CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Rebuke handsome youth casing motorway hotel (8) 5 Cut American racket (6) 9 What engravers do in bed in the Home Counties (8) 10 Puzzle sounds oddly fine, approaching top-class (6) 12 Stick article inside church (4) 13 Carpeting having powerful effect on old fellows (7,3) 15 Old London club the main topic of conversation (4,2,3,4) 19 Churchgoer hosts a more nervous Yankee from UK? (5-8) 23 Club in Corsica organised gymnastic feats (10) 25 Briefly manage without yard (4) 28 Bill carries pig on boat (6) 29 Pursue man at university receiving zero for English (6,2) 30 What some smokers do at home with hard drink (6) 31 Overhaul army’s system, omitting SAS for balance (8)

DOWN

1 Each expert consumes pastry dish (6) 2 Stone worker’s ‘Mother and Child’ (5) 3 Standard choice of adjacent letters (4) 4 Bendy bus froze, not starting in such conditions? (7) 6 Where to slow down superior performance (1-4) 7 Zoo patron mistreated tiny animal (9) 8 Sage and onion perhaps raises stink in innards (8) 11 Kitty cherishes large bed (4) 14 Member of choir? Get her to leave completely (4) 15 Spotted flyer flying right to me (5,4) 16 Opponent of revolutionary European (3) 17 Every fruit should have its top cut off (4) 18 Ignoring book at home, Abraham upset prince’s wife (8) 20 Couple’s final position in game on board (4) 21 Minister’s home, removing iron from dining room (7) 22 Work hard during test to obtain prize (6) 24 Stone pinched during robbery lost (5) 26 Bird and sheep nearly trapped in mine (5) 27 Short rotund fruit (4)