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Toughie No. 23 — cryptic crossword

A toughie puzzle: 44 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. Beseeching knight to be sent off, upset the boss (3,6)
  2. Caesar is hiding Indian dresses (5)
  3. Day the chief becomes crowned head (7)
  4. Extremist smashed car dial (7)
  5. Small pastries for the moles (5)
  6. Last gasp — ale before close of play (6,3)
  7. Trees: fifty planted in printer's measures (4)
  8. Sardonic, having dropped right, in the Greek style (5)
  9. Low, and far out in the field (4)
  10. Turn coat inside out for a Mexican snack (4)
  11. Fine artist produces lady's fingers (4)
  12. Pack away second haul (4)
  13. Unfriendly clod, all mixed up (4)
  14. Fashionable new society hostelries (4)
  15. Sum up on the subject of headgear (5)
  16. Some sink needs a joint (4)
  17. Off the cuff, I'm a cue for the upper class (9)
  18. Monsters in scattered gorse (5)
  19. Wall filler: places rearranged to accommodate king (7)
  20. Tile game: hospital journal lost among the confusion (7)
  21. Treated party, son and journalist (5)
  22. Shocks as Spurs rise remarkably (9)

Down

  1. Bishop, hesitating over postscript, gets knocks (5)
  2. Kind, admitting one non-Jew (7)
  3. Saint Sarah brought up to pester (6)
  4. Former partner's greeting? A scrap, on show! (7)
  5. Up and down, a crater I circled (7)
  6. Abrupt daughter caught in shifting dunes (6)
  7. Go over again, as checker gets muddled (7)
  8. Green times, long before any dressing-down (5,4)
  9. Character concealed by escapee (3)
  10. Give authority to me, raised with clout (7)
  11. Reportedly a pair, as well (3)
  12. Drunk on gin, trio go wild! (7)
  13. Hell! Girl and editor sacked (9)
  14. Sadly harps on about wanting parents! (7)
  15. Engine part, or river by the Backs (3)
  16. Grind down work of the media (7)
  17. Murder plotted, taking in a million, by the band's timekeeper (7)
  18. Uneasy queen gripped by venous disorder (7)
  19. Born Anne Rose, ultimately (3)
  20. Set at an angle, ready to fire (6)
  21. Some Kos herbs are genuine (6)
  22. Tourist attractions, losing time, produce weary breaths (5)

More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.

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