Daily Answers

9-across – Put formally, tennis great with appropriate round decoration : SGRAFFITO

10-across – Large island reduced by a gas : OZONE

11-across – Hot on the heels of swinging single people : ENGLISH

12-across – State tennis legend’s song and dance : PALAVER

13-across – Desirable girls generally try to put out — time for resistance? : TOTTY

14-across – Made acceptable, the thing breathes in windy Andes : SANITISED

16-across – Blowing the whistle on football team’s once popular number : SINGINGTHEBLUES

19-across – Battle location having small advantage: opportunity to retreat : SEDGEMOOR

21-across – Down with … what did you say about holy man? : SADHU

22-across – Ostentatious flâneur one’s seen off on this occasion : FUNERAL

23-across – Vast area ripe for development — look into it : PRAIRIE

24-across – Rock band gets job making important roof timber : QUEEN

25-across – Female, put coarsely, eg sheila or bird : FISHEAGLE

1-down – Disease, when linked to top quality outstanding, lives : ASBESTOSIS

2-down – Get lighter energy for nothing in English resort : BRIGHTEN

3-down – Guy from Fife turning guy inside out : EFFIGY

4-down – See 20 : WITH

5-down – Western character Daisy’s smitten by? : COWPUNCHER

6-down – Support for camera, yet turned up as old clothes washer : DOLLYTUB

7-down – See 20 : WOLVES

8-down – As the hourglass figure went : PEAR

14-down – Movement, if impaired with sloe gin, embracing fellow? : SIGNOFLIFE

15-down – Sequined, it’s designed to be unsettling : DISQUIETEN

17-down – Milliner ran two houses free from error : INERRANT

18-down – Swimming nude over foam, so not allowed alcoholic drink? : UNDERAGE

20-down – The big picture shows balls in the possession of football side : DANCES

21-down – See 8 : SHAPED

22-down – Musical note : FAQS

23-down – See 24 : POST

1-across – Interrogator about to request main first suspects to come in : QUESTIONMASTER

9-across – Obsolete remedy has laboratory extremely in the dark : OBSCURELY

10-across – Greeting covers small island in the Caribbean : HAITI

11-across – Black beginning with a word of regret : ALACK

12-across – Intolerant one left party : ILLIBERAL

13-across – Repeats treatise after readjustment : ITERATES

14-across – 1 across peace when war in the Far East is over : PAXMAN

17-across – Cosy up to large food and drink company : NESTLE

19-across – 1 across carries a heavy load over a period of time at the beginning of the year : HUMPHRYS

22-across – Candidate to plan pact reforms with independent in the centre : APPLICANT

24-across – Indian music he tries to eavesdrop in recital : TAPPA

25-across – Walks unsteadily on boats : KEELS

26-across – It’s plain to see I get sneer anyway : SERENGETI

27-across – Rely on job at ranch to be drunk on hard liquor : JOHNBARLEYCORN

1-down – They go without saying to get estimate to large retailer : QUOTATIONMARKS

2-down – Nurses near being manipulated into trap : ENSNARE

3-down – Elephantine facility needed an operator’s assistance : TRUNKCALL

4-down – Unequal match so denied surprising result : ONESIDED

5-down – Insect might get up in the air : MAYFLY

6-down – Indian’s term of respect starts straight after he is born : SAHIB

7-down – Witticism coming three times from George Orwell’s farm animals : EPIGRAM

8-down – A dental surgery’s role as gas supplier? : FILLINGSTATION

15-down – Longing for a quiet canoodle in French country surroundings : APPETENCY

16-down – Artistic sect’s mural a non-starter : CULTURAL

18-down – Boss getting to eat out more : SUPREMO

20-down – Supplementary tax somehow to be deducted from expiration otherwise : RIPIENO

21-down – It produces purge of fool employed in big agency : CASSIA

23-down – Playwright in the same place makes a lot of sense : IBSEN

1-across – Number of words from Marx, as revolutionary duo iffy — habitual adulation and dubious mythologies died away : IFISAID

5-across – See 1 : YOUHADA

9-across – Puzzle solver? : REBUS

10-across – See 1 : BEAUTIFUL

11-across – Midas-touched fruit ending in bin, being made of metal? : AUTOMATON

12-across – Queen, perhaps, but one’s straight : RULER

13-across – Lofty soak : STEEP

15-across – See 1 : AGAINSTME

18-across – God requires name for the shape in some states : PANHANDLE

19-across – Treetop home — why in lake? : EYRIE

21-across – One’s dying to execute politician : EMBER

23-across – See 1 : BODYWOULD

25-across – See 1 : YOUHOLDIT

26-across – Green ball, then the brown one of the three? : OLIVE

27-across – Seed, contents of which dispersed in rupture : DEHISCE

28-across – 18 down worms so? : LEGLESS

1-down – Raids — and no mistake! : INROADS

2-down – Hotel admitting stay affected, neither here nor there : INBETWEEN

3-down – A considerable portion served up for tea : ASSAM

4-down – Month without coin then ’arsh for buyer : DEBITCARD

5-down – Long thread binding feline’s tail : YEARN

6-down – Truncate difficult European statement : UTTERANCE

7-down – Right abandoning summit, as hellish : AWFUL

8-down – Free, on the whole : ATLARGE

14-down – Royal characters among Englishmen abroad in places of leisure : PLAYROOMS

16-down – Unreliable point in material brought up to support article : ANECDOTAL

17-down – Turn out risqué, somewhat blue? : TURQUOISE

18-down – Pastry observed as wasted : PIEEYED

20-down – Incessan? : ENDLESS

22-down – Black plant in bushes : BRUSH

23-down – Shift bird, half gone : BUDGE

24-down – Out of keeping, Norwegian uprising : WRONG

9-across – A cock bird no friend to Israel : AMALEKITE

10-across – Dove’s top notes recited poem : HAIKU

11-across – False god to love, love therefore not true? : TOOGOOD

12-across – First to end play at an abstinent time : RAMADAN

13-across – Early days in return of half-hearted TV city : SALAD

14-across – Remove island prey of 8s’ devil : EXCISEMAN

16-across – Obsolete institution: Act I — the goalpost must be moved : COTTAGEHOSPITAL

19-across – Say pears and apple in tandem? : TWOSEATER

21-across – Herb left by soldier at ease : COMFY

22-across – Upset one in the dam : MOITHER

23-across – Title given back to archduke, being a dish : RISOTTO

24-across – Strap used by blacksmith on grey mare : THONG

25-across – Elite Spooner’s drunk after fiasco : TOPFLIGHT

1-down – Kipling’s pony, a cross beast, playing 21 and 22 down : MALTESECAT

2-down – Long wait on the cards for sleeper over sleepers : WAGONLIT

3-down – Time to set clock and get breath back : SECOND

4-down – See 3 : WIND

5-down – Nameless impressionist with foot : RETROCHOIR

6-down – Encouragement to beat about the bush, almost wildly : THUMBSUP

7-down – Extra to set in the comic sense : WISDOM

8-down – Get very hot water : BURN

14-down – Give boost to surrounding vulgar-sounding bully who has the franchise : ELECTORATE

15-down – Swap larger numbers in protest from Lincolnshire town: no wind farm! no swallows! : NILBYMOUTH

17-down – Don’t talk up soldier in Indonesian region, as pack is normally used : ACESHIGH

18-down – Warning not to outstay welcome I encountered in African country : TIMETOGO

20-down – 8s’ Mary’s lost head in prayer : ORISON

21-down – Move at chess where players lose side pieces : CASTLE

22-down – Move at chess, first of moves at the end : MATE

23-down – Awestruck, as is right and proper : RAPT

1-across – Cook’s been able to do this once on time : RETAINTHEASHES

9-across – Police who want use of crackdown say they are gripping the court! : VICESQUAD

10-across – Sri Lankan port’s lifeboat’s chief caught in a force 8 : GALLE

11-across – Itinerant #out to lunch : NOMAD

12-across – Play this for eventual gain and drag to the ground : HARDTOGET

13-across – World traveller’s not doing too well in business with PC? : ETAILING

14-across – High-class clothes business — right time to go for it! : AGRADE

17-across – Fitful earless driving programme through well : STOPGO

19-across – Look into enclosed space and see transmitter : COLOURTV

22-across – On vacation, double-crossed nasty DJ? : DRESSCODE

24-across – International ran laps on record : FILED

25-across – Timeless band’s backing track : SPOOR

26-across – One intriguing old Spanish gentleman : CABALLERO

27-across – Virginia back, cutting Myra, is getting involved with Gordon — TV feature? : SNOGMARRYAVOID

1-down – Freshly hassled, gets even: divorces bride — so saying? : REVENGEISADISH

2-down – Old mortar in building programme co-tenant’s brought up : TOCEMMA

3-down – Mannequins I de-legitimised, having the measure of men’s outfitter : INSIDELEG

4-down – Moving about : TOUCHING

5-down – Last divers under base : ENDURE

6-down – With intervention of government, this goes up a great deal : SIGHT

7-down – Articles praising one in United goal getting drunk after end of game : EULOGIA

8-down – See 1 : BESTSERVEDCOLD

15-down – Indulge too much in what’s unusually legal of mafioso : GOODFELLA

16-down – N, some out of uniform inspiring Sussex resort with no hotel : NOVEMBER

18-down – The Queen’s personal circle has no news to broadcast : ONESOWN

20-down – Outstanding piece of fiction concerning upset on borders : RELIEVO

21-down – Received refreshment at 4pm on 1/4, oh yesssss! : GOTCHA

23-down – Parents’ progeny? Some of it : SPROG