This was one where the editor seemed to take his blue pencil out and change rather a higher proportion of clues than usual. I may write more on editors’ idiosyncrasies in due course, but one change seems worth noting – 9 down is his clue, not mine. It says something for the readership of the Church Times that even ten years ago it was possible to put ‘Butler’ in a clue, and for them to think RAB – as the Wikipedia link shows, the politician in question (while undoubtedly significant) had died more than twenty years earlier, having stepped down from active posts close on twenty years before that.
Or perhaps the readership wrote in angrily demanding to know why Butler = RAB? Not something I’d ever hear about!
Thanks as always to the Church Times for permission to republish.
ACROSS
8 SANBENITO; anag.
9 PLUSH; plus h
10 STRAP; St. rap
11 ALTAR RAIL;
12 JUDAS MACCABAEUS; anag. inc. a,a,J
13 ABRIDGE; g in a bride
15 EMERITI; hidden rev.
17 NEW ENGLISH BIBLE; anag.
21 DEMETRIUS; anag.
22 SACRA; sacra(ments)
24 RISEN; hidden
25 ANDROCLES; anag.
DOWN
1 AS IS; a sis
2 INTRUDER; in t ruder
3 KEMPIS; ke(en) MP is
4 VICARAGE; a rag in vice
5 COPTIC; cop tic
6 CURATE; cur ate
7 PHILISTINE; anag.
9 PARABLE; RAB in pale
12 JEANNE D’ARC; anag.
14 DUNSTAN; S in dun tan
15 EAST SIDE; t in anag.
16 IMBECILE; EC in I’m bile
18 WEMYSS; we my SS
19 LAICAL; I in LA Cal
20 BISHOP; bish op
23 APSE; (l)apse
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