Engage your mind with today’s challenge: Quick Crossword No 17,574. Here are the clues to solve this intriguing puzzle.
Across
5 Someone who dampens the atmosphere at a social event (5-6)
7 Precise and neat (4)
8 The representation of (generally positive) luck, depicted as a female (4,4)
9 Completely bewildered (2,1,4)
11 Poison (5)
13 Lacking in taste (5)
14 Gradually becoming thin at one end (7)
16 ‘Tooth or valve’ as an anagram of ‘Cupid sib’ (8)
17 Helen from ___ (4)
18 A means of conveyance used by Aladdin (5,6)
Down
1 Untangle at the conclusion of – a scuffle (4)
2 A racer in the Tour de France (7)
3 Easily annoyed, exhibiting constantly changing moods (5)
4 Sweet course – in ___ sequence (5-3)
5 Artistic style characterised by dots (11)
6 To complicate matters (4,3,4)
10 Verbal communication (8)
12 A fashion item linked to Margaret Thatcher (7)
15 Cured pork product – minor blemish (5)
17 Creature, quantity, or area of a ship (4)
Reporting based on coverage first published by theguardian.com.