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Toughie No. 20 — cryptic crossword

A toughie puzzle: 38 clues on a 15×15 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. Settle up, show cheek at the church ceremony and merely pretend to support (3,3,7)
  2. Exercise for the pianist to climb (5)
  3. Father is a bit of change in Karachi (5)
  4. Trains with caps, tries all mixed up (9)
  5. Sounds of hesitation caught in another speech (3)
  6. Innocent, caught looking thin (5)
  7. An elector upset by broad-mindedness (9)
  8. Histrionics as a model arm gets broken (9)
  9. Daughter has energy channelled into the net — what a geek! (5)
  10. Time invested in votes against produces the minutes (5)
  11. Support for a broken arm with some dithering gives shivers (9)
  12. Poker hands, by the sound of it, in difficulties (9)
  13. Suave but lacking energy, and so metropolitan (5)
  14. Some classic evening jewellery! (3)
  15. Gaol trial rigged for a reptile (9)
  16. Deserves a saner arrangement (5)
  17. Assistants developing ideas (5)
  18. Loud fibbing and flags make for outstanding success (6,7)

Down

  1. Sepia mixed for Indian coppers (5)
  2. Found in natural sciences: Gore and Pacino, informally (3)
  3. Pined for an unknown who deserved it (7)
  4. A bit of Latin put in as a contribution (5)
  5. Sluggish creature with armour? Post at a crawl! (5,4)
  6. Went to bed, no longer working (7)
  7. Fashionable, genuine — and yet two-faced (9)
  8. Printer's measure for a girl, perhaps, to follow (5)
  9. Spice men rocking about produce a sample (8)
  10. Motor with learner at the back — what a churl! (4)
  11. Really lit, rolling drunk — word for word! (9)
  12. Teaches it clumsily, but is concerned with beauty (9)
  13. Coach in a winding curve is my concern (8)
  14. Trace of a small fly, perhaps, on a knight (7)
  15. Refusal, part of the eye, and posh — new in Nice (7)
  16. Stick with the workers (5)
  17. Professor elected to conceal a young buck (5)
  18. Right in the middle of offers — larks, maybe (5)
  19. At first, a common nasty eruption! (4)
  20. Inlet turned into a tune (3)

More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.

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