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Cryptic No. 2 — cryptic crossword

A cryptic puzzle: 35 clues on a 13×13 grid. Solve it online — check your answers as you go, ask for a hint, and read how each clue works once it is solved.

Across

  1. Bishop with a call to fetch (5)
  2. Bone of contention in a punch-up? (7)
  3. Boss dropping four to carry out (7)
  4. Hen troubled early (5)
  5. Rhea in a flap over a rupture (6)
  6. Oafs sprawled on the settee (4)
  7. Composed when tower crumbled (5)
  8. A student, as before? Too bad (4)
  9. Snuff it with a final blow to the pail? (4,3,6)
  10. A look east reveals a succulent (4)
  11. Old Nick lived, going backwards (5)
  12. Leading, and rather too knowing (4)
  13. Second book about a mass departure (6)
  14. Trendy to let out a bay (5)
  15. My pen, taking in hesitation, produces a puzzle (7)
  16. Treads on a family member (7)
  17. Venetian ruler taking in daughter for a ruse (5)

Down

  1. Ales for worker, king and son (5)
  2. Diamonds seen at a music evening (3)
  3. Luge crashed into paste (4)
  4. Sharp cry of grief (4)
  5. Not the United Nations' idea of lawful! (8)
  6. Dock hand, we hear, is an essential employee (3,6)
  7. Sincere Eastern novel (7)
  8. Proverbially nothing like cheese (5)
  9. Harts wandering into rubbish (5)
  10. Cheek to prize what's printed on the note (4,5)
  11. Wiping the slate clean for the competitors (8)
  12. Fool with moulds for the little ones (7)
  13. Madam is unknown, but blue (5)
  14. Freewheel by the shore (5)
  15. Astronomer sinking yen in a hole (5)
  16. Duck, men — a warning (4)
  17. American editor exploited (4)
  18. Purpose of the lone mountain road, ultimately (3)

More: Cryptic cryptic crosswords.

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