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
- Settle up, show cheek at the church ceremony and merely pretend to support (3,3,7)
- Exercise for the pianist to climb (5)
- Father is a bit of change in Karachi (5)
- Trains with caps, tries all mixed up (9)
- Sounds of hesitation caught in another speech (3)
- Innocent, caught looking thin (5)
- An elector upset by broad-mindedness (9)
- Histrionics as a model arm gets broken (9)
- Daughter has energy channelled into the net — what a geek! (5)
- Time invested in votes against produces the minutes (5)
- Support for a broken arm with some dithering gives shivers (9)
- Poker hands, by the sound of it, in difficulties (9)
- Suave but lacking energy, and so metropolitan (5)
- Some classic evening jewellery! (3)
- Gaol trial rigged for a reptile (9)
- Deserves a saner arrangement (5)
- Assistants developing ideas (5)
- Loud fibbing and flags make for outstanding success (6,7)
Down
- Sepia mixed for Indian coppers (5)
- Found in natural sciences: Gore and Pacino, informally (3)
- Pined for an unknown who deserved it (7)
- A bit of Latin put in as a contribution (5)
- Sluggish creature with armour? Post at a crawl! (5,4)
- Went to bed, no longer working (7)
- Fashionable, genuine — and yet two-faced (9)
- Printer's measure for a girl, perhaps, to follow (5)
- Spice men rocking about produce a sample (8)
- Motor with learner at the back — what a churl! (4)
- Really lit, rolling drunk — word for word! (9)
- Teaches it clumsily, but is concerned with beauty (9)
- Coach in a winding curve is my concern (8)
- Trace of a small fly, perhaps, on a knight (7)
- Refusal, part of the eye, and posh — new in Nice (7)
- Stick with the workers (5)
- Professor elected to conceal a young buck (5)
- Right in the middle of offers — larks, maybe (5)
- At first, a common nasty eruption! (4)
- Inlet turned into a tune (3)
More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.
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