No. 9454, Thursday, 12 Feb 09, Sankalak

Another easy crosssword for today and did not need too much of thinking.
ACROSS
 1 - Traveller who does not pull his weight? (9) - PASSENGER
 5 - The way a member may make an impression (5) -STAMP
 8 - His power came from locks (6) -SAMSON I did not know there is a song on Samson and Delilah sung by the group Grateful Dead, see the link.
 9 - Doubting Thomases misconstrue ICC’s step (8) - SCEPTICS
11 - A long, hard journey from Montmartre knocks one out (4) - TREK
12 - Fuel to drive student worker (10) - PROPELLANT
14 - A foolish chap’s fruit (5) - LEMON Have any of you heard the Lemon Song by Led Zeppelin? A great song they were one of my favourite groups when I was in college, I have the original LP with this track on it.
15 - Fireworks, not necessarily from the boss (7) - ROCKET
16 - A gun, his remedy for mental distress (7) - ANGUISH
17 - A note can be a pick me up (5) - TONIC
19 - Kind of vibrations used in diagnosis, extremely reliable (10) - ULTRASOUND
20 - Language used in speech by commoners especially (4) - ERSE See the origin
22 - Widespread disease made mice die horribly around centre of Rampura (8) - EPIDEMIC
23 - Test for a food fish that has swallowed something unknown (3,3) – TRY OUT
24 - A spectacle on location, say (5) - SIGHT
25 - Male attitude about one shows doubt (9) - HESITANCE
DOWN
 1 - The language to persuade a labour organisation (6) - PUSHTU Also known as Pashto and spoken in Afghanistan and the NW Frontier Province of Pakistan
 2 - PGW work, a flash in hot weather (6,9) – SUMMER LIGHTNING Have not read this book or even heard of it. Not one of my favourite authors.
 3 - God is angry, upset (4) - EROS
 4 - Regaining health but creating pure chaos (12) - RECUPERATING
 5 - One making an earnest appeal to displace about 99 (10) - SUPPLICANT
 6 - Tom and Jerry, for one (8,7) – ANIMATED CARTOON
 7 - A prerequisite for shopping in Madrid (7) - PESETA
10 - Varnish for furniture from one European country and another (6,6) – FRENCH POLISH
13 - Unable to decide what to do? Use contents of native balm (10) - AMBIVALENT
16 - High-class metals used in making charms to protect one from evil (7) - AMULETS
18 - Mortar’s partner in mixing things up! (6) - PESTLE
21 - Court order to contain beginning of ribaldry in humorous speech (4) - WRIT