Free Crosswords Online!

Puzzle 2 by Dalibor
HOME
FAQ
My Puzzles
Guest Puzzles
Beginners' Puzzle
Yet more free puzzles!
Ximenean Clueing
Ximenean clueing revisited
Single letter indicators
Link Words
Cryptic Definitions
Tips for Setters
Surface Readings
Grid Construction
Messages from Clues
&lit clues
Ninas
Which words can I use?
General Knowledge
Sudoku vs crosswords
The Listener Crossword
Cheating?
Chambers Crossword Manual
Becoming a compiler
Feedback
Links
PUBLISH HERE
Use of these puzzles
Bits and Pieces
Dalibor's second puzzle has a theme and is every bit as challenging as his tough debut puzzle. There are so many excellent clues here that it's difficult to single out individual ones for special attention, although 5 and 7 down did stand out when I first looked at the puzzle (as did 9, 21, 24 across and 3 down...) In honesty, this is a great improvement on a number of broadsheet puzzles I've seen recently and the sooner Dalibor starts writing for the nationals, the better.

dalibor2.jpg

 
ACROSS
1/23
Dream about Palestinians in a state (6,2,5)
4 Brave New World finally accepted – more or less, say (6)
8 A graduate and don in confusion run away (7)
9 You are told to come in near the end (7)
11 Arab hiding in free France concerned with realising 1 across (10)
12 Gallagher & Lyle only partially making comeback (4)
13 Choice between elements in a 1 across (5)
14 This clergyman would become boss when BP goes for physical education (8)
16 Game's over, including awful end, with no way to go (8)
18 Scottish sweetheart back in tune, going west in region 23 (5)
20 Obscure group (4)
21 Speaker has amazing coitus interrupted by naughty LOL question (10)
23 See 1 across
24 1 across – in other words, home? (7)
25 Region 23's 'erfect example (6)
26 Young girl and old boy on the way back for 1 across (6)

DOWN
1
Snake and horse offered to Egyptian god (5)
2 Unconventional rescue worker ultimately more confident (7)
3 Brief news item, cut and pasted wrongly, covering a formation at sea (4,5)
5 Perhaps Thomas Hardy's last two central characters in Woodlanders ... (5)
6 ...aren't so special as 1 across (7)
7 City in which pub has no Guinness around? On the contrary! (9)
10 Posh people don’t start to become rotten, which is what horsemen eventually do (9)
13 Region 23’s the result of schizophrenia after having change of heart (9)
15 Wine is wasted on Dalibor (9)
17 General Assembly initially has control over father (7)
19 Oedipus complex? The work of God! (4,3)
21 City president dropping Henry, nothing to add (5)
22 Bit of a tempest or monsoon (5)




Solution to Puzzle 2 by Dalibor