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A cryptic skeleton crossword

by Chalicea

In this crossword, the black squares and the numbers have to be filled in as well as the solutions. Four black squares and four clue numbers are already there to give you a start. The black squares form a symmetrical pattern; the top half matches the bottom half and the two sides correspond. So you can fill in 12 more squares at once to correspond with those given.

Across

1 Merciless usurer is distrustful to engage (7)

4 Insect and piece of foliage in front or back page of book (7)

9 Outlandish hobo rustler is a fellow black man (4,7)

11 Space in rising open land (4)

12 Animal rejects marsh plant (4)

13 Resting place of universal interest and novelty initally for a nomad (7)

15 US lake seen regularly in Strathmore (5)

16 Strange miasm of religious leaders (5)

17 Point towards and make it a metamorphosis (4,3)

20 Elapse oddly and finally slowly, in a relaxed manner (4)

22 Home, it is said, is a little piece of ground (4)

23 Domain of a single, shared mindset – distorted outer column (11)

24 Badly leaking mechanical system of rods or springs (7)

25 Structure enclosing oxygen in fabrication of something new (7)

Down

1 Indicator of quite different Seville trip (6,5)

2 North American bird’s indistinct appearance (4)

3 Detach valve changing its head (5)

5 Strip of wood I put together for a stick used by Indian police (5)

6 Deviously idle and told untruths (4)

7 Time of flowering of an old currency in an Italian city (11)

8 Negotiation of Norse Euro characterised by error (9)

9 Second-year student is at first misled in deliberately flawed argument (7)

10 A leper’s disordered return to bad health (7)

13 Have confidence in money risked on a gamble (3)

14 Nimble – not half – in an old game (3)

18 In the middle of a crowd (5)

19 In trouble to start with, in a short presentation (5)

21 Laugh about learner – yellow! (4)

22 Smooth club (4)

Here is last week’s solution:

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