Daily Answers

8-across – Side’s phoney complaints : DISEASES

9-across – Extremely happy and sensible around animals : HYENAS

10-across – Eg Newcastle and Liverpool matches : SEES

11-across – Singer may help her trace of Mancunian accent : SEAMSTRESS

12-across – Key for Anglo-Saxon instrument : ASHARP

14-across – See surgeon in cosy armchair : LOVESEAT

15-across – Sirenians frighten divers ultimately : SEACOWS

17-across – Seamen set out across Spithead together : ENMASSE

20-across – Tea was brought back home inside cutter : CHAINSAW

22-across – Drive enemy back into grass : TEEOFF

23-across – Catch embarrassed paparazzo : REDSNAPPER

24-across – Not one of 5 2 Mussorgsky carried about : ROSS

25-across – It braces one during a run : SEAAIR

26-across – Painter appears in sombrero, usually : ROUSSEAU

1-down – Hangers-on seen off by local manager : LICENSEE

2-down – See 5 : SEAS

3-down – Exhausts cause supercharger’s casing to drop off : USESUP

4-down – Blue liquid ready to be applied : USEABLE

5-down – No match in the ’70s for ancient mariner’s domain? : THESEVEN

6-down – Bloomer made by Scottish team at bottom of table : HEARTSEASE

7-down – Naval apprentice upset initially by this? : NAUSEA

13-down – Short item about cold northern swimmer : ARCTICSEAL

16-down – Cable tackles Conservative know-all : WISEACRE

18-down – New candidate prefers this group to include a female : SAFESEAT

19-down – Work during conflict in Times shown on successive days? : TWOPART

21-down – What the Observer did, he did to the Listener : HEEDED

22-down – Neckwear that’s almost too risqué is banned : TORQUE

24-down – Spots rook on tree : RASH

8-across – Lover gives a stuff about rain? On the contrary : PARAMOUR

9-across – Work and overwork for European Union entry : OEUVRE

10-across – One contributing to lunch, effortlessly : CHEF

11-across – Barely in, left to express the appropriate term : LEMOTJUSTE

12-across – Half-bloods end badly — that’s fair : BLONDE

14-across – Prince has no right to upset Buddhist spectacles : PINCENEZ

15-across – 2 — master together with criminal : BRIGAND

17-across – Moore’s city is rather sweet : DEMISEC

20-across – It’s cheap reproduction : PASTICHE

22-across – Graceful and selective when mixed with crushed ice : SVELTE

23-across – It could be the outline’s forgotten name : SILHOUETTE

24-across – Transcribe author’s 8 : BEAU

25-across – I’ve sworn academic men fry bananas dry on the outside : PARDON

26-across – See 25 : MYFRENCH

1-down – Single composer’s part is on the rise : BACHELOR

2-down – Youngster’s muscles are essential to physical fitness : CALF

3-down – Perhaps one from the border, with railway leading to mine : COLLIE

4-down – Cleaner pines for tool of the trade, or so it’s said : MRSMOPP

5-down – Last unit once used : CONTINUE

6-down – Reincarnation of alternative culture does not begin in part of Scotland : FUTURELIFE

7-down – Legal document served on the man makes us squirm : WRITHE

13-down – Eight and awfully quiet in there : NIGHTSHADE

16-down – … having lost colour, the source of such music : NOCTURNE

18-down – Charm of arrival : ENTRANCE

19-down – Dark type of story : BEDTIME

21-down – A difficulty reported at the top : APICAL

22-down – Witness the departure of defeat : SEEOFF

24-down – Buzzer with quiet warning sound : BEEP

1-across – Murky ratholes housing black anteater : SLOTHBEAR

6-across – A game breeder : STUD

10-across – Eighteenth channel, perhaps, running back from an organ : RENAL

11-across – See mistake, reduced cost next to nothing : BISHOPRIC

12-across – Privileged individual in communist is revolutionary : INSIDER

13-across – Getting all those in attendance into shelter, one succeeds : LEGATEE

14-across – US concert venue, Spooner’s pit for all-singing, all-dancing entertainment? : HOLLYWOODBOWL

17-across – Boycott’s indomitable spirit, perhaps, that keeps Bradford’s roads passable in winter? : YORKSHIREGRIT

21-across – Why the punishment? : WHATFOR

22-across – Duck stuffed with trimmings of roast deer cooked for a stickler for naval etiquette? : QUARTER

24-across – Perception of physical attributes failing to impress Amy, I suspect? : BODYIMAGE

25-across – Fashionable to write crosswords as a secondary newspaper feature? : INSET

26-across – Get some stick? : TWIG

27-across – Damage is down to a tree : SATINWOOD

1-down – Reliable hand : STRAIGHT

2-down – Napoleon’s speech in breaking sanctions : OINKS

3-down – Surgery on thyroid and facial features primarily cause of congestion? : HOLIDAYTRAFFIC

4-down – Restriction that’s overturned nothing to excite me : EMBARGO

5-down – Corrosion was in the van, so took stock : RUSTLED

7-down – Detail the villain squeezing lightly at first, as strangler : THROTTLER

8-down – See 22 : DECKER

9-down – Paul helping to support Central African area, welcoming opening of land mass : CONGLOMERATION

15-down – Natural sunblock ideally in jars : LEYLANDII

16-down – Wind I treated, repeated! : ITERATED

18-down – Better proposition under squire, every so often : SURPASS

19-down – Hearing top foreign number, undaunted, Eurovision songstress timidly starts : INQUEST

20-down – Singer’s inspiring front lifted, appearing cheap : TWOBIT

23-down – Chain exhibited in magistrates’ court : TESCO

1-across – A 28 visit Greek 20 to grow together : ACCRETE

5-across – Catholics disparagingly said to be sanctimonious in earlier times : PAPISTS

9-across – Billy’s relatives attempt a way back : GOATS

10-across – Ban writing in bed? On the contrary : PROSCRIBE

11-across – Drug-fuelled Madness member into mad idea : SUGGESTION

12-across – See 6 : FAIR

14-across – Personifying two setters, vocalise strangled cat on record : EPITOMISING

18-across – Heaving cleavage in front of large, born-again Christian? : EVANGELICAL

21-across – Related to 9’s leader, this 6 is 13’s top one : KING

22-across – Bill has one horse? Not the case for bums : POSTERIORS

25-across – Runner, last of four to get TV role : ANCHORMAN

26-across – Grub of spectacular variety : LARVA

27-across – Some guts by cricket side to go in first : ENTERON

28-across – See 24 : HUNDRED

1-down – Grand Emperor’s ignoring us : AUGUST

2-down – Where Father Ted was caught with raging gays, darling : CRAGGY

3-down – Seasonal fare in 8, cooked by galley slave originally : EASTEREGGS

4-down – Old Irishman, one living abroad : EXPAT

5-down – New Cypriot zoo lacks one unknown type of primitive animal : PROTOZOIC

6-down – Annual event for the Irish setter : PUCK

7-down – Indian hunters trek endlessly in their women’s clothes : SHIKARIS

8-down – Emasculated creature facing eternity where the poor Titanic passengers nightly lay : STEERAGE

13-down – Place in West of Kerry one left rolling drunk? : KILLORGLIN

15-down – Some final changes for a 20 : ISLEOFMAN

16-down – Audacity shown by Bill wearing the French woman’s jewellery : NECKLACE

17-down – Wood panelling of cask cut in two, accidentally : WAINSCOT

19-down – Wrong route, right car : TOURER

20-down – See 2 : ISLAND

23-down – Fraction of wine used by hotel : TENTH

24-down – Odd bits of invective needed — for this CD, that is : FOUR

1-across – 26 — and not bad : NORMAL

5-across – One thing put on another, as brains turn into fruit : APPLIQUE

9-across – 26 only about part of bishopric : MEDIOCRE

10-across – Gold told of song at sunrise : AUBADE

11-across – Kill flies? It sounds like hard work : SWAT

12-across – Make friends with bird eating French fruit? On the contrary : FRATERNISE

13-across – Make-up artist using a chemical modifier : ATONER

14-across – Land of the revolution: I have lost my short-sightedness : ETHIOPIA

16-across – Scriptures prescribe slowdown in theatrical margins : WRITINGS

19-across – Attack on bill : CHARGE

21-across – Bend connected with small piece : REFRACTION

23-across – Follower with story to tell : TAIL

24-across – 26 sense with fishy sound : COMMON

25-across – Sun in ceiling? : SKYLIGHT

26-across – Golden record entered by new bishop : ORDINARY

27-across – Cheat American guy, inserting Spanish article : DELUDE

2-down – Said to have acquired chopper when on the rocks : ONETWOTHREEFOUR

3-down – Give licking to setter with gun : MOISTEN

4-down – Devil at home possessed by glow-worms : LUCIFERIN

5-down – Say how old is 26 : AVERAGE

6-down – See 24 : PLACE

7-down – Icon smashed without prohibition by full judicial authority : INBANCO

8-down – 26 lingerie, say, with money I was effusive about : UNDISTINGUISHED

15-down – 26 East End journalist : HACKNEYED

17-down – Obstructions to first of the parallelograms twisted at the top : THROMBI

18-down – Accidents with liquid reported near Lindsey town : SPILSBY

20-down – Name kept by writer Diana for raised nest : ANTHILL

22-down – Conspirator sounded like a bad guy : CINNA