Crossword Codex 3

Justinian and Codex are pleased to announce that James Dorney, who works at the NSW Public Defender's Office, takes the prize for cracking this crossword. Bottles of Leeuwin Art Series Margaret River 2006 chardonnay and Torbreck Eden Valley "The Gask" 2006 shiraz are heading his way 

Now that the puzzle is solved we've provided a link below to the answers. 

Codex helpfully gives some assistance for new solvers with a few initial letter indicators. Codex didn’t invent them; you'll see that by and large they're all widely known and used in polite society. It's hardly an exhaustive list, but they all appear in various clues in this puzzle. Stay with it.

H: hard, hot  E: English, Ecstasy  S: son  L: left N: new, knight (think chess notation)

(Single letters are also often indicated by expressions like “head of / leader of / first of / last of / finally / middle of / mid” etc.)

New players will also need to know about anagram indicators.

Anagrams are front and centre in cryptic crosswords. They can be indicated by almost any word or phrase that suggests re-arrangement or disruption, so be on the lookout for these.

For example, "spreading", "by mistake", "vandalising", "lunatic" ... to name but four.

A lot of cryptic clues involve dropping letters from words. Some exclusion indicators are "missed", "drops", "forgetting", "boycotted by"; any expression that suggests that a letter or letters has been removed / is absent.

Then there are your reversal indicators for those happy occasions when a word written backwards forms another: "back" and "returns", for example.

Print crossword

Across 
01 Look into head of government spreading lies about politician (7)
05 Independent of royal house? (7)
09 Foolishly persuaded by the French fellow at university (3,2)
10 Tax agents Tim employed by mistake (9)
11 He hates to see foreigners vandalising phoneboxes skinhead missed (9)
12 Weasel in water is comparatively sexy, but can't get hard (5)
13 Instrument Border sent back (4)
15 Pledge African leaders to bankroll absent Pole (8)
18 Lunatic alleges English to be a complicated jargon (8)
19 Children's writer drops Ecstasy - a bit iffy (4)
22 Fashionable place for implant (5)
24 One of our columnists is sorely troubled about son (9)
26 Casanova left Sadie for fooling around with Guy (6,3)
27 Communist, forgetting umbrella, finally gets wet (5)
28 Hair preparations manufactured in post offices (7)
29 Piggy old NZ PM returns – not new, but hot and tough (7)

Down 
01 Pollster happy to eat salmon (6)
02 Nouns spread through erudite, though poorly expressed, agreement with apprentice (9)
03 Michael Clarke maintains cool and much admired image (3-2)
04 Fancy party held in Easter boycotted by senior Republican leaders (9)
05 Postpone greeting in speech (5)
06 Party formed by knight has Laotians in disarray  (9)
07 Find shelter in street from winter rain (5)
08 Intruder, illegally carrying no I.D., makes a profit (6)
14 Articles about standard concept of psychoanalysis could lead to segregation (9)
16 Cheerful arrangement around the start of noon - for diners there's no such thing! (4,5)
17 Bent scout to face penitentiary (9)
20 He's Polish, crazy, and a good judge of negligence! (6)
21 Part of 24d that might have appeal in 23? (6)
23 Bad moods in place of debauchery? (5)
24 Blows encountered on bottom by rider (5)
25 Time to get part-time worker? The first of October (5)

Print crossword or view answers