Prize crossword 0626

Cryptic across
5 Blessings of Sixties music – duet is not in tune (10)
8 Left hospital department after period of abstinence (4)
9 Awe to a few is unnerving (8)
10 Muslim law runs through Kurdish arias (6)
11 Get going after Victoria vacated, to be taken in by relative (6)
12 Philistine place made of wood with dodgy old doors at the front (6)
15 NT book’s good in parts ultimately, following the OT book (6)
17 Lulu’s tea dances are hoots (8)
18 Lord, your disciple, the supporter from 6, has lost heart (4)
19 Salisbury Cathedral, obviously, for some Anglicans maybe more orthodox? (4,6)

Cryptic down
1 Bully a Trojan war hero (6)
2 Rod climbed on to a Hebridean island… (6)
3 …amending a chit to get to a Greek one (6)
4 Garden not finished, cretin’s sent up to Urfa today (6)
6 ‘Me no priest’, fabricated an apostle in denial (5,5)
7 Old boy, one that’s set then on healthy retirement (10)
13 Sound one picks out in the river’s torrent (6)
14 Isolate task force, abandoning troops over time (6)
15 Hoax by film studio in naming Moses’ successor (6)
16 Portray old Scot as a supporter of the French (6)

Quick across
5 Rituals that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects (5,5)
8 Supreme god of Greek mythology, son of Rhea and Cronus (4)
9 Town where Asa destroyed a great Cushite army (8)
10 Founder of one of the three Levite groups (6)
11 Literary name for pastoral part of ancient Greece inhabited by the god Pan (6)
12 Shrine where 1 dealt with a pot of ‘poisoned’ stew (6)
15 Narrative of the life of Christ, and the principles laid down therein (6)
17 Mythical Greek girl, fleet of foot, but ‘beaten’ by Hippomenes (8)
18 Word for a type of heather and a kind of fish (4)
19 Second Sunday before Lent (10)

Quick down
1 Prophet, disciple and successor of Elijah (6)
2 Large shrimp tail, often of a Dublin Bay prawn (6)
3 Landlocked region of Italy, capital Perugia (6)
4 Silk pouch produced by an arachnid (3,3)
6 People of an ancient region of Mesopotamia of which Abraham was one (10)
7 Song of Zacharias at the birth of John the Baptist (10)
13 Collection of star systems (6)
14 Measurement of a classified ad in a newspaper (6)
15 Birthplace in Poland of Solidarity (6)
16 Strauss opera based on John the Baptist’s nemesis (6)

Entries to Crossword 0626, The Catholic Herald, Herald House, Lamb’s Passage, Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TQ or email [email protected] (Answers in by January 15)

Cryptic answers to No 0625
Across: 5 Nimbly, 7 Unwind, 9 Philistines, 10 Cézanne, 11 Asaph, 13 Abuts, 15 Gabriel, 18 Constantine, 19 Parsee, 20 Nagoya.
Down: 1 Dieppe, 2 Syrians, 3 Junta, 4 Ends up, 6 Brigantines, 8 Windsurfing, 12 Canning, 14 Buchan, 16 Evelyn, 17 At sea.

Quick answers to No 0625
Across: 5 Charon, 7 Azazel, 9 Mesopotamia, 10 Asunder, 11 Asher, 13 Clare, 15 Lazarus, 18 Menai bridge, 19 Balzac, 20 Arioso.
Down: 1 Thomas, 2 Snapper, 3 Faith, 4 Hecabe, 6 Rosencrantz, 8 Ammishaddai, 12 Hadrian, 14 Lammas, 16 Uneasy, 17 Circe.

Winners (0624 Cryptic) Marie Drake, Chorley, Lancashire; Gregory Porilo, London SW17.
Winners (0624 Quick) TJ Monaghan, Johnstone, Renfrewshire; Peter Cates, Leicester.