No 14516, Friday 20 Jun 2025, Bruno

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ACROSS

1   Punishment's one way to preserve without honey, essentially (6) CANING CANnING

4   America's about boys circling old city neighbourhood (6) SUBURB {US<=}{B}{UR}{B}

9   Protest to repeal privileges essentially dropped (4) STIR RIghTS<=

10 Surprised man soon crashed vehicle (10) MOONSTRUCK {M}{SOON*}{TRUCK}

11 Professional film portraying leader of Wales (6) LAWYER {LA{Wa..s}YER}

12 River running through toxic slum air is characteristic of undeveloped area (8) RURALISM {R} in PSLUM+AIR}*

13 Girl's going around Indonesian island with head therapist and healer (9) HERBALIST {HER{BALI}S}{Th...t}

15 Stuff starts in summer - takes one week (4) STOW Acrostic

16 River and harmful stream (4) RILL {R}{ILL}

17 Peacekeeper's chief detective caught in the middle of fake alcohol problem (9) CONUNDRUM {UN}{De...e} in {CON}{RUM}

21 Artist framing groin artistically on dead - a feature of 4ac? (4,4) RING ROAD {R{GROIN*}A}{D}

22 Firm just fired leader to toe the line (6) COMPLY {CO}{aMPLY}

24 Overreliance of Pence ended in trouble (10) DEPENDENCE*

25 Unpleasant feeling that distant relative, finally would be visiting (4) FEAR {F{r...vE}AR}

26 Article on medicine covered a particular topic (6) THEMED {THE}{MED}

27 Ghost with hair billowing around bone (6) WRAITH {W+HAIR}* over {T}

DOWN

1   House is away from geostatic orbits (7) COTTAGE GEOsTATiC*

2   Niece's head injured - very anxious (5) NERVY {Ni..e}{VERY*}

3   Figure of hurt lumberman - medic abandoned (7) NUMERAL LUmbERMAN*

5   Numerous ordinary men starting to come out swaggering, becoming less confident (6) UNSURE NUmERoUS*

6   Runners often get happy - that may not be connected (9) UNRELATED {rUnNeRs}{ELATED}

7   Money was returned by lumberjack's assistant (7) BUCKSAW {BUCK}{WAS<=}

8   Identical score composed about Royal lake in Germany (13) CORRESPONDING {CO{R}RES*}{POND}{IN}{G}

14 Italian boy transporting Congolese leader disappeared (9) BOLOGNESE {B}{cONGOLESE}*

16 After rain stopped early, people got out finally with clothing (7) RAIMENT {RAIn}{MEN}{ouT}

18 Dubious type of energy upper classes promoted (7) UNCLEAR (+u)UN(-u)CLEAR

19 Heartless relative remains free (7) UNLEASH {UNcLE}{ASH}

20 Nurse withheld documents - hiding recall (6) CODDLE [T<=]

23 Both genders linked by union, rejecting it is religious scholar (5) MUFTI {M}{U}{F}{IT<=}

Reference List

 Boy = B, Old city = UR, Man = M, River = R, Artist = RA, Dead = D, Firm = CO, With = W, Bone = T, Medic = MB, Royal = R, Germany = G, Upper class = U, Genders = M,F, Union = U