Daily Answers

7-across – See 23 : WITHOUTA

9-across – The general view is it’s a vice : AGREED

10-across – See 23 : NAME

11-across – See 23 : WORTHANAGE

12-across – Weird agent holds love authorised : SPOOKY

14-across – See 22 : TOOSHORT

15-across – See 22 down : LEISURE

17-across – Witch’s home’s point in support : ENDORSE

20-across – Playing tapes about small flower : SWEETPEA

22-across – We haven’t time to waste on trivia: how about art? : LIFEIS

23-across – O Swindon Town! outed from highest league — a fair cow — or a Houlier needed: would this clarion call be any compensation? : ONECROWDED

24-across – NHS advisers are respectable and fastid­ious : NICE

25-across – See 23 : HOUROF

26-across – See 23 : GLORIOUS

1-down – Bramley over the pond? : BIGAPPLE

2-down – He’s a lion, maybe, but I go on a horse : SHOE

3-down – Heartless fugitive on airfield : RUNWAY

4-down – Carbon forest settled then and there : CASHDOWN

5-down – Être fainéant — and maybe stick : FRENCHLOAF

6-down – One wanting food in pub? : BEGGAR

8-down – Put bubbles in fresh tea — about time! : AERATE

13-down – With which comic character pursues shellfish round London? : OYSTERCARD

16-down – Tickings off for agent and so for organiser : REPROOFS

18-down – Covert plan to get little guy in drink : STITCHUP

19-down – Petted pet in quiet party held by convict : LAPDOG

21-down – Microsoft’s idea to get prize of vintage port : WINDOW

22-down – She needn’t do anything for boy to call faulty file reliable : LADYOF

24-down – See 2 : NAIL

1-across – Gold medal placing either way : TOPSPOT

5-across – P for pillock? : PINHEAD

9-across – See 23 : AGNEW

10-across – Stiff won’t be pliable ultimately, in obsession with women’s underwear? : BREATHING

11-across – Kinky Romeo in sexy diamonds, not entirely appreciated by gay people : HOMOEROTIC

12-across – Directive pens letters required for 16’s second post : VICE

14-across – See 20 : ROCKEFELLER

18-across – Centre of Birmingham candlelit, perhaps: magical! : NECROMANTIC

21-across – Pool, oxygen on top : LIDO

22-across – Third of mice forgets to retain squeak : CLOSESHAVE

25-across – Western food the pigs eat, not eastern rubbish : SPAGHETTI

26-across – Some lothario tasting tiny bits : IOTAS

27-across – See 19 : MONDALE

28-across – Russian conclusion? Job unfinished, as went beyond deadline : OVERRAN

1-down – Cheap wood covered by tax : TRASHY

2-down – Land in North America confiscated by parents : PANAMA

3-down – Prisoner flipping secure, flushed toilet : POWDERROOM

4-down – A kick, toe reaching head, off limits : TABOO

5-down – See 12 : PRESIDENT

6-down – Items securing screws — having one loose? : NUTS

7-down – Single part of wheel, big, I levered up : ELIGIBLE

8-down – Times, admitting sin under setter, confused person : DOGBERRY

13-down – Insurrectionary services up for striking, possibly : PERCUSSIVE

15-down – Sweet girl : CHARLOTTE

16-down – America’s endless nuclear missiles emptied and dismantled : UNCLESAM

17-down – I bleed after a cold, water polluted : ACIDRAIN

19-down – Country not quite accepting change, government department restraining new 12 5 : WALTER

20-down – Columnist, English chap after jewel in 12 5 : NELSON

23-down – 12 5 gains power after catastrophe : SPIRO

24-down – Question a command from cavalryman, perhaps : WHOA

1-across – Range of service provided : MASSIF

5-across – Ex-president’s idea of African primate : BUSHBABY

9-across – Tie decoy around one with gun : LIGATURE

10-across – It could be an excellent object, which ancestors have concealed : CHANCE

11-across – Facial problem whence squealing may be heard : STYE

12-across – Form of pasta for 18 not dogs : POTNOODLES

13-across – Divorce centre given points for glory : RENOWN

15-across – One time dimension in due course : ATLENGTH

17-across – Good guy speaks but isn’t fluent : STUTTERS

19-across – 18’s breakable statue’s big idea : MASTER

20-across – Source of jelly produces 18’s carrier’s complaint : MARROWBONE

22-across – See 19 : PLAN

23-across – A complaint I have with a rodent : AGOUTI

24-across – Makes an unconventional drug for such as 2 will be actually : NAMESAKE

25-across – The majesty of King George with half a continent : GRANDEUR

26-across – Original song sung by naturists? : NUDITY

2-down – Somewhat more unusual addition to family : ALITTLESTRANGER

3-down – See 21 : SLAVE

4-down – Old Bob’s third protection inadequate for 18’s land? : FOURPENCE

5-down – Meat and drink makes 18’s Irish criminal live : BEEFTEA

6-down – Pervert, like this stunner : SICKO

7-down – Second arrivals at fictitious castle with imp­erial 11? : BLANDINGS

8-down – Refuted Thatcher when 18 put indication on water carrier : BUCKEDTHEMARKET

14-down – With increasingly ’igh temperature, be on fire for battle : OTTERBURN

16-down – Burden island with logger : LUMBERMAN

18-down – He makes love sentimentally or rather keeps quiet : SPOONER

21-down – Victim of sex trafficker causing 18 just a ripple? : WHITE

22-down – Spode set placed just so : POSED

8-across – Puts a barrier around marine animals starting to smell? : SEALSOFF

9-across – Detest short cape on a bishop : ABHOR

10-across – Drivers try to avoid this carriage : TRAP

11-across – Transform later reign, making more changes : REALTERING

12-across – Formality seen in most architecture : STARCH

14-across – Fish around company laboratory for evidence of environmental friendliness : ECOLABEL

15-across – Part of our capital we dispatch over time : WESTEND

17-across – Literature’s characters in 24 down, then across : LETTERS

20-across – Somehow use ten gears to drive away : ESTRANGE

22-across – Take commercial break, having no anchor? : ADRIFT

23-across – Very brief period in which play after interval is out of order : HALFSECOND

24-across – Take part in crime, a risky undertaking : ABET

25-across – Hearing projections about line for some characters in 1 3 5 22 down : EARLS

26-across – My first is a lot of fresh information, my second’s a climber’s destination, my whole is a language for thought domination : NEWSPEAK

1-down – Plays hard at first — further on they changed : HENRYTHE

2-down – Thunderous applause? : CLAP

3-down – See 1 : FOURTH

4-down – See 7 : OFWALES

5-down – A couple of leading roles 1 3 has : PARTSONE

6-down – Newspaper editor’s leader put in the last section from then on : THEREAFTER

7-down – Eventual successor of 1 3, for example, in 15 theatre : PRINCE

13-down – Cost of journey in two parts, with profit reasonable, we hear : RETURNFARE

16-down – No repetition of three points for which 5 22 could be 2 and 10 : NONSENSE

18-down – Soldier initially reading poem to sweetheart : RIFLEMAN

19-down – Tell the story of number again : RECOUNT

21-down – Puts on vehicles : STAGES

22-down – See 5 : ANDTWO

24-down – Poetic river visible in aerial photograph : ALPH

8-across – Backing great Brazilian dynasty, can male set about protagonist? It’s unavoidable : ELEPHANT

9-across – See 8 : INTHE

10-across – Drink and knife man where conflict once took place : PORT

11-across – Devilish team unchristened The Red Devils : MANCHESTER

12-across – See 25 : VIRGIN

14-across – Move away with energy and speed of plane? : EMIGRATE

15-across – Vim with red bread : BRIOCHE

17-across – Out of which Renault shifted? : NEUTRAL

20-across – Defect, saving final part of national song for the country : BULGARIA

22-across – Insects concealed in bread, heads bitten off : APHIDS

23-across – Virtually no time, so doing backstroke to break ice, cold in water : PICOSECOND

24-across – See 8 : ROOM

25-across – Cooking ingredient very, very original elixir to enjoy, primarily in a stew : EXTRA

26-across – See 25 : OLIVEOIL

1-down – Little room to fail between wings of bomber, incurring more casualties : BLOODIER

2-down – Put cream on this pickle : SPOT

3-down – Men in tights : BATMAN

4-down – See 10 : STANLEY

5-down – Demonstrate, nothing less, one cutting instrument as battleaxe : FISHWIFE

6-down – If pushed, how might trousers fit after Christmas dinner? : ATASTRETCH

7-down – Seconds taken to choose, then do just that? : SELECT

13-down – Less hard, the right gigolo massaged around posterior of bus conductor : GEORGSOLTI

16-down – Death, say, from same extraordinarily piercing bugle : HORSEMAN

18-down – See 3 : ANDROBIN

19-down – Fuel thus with hydrogen locked up? : GASOHOL

21-down – See 11 : UNITED

22-down – Old spaceman finding a way to enter cipher, taking off? : ALDRIN

24-down – Passing through overhead, this bird can’t be? : RHEA