Daily Answers

5-across – Worker in firm first to retire : CANTOR

6-across – Crowd is hanging round front of university : MOBIUS

9-across – I love being embraced by slovenly woman, rolling over : GALOIS

10-across – Expression of surprise when meeting poet? : HAMILTON

11-across – Cleric’s title put in front of name : VENN

12-across – Cleese, Idle et al, legless around old marketplace : PYTHAGORAS

13-across – Dull chemist in diffic­ulty penning article : MATHEMATICS

18-across – Host unpaid for working : DIOPHANTUS

21-across – Old tower losing its facing : ABEL

22-across – Very famous bunch of engineers : LEGENDRE

23-across – The latest fashion : NEWTON

24-across – On a trip missing nothing : TURING

25-across – Not completely happy, learner being pushed to the back : BESSEL

1-down – Home thus dealt with psychosis, removing a nightly problem? : INSOMNIA

2-down – Soak up drink and talk too freely? : GOSSIP

3-down – Little pile of soil? Briefly come out with straw : WORMCAST

4-down – On-the-up Irish singer in Italian city district : RIALTO

5-down – Cable meeting with journalist is flattered : COAXED

7-down – It’s hard work getting a new set of punchy words : SLOGAN

8-down – Theme worked out with art and wit? Brainy stuff : WHITEMATTER

14-down – Keeping a facility for large-scale ads : HOARDING

15-down – Around sailor crew is moving sideways : CRABWISE

16-down – Strip club of sleazy nature on street : DIVEST

17-down – Start to find black gold under playing field : RECOIL

19-down – Favourite lines about love in this, maybe? : POETRY

20-down – Yellow orb over county incompletely visible — as it becomes this? : SUNKEN

1-across – A scolding? Please explain : WHATFOR

5-across – Effect of insecticide for plant? : BUGLOSS

9-across – House party into the groove, looking back : TUDOR

10-across – Fish a bit strange ultimately, a bit odd : WHITEBAIT

11-across – One climbing plant in gallery — Romanesque, say? : ITALIANATE

12-across – Hooter’s ’oot : OWL

14-across – I run batsman out, playing a blinder : MASTURBATION

18-across – A lot behind, hard to forget unfortunately, after retirement of Brown — this much still left behind : NATIONALDEBT

21-across – Time to get some therapy : ERA

22-across – Looking to catch egg running backwards — extraordinary! : STAGGERING

25-across – Creep silently at first, then hop past tree : SLIMEBALL

26-across – Pigment taps into mineral deposit : OCHRE

27-across – Well-placed construction boy reported : DERRICK

28-across – Spread out, saw around centre of pile : DILATED

1-down – In as gin can be? : WITHIT

2-down – An Anglican clergyman peaking in South America? : ANDEAN

3-down – One sinning in fact, or doubly wicked : FORNICATOR

4-down – Two yews, say, in bay tree : ROWAN

5-down – Surgical pioneer pokes bottom that’s covered in sores : BLISTERED

6-down – Sexy woman found in a state in India, say? : GOER

7-down – Needing no introduction, sexist Kazakh loves to adopt religious teachings as The Messiah, perhaps? : ORATORIO

8-down – Making one’s home, landlord’s first to enter the scene : SETTLING

13-down – Toy with Ken Livingstone’s last bill, bad or otherwise : BARBIEDOLL

15-down – Spooner’s cooked nail, metal item at breakfast? : TOASTRACK

16-down – Furious as a thurible? : INCENSED

17-down – After a storm, Emirates hotter : STEAMIER

19-down – Headgear other than this keeps fashionable : TINHAT

20-down – Granted, old houses are roofless : AGREED

23-down – Very cold bottoms on freezing ice cap : GELID

24-down – Heads of King Edward’s people in military headgear : KEPI

9-across – Heard from one who’s resigned from rustic dance house? : HEYHO

10-across – Speed of light? Uncommonly smartish! : CHRISTMAS

11-across – Made ornamental horse sound on eating too much? : FILIGREED

12-across – Hanging arranged by a saint : ARRAS

13-across – Lack variety in touch display type : BACKLIT

15-across – Absence of right traditional music : NORFOLK

17-across – Old writers’ gathering — also abstract noun : SALON

18-across – Reverse hesitation in speech : RUM

20-across – Composed clue: clue finally replaced by one with depth, easy to understand : LUCID

22-across – Make it easier to bear to go to work? : COMMUTE

25-across – So long as eastern city follows cult hero : CHEERIO

26-across – Hot destination was in possession of drugs : HADES

27-across – Make serious film, yes? No, funny : SOLEMNIFY

30-across – A feature of woodland, meadow and narrow borders of spinneys : LEAFINESS

31-across – Stop boat leaking and one breaks bad luck? : CAULK

1-down – What’s that about cutting overtures of Cats, Follies and Oliver? : CHEF

2-down – Recurring action of mouse with no tail, put in clay moulding : CYCLICAL

3-down – Element of metal on glass : LONG

4-down – NEC moves assimilated by player : ACCENTOR

5-down – Amphitheatre seating in present times needs protection of beam : GRADIN

6-down – Special faculty associated with publicity and moon furrow footwear : ESPADRILLE

7-down – Worked more, by being in development : EMBRYO

8-down – A stretch in Oxford’s dual central prison : ISIS

13-down – Simple language when entered in pen : BASIC

14-down – Utilising flexible capacitance of tongues : LINGUISTIC

16-down – My young friend’s tease act : KIDDO

19-down – Spotted ring in a muscle abnormality : MACULOSE

21-down – Heel rest with copper insert as fancy twist : CURLICUE

23-down – Unclear about direction : MIDWAY

24-down – What’s comforting about time : EASTER

26-down – Bush left out : HOLY

28-down – Greek character, one who once defended uprising? : MUCK

29-down – Couple authorise interrupting you once : YOKE

8-across – Prominently display constipation cure? : BRANDISH

9-across – Shed blood that’s good to drink : GORGE

10-across – Very pale coconuts here : ASHY

11-across – Does it suggest teacher is boring? That’s criminal conduct : KIDNAPPING

12-across – Storm brewing in it? : TEACUP

14-across – A sign on six cages : AVIARIES

15-across – Tour changed to skirt bad street artist : UTRILLO

17-across – Invite to tango, bumping daughter sideways : ASKANCE

20-across – After a month, relative drops in — he’s on target : MARKSMAN

22-across – A salad for vocal expon­ent of 11 : CAESAR

23-across – Poetically, east to north : MORNINGTON

24-across – Alcoholic virtually parking in the bar : SOAP

25-across – The wrong way for Greek character to be buried in the earth : SOUND

26-across – Now settled, but exhausted : EXPENDED

1-down – Roughly object to acquiring computer language : CRESCENT

2-down – Wish one could be like diplomat missing nothing : ENVY

3-down – Dog taken over police station without lead : PICKUP

4-down – Express enthusiasm, not ecstasy, holding tot up : CHEDDAR

5-down – Clothes an American soldier’s given up to saint : IGNATIUS

6-down – Pressure on an emperor to move — one should take a capital : PROPERNAME

7-down – Notice about liberation movement’s spirited meeting : SEANCE

13-down – Lose nerve and smart, energy being put into whip : CHICKENOUT

16-down – Drink number one taken in shelter : LEMONADE

18-down – Hard case needs resolution : CHARADES

19-down – Get this to go away — it’s complicated : KNOTTED

21-down – Stir Up Sunday passed over by a lecher : AROUSE

22-down – Is wild animal able to bite? : CANAPE

24-down – Child has first to grow : SONG

7-across – Boat, vessel crossing a river : CATAMARAN

8-across – Bird, tit with tail of grey : BOOBY

9-across – It’s bang in the middle of classic course, unfinished : EPICENTRE

10-across – Second top, say : SPEAK

12-across – Gripping bar a hindrance for bird : LINNET

13-across – Mystic recites impromptu about love : ESOTERIC

14-across – Description of a fox eating bird in a grim manner : STERNLY

17-across – Yellow bird : CHICKEN

20-across – Orange bird? : MANDARIN

22-across – Bird’s infection : THRUSH

24-across – Strip a 17, say — a 17 won’t have it? : PLUCK

25-across – Most energetic kisser apt to get carried away : SPARKIEST

26-across – Bird — be a 17! : QUAIL

27-across – Thus screening gull eating head of moorhen is graphic : SCHEMATIC

1-down – Asian capital I invested in record industry, primarily : TAIPEI

2-down – Knot clean for bird trainer : FALCONER

3-down – Pig bird : GANNET

4-down – Dog bird : HARRIER

5-down – Ring dove oddly dismissed as a bird : HOOPOE

6-down – In prayer, underwear is upside down — that’s annoying : ABRASIVE

11-down – Classy pitch so perfect, somewhat uplifting : POSH

15-down – Room one found in stomach for toxic element : THALLIUM

16-down – Bird’s adventure : LARK

18-down – Top cryptic is, for starters, a grand to compose : CARDIGAN

19-down – Keep an eye on Pakistani opener in cricket, perhaps? : INSPECT

21-down – Bird that is my love : DUCKIE

22-down – Bird’s a loser : TURKEY

23-down – Bird is in hide : SISKIN