10 Start to read funny poems about radical early outfit (7) 11 A writer’s objective (3) 12 Almost remember hiring Italian for solo performance (7) 13 Incompetent couple break golden rule initially (7) 14 Regret using odd parts of route (3) 15 Plants not rare in Arctic ground? These ones are (5) 17 Thanks to where ham is originally kept, it’s delicious (5) 18 Go over again and start to cut into harvest (5) 20 Some publicly defended Scottish flower (5) 22 Top-of-the-range male ferret (3) 24 Fellow socialist’s weapon withdrawn in programme (7) 25 One bull died tragically outside compound (7) 26 Concert’s unfinished, not 13 (3) 27 Nelson, servant of the French! (7) 28 Bear that’s gruesome, by the sound of it (7) 29 Crude hut in Oslo they designed as cheap lodging (5,6)

DOWN

1 Fiddle R&D fund? It’s paid back in compensation (10,5) 2 Unemotional old boy in trio ruined opening of concert (7) 3 Perfect croupier’s brief job description? (5) 4 New soldiers disembarked in my usual state (9) 5 Trace strange man blocking hole (7) 6 Lenin and Schweitzer ordered Austrian dish (6,9) 7 Copy feature of dressing table (6) 8 Bird’s very big victim (6) 16 Ride here and direct play etc. in Switzerland (5,4) 18 Flower head, oddly cream, found round end of June (6) 19 Southern French city includes dead flat area (7) 21 Selfish person obtained one in English Street (7) 23 Last words heard from hopeless salesman? (3-3) 25 Still try to follow shadow (5)