Daily Answers

1-across – Forbidden City artist’s a blank slate : TABULA

4-across – Tasty bit of flesh enthrals a couple of males in Turkish bath : HAMMAM

9-across – See 1 : RASA

10-across – Go too far in clarifying heartless rule in case of one fiver being lost : OVERREFINE

11-across – Breakfast food starts to make us evacuate : MUESLI

12-across – Got ring? Badly in debt again, at first : OBTAINED

13-across – Bore through getting to speak at length about France : PERFORATE

15-across – Lift people out of morass? I took over : OTIS

16-across – Person getting kiss from Douglas? : MANX

17-across – Minerals lads regularly put in iron boxes : FELDSPARS

21-across – Almost go in prison in Split, due to bust? : CLEAVAGE

22-across – Fools one politician hired, working on board : SIMPLE

24-across – Mushroom terrine starter coated with syrup, after top taken off container : RECEPTACLE

25-across – See 22 : TONS

26-across – Kind of brown-backed flower : NATURE

27-across – Remained sober, reportedly : STAYED

1-down – Defame American beginning to dither during ceasefire : TRADUCE

2-down – Freezing cold bum pinched by two brothers? Yes, in play : BRASS

3-down – Can one going there be said to be more idiotic? : LOOPIER

5-down – Add gaseous mixture to a tea drunk by the Queen : AERATE

6-down – Fat spillage? Bungle and point rudely : MUFFINTOP

7-down – See 2 : MONKEYS

8-down – When stranded, how’s your father to get a cocktail? : SEXONTHEBEACH

14-down – Entertaining lady with extremely neat backside : FUNDAMENT

16-down – Scottish island with one foreign plant : MULLEIN

18-down – Decline to remove odour? : DESCENT

19-down – Given stripe in primary colour, as curtains may be : RELINED

20-down – Creator of Fantasy Island comic, according to Spooner : WALTER

23-down – See 20 : MITTY

1-across – Very hot month — bother! : FEBRILE

5-across – See 24 : STATION

9-across – Happy band, unhappy : UPSET

10-across – Fall guy, git kidnapping primate, shot : SCAPEGOAT

11-across – Person about to accept Sumerian shop is a bloomer : FLEURDELIS

12-across – Cash for spending a penny, we hear? That’s the game! : LUDO

14-across – A figure hugging tree then dull? Yes! : AFFIRMATIVE

18-across – Woman on the throne admitted to lowest act, unfortunately, in the smallest room : WATERCLOSET

21-across – Somewhat discreet, in the shade : TINT

22-across – While nowhere to be seen, I take seat in building : INABSENTIA

25-across – Guardian setter after a pay increase almost getting nothing — that’s tedious! : WEARISOME

26-across – See 2 : HOUND

27-across – The doctor of poetry, not entirely a classical hero : THESEUS

28-across – Jumper with clothes for TV show : TOPGEAR

1-down – Slip on yellow top that’s soft : FLUFFY

2-down – Sure to inhale dope, the mad dog : BASSET

3-down – Unite a trio of redheads, furious with enmity : INTERMARRY

4-down – Follow leaders in extremely nail-biting situation, until exhausted : ENSUE

5-down – Europeans taking siestas up, one on deck doffing cap : SPANIARDS

6-down – Top ten record astonishingly’s beginning to climb : APEX

7-down – 11 encapsulating old capital, but it’s lacking for native American : IROQUOIS

8-down – Gas ring not working, blocked by end of pipe : NITROGEN

13-down – Naval bruiser chewed thistle in a roll : BATTLESHIP

15-down – Criminal, if loose, untreated? : FELONIOUS

16-down – Couple of idiots identifying the house sparrow? : TWITTWAT

17-down – Ancient individual breaking leg : STONEAGE

19-down – Adjust fastener held by Greek character the wrong way : ATTUNE

20-down – Look with you on land, might you say? : GANDER

23-down – French port where British don’t work : BREST

24-down – Pole in this building with Irish infestation? : FIRE

9-across – Make children harp on about heartless shade : PROCREATE

10-across – Show disdain for fortune-teller’s adopted name : SNEER

11-across – Name of a range of tawdry goods artist produces : TATRA

12-across – Before noon, steal into courtyard on which criminals get out : PROBATION

13-across – Sunblock for friend keeping oars moving : PARASOL

14-across – Cause corruption of French composer embracing upstart : DEBAUCH

17-across – Leonardo’s Painted Lady — love poem that’s big in China? : LISAO

19-across – Overcooked? Not at all : WAR

20-across – Piping like a pig with no head? : REEDY

21-across – Produce image of inverted boy : SCANDAL

22-across – Physically challenged person’s cold wavelet : CRIPPLE

24-across – Order: eyes left? right? whichever way you like? : FREESTYLE

26-across – Sported outside hospital : WHORE

28-across – Evidence of damage to Spain : SCARE

29-across – Cheeky about 5 being skint : INSOLVENT

1-down – Evinced contempt for minor dispute : SPAT

2-down – Wanting a beer mat : COSTER

3-down – Weapon offering promise of American woman? : BROADSWORD

4-down – Tunnel of sorts, putting 24 down on a plate of sorts : CARPAL

5-down – Registrar’s pipe : RECORDER

6-down – Land mass held back by Karzai’s Afghanistan : ASIA

7-down – Incomplete command interrupting virgin’s attention to extremities : PEDICURE

8-down – Me neither, on reflection : IRON

13-down – Fundamental problem of stately buildings : PILES

15-down – Ring to secure termination of father-in-law’s dodgy old partition : BERLINWALL

16-down – Gap filled by unknown astronomer : HOYLE

18-down – Celebrity outdoes returning long-distance traveller : SPACEMAN

19-down – Noted rider to tread on bird’s nest, topless : WALKYRIE

22-down – Understand revolutionary interrupting revolutionary : CHEESE

23-down – Bird providing introduction to Petrushka’s sweetheart : PLOVER

24-down – Discounting deception, life is death, ultimately : FISH

25-down – Offspring’s letters returned : SEED

27-down – Unspecified ordinal number restricted by obsolete letter : ENTH

5-across – Couple of gifts not closed in error : BOOBOO

6-across – See 12 : FOREST

9-across – Team having odd fixture? No problem : OXFORD

10-across – Boy in a big boy like Uncle Sam : AMERICAN

11-across – Blade cutting through thick rissole : KRIS

12-across – Side of meat, strong and thin, perhaps? : NOTTINGHAM

13-across – Big old arm beginning to sweat after trip on public transport : BLUNDERBUSS

18-across – H for Headmaster and Headmistress, but not at Harrow? : RUGBYPOSTS

21-across – See 22 : DUCK

22-across – Find me in a pond catching cold, I am drunk and disorderly! : MANDARIN

23-across – An owl that smells! : HOOTER

24-across – Queen, one in outrage, flipping : REGINA

25-across – See 9 : UNITED

1-down – Big drop into the black stuff : COLOSSAL

2-down – A model state? : JORDAN

3-down – First leg, perhaps, runner-up in pocket : FORELIMB

4-down – Hang loose, injecting drug using a needle : SEWING

5-down – More than one dog pants : BOXERS

7-down – Baa surprisingly stifled by sheep that’s going to pot? : TEABAG

8-down – I was resting in a lazy manner, having a job taking orders : WAITRESSING

14-down – Person wandering around hospital after medication, ultim­ately, for parts of the kidney : NEPHRONS

15-down – Devon town in one direction, mid resorts : SIDMOUTH

16-down – Live-in worker is in to food and booze, might you say? : AUPAIR

17-down – Long speech where credit is in issue : SCREED

19-down – Wine cellar from which mature old Burgundy initially brought up : BODEGA

20-down – Setter of a puzzle hard to see in twist then that’s wrong : SPHINX

9-across – Team in a mixed state that lacks its leader : PIXIE

10-across – One taken in on 1/4 : APRILFOOL

11-across – Beat about the bush, as persuasive speakers do : TALKROUND

12-across – Ultimate destination? Retreat over Everest’s summit : BLISS

13-across – Potter’s western Pyrenean chamois? : WARLOCK

15-across – They’re lacking energy, having large body — such nuts! : EUNUCHS

17-across – Wish it wasn’t so, but no river bird : EGRET

18-across – See 9 : HAT

20-across – Singer has line cut in musical : GIGLI

22-across – A lot of drink, over limit : PACIFIC

25-across – Laughter right to the end, like a god : MITHRAS

26-across – Swerve, failing to keep left : PARRY

27-across – No volunteer internee text : CONSCRIPT

30-across – Most tasteful cryptic clue is I do : DELICIOUS

31-across – Pigeon that’s used to release a bolt : GLASS

1-down – See 24 : SPIT

2-down – Once standard incorporates learning, one goes for a Burton? : EXPLORER

3-down – Mother’s cross raised : WEIR

4-down – Festival of Chinese people, Britain and Ford model H : HANUKKAH

5-down – A tool of southern vitriolic critic : BRIDGE

6-down – Unreliable description of bats? : FLYBYNIGHT

7-down – Belt from state ceremonial declaration by unknown character on the rebound : ZODIAC

8-down – See 16 : ALPS

13-down – A youth derided western aid : WHELP

14-down – South of NYC ground showing a different time? : OUTOFSYNCH

16-down – Skiing etc here : SWISS

19-down – Subdued quality of monotony — fresh start needed : TAMENESS

21-down – Ran half mile, stumbling in leg movement by Zola : GERMINAL

23-down – Clot’s way to penetrate devious clue : CURDLE

24-down – Loopy strip of land that protects some larvae : CUCKOO

26-down – Power plug’s protection : PADS

28-down – Insert clue’s Nero fiddled : CAGE

29-down – Seen emerging from a jumbo? : TUSK