CRYPTIC CROSSWORD
FOR your chance to win, solve the crossword to reveal the word reading down the shaded boxes. HOW TO ENTER: Call 0901 293 6233 and leave today’s answer and your details, or TEXT 65700 with the word CRYPTIC, your answer and your name. Texts and calls cost £1 plus standard network charges. Or enter by post by sending completed crossword to Daily Mail Prize Crossword 16,920, PO Box 28, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GF. Please include your name and address. One weekly winner chosen from all correct daily entries received between 00.01 Monday and 23.59 Friday. Postal entries must be date-stamped no later than the following day to qualify. Calls/texts must be received by 23.59; answers change at 00.01. UK residents aged 18+, excl NI. Terms apply, see Page 58.
ACROSS
1 Ruin tea crop cultivated for Caribbean islander (6,5)
9 Promote the Spanish tax
among Europeans (7)
10 Bloke, 90, occasionally wants Tom perhaps on isle (4,3)
11 She’s unfortunate
to some extent (3)
12 Soprano fitting in chest
surgery waits here? (3,4) 13 Savings, say, hidden in
refurbished gents (4,3)
14 Learner loves game (3)
15 Canine in Victoria
doing badly (5)
17 Eastward section of that road forms main artery (5)
18 Coppers maintain very strong links with these? (5)
20 Son accompanies keen
person clearing stacks (5) 22 Watch beer gut overlapping last of tummy (3)
24 Rave ecstatically about Scottish mountain plant (7)
25 He and I call out: ‘It looks like spring!’ (7) 26 Partly arable area (3) 27 Regretful about disheartened nun participating in race (7) 28 Different match official with promising notes (7) 29 Productive UFO sci-fi ace getting worked up (11)
DOWN
1 How to obtain some perry for media gathering? (5,10)
2 Kiss accepted by unexpectedly elated noble (7)
3 Moor’s joint
venture (3-2)
4 Norseman busily guards old feature with prominent bridge (5,4) 5 Game cats played,
catching articles (7)
6 Power suppliers surprisingly unclear about cast (7,8)
7 Oral worries
brave lecturer (6)
8 Greek character keeps time in part of plant (6)
16 Looking back wistfully at closing broadcast (9)
18 Concealed very short
bed outside (6)
19 Scottish judge hires educated fellows (7)
21 Lighter way of working
somewhere in Sicily (7) 23 Sign up Spain and
Netherlands first (6)
25 Such a vocation
involves disorder (5)