Daily Answers

1-across – Making progress, as are friends? : GETTINGON

6-across – Hit power for light : LAMP

8-across – The Beatles, perhaps, playing for us: Ringo’s back with Paul : FOURSOME

9-across – See 26 : INMIND

10-across – A diminutive left back given yard as room for manoeuvre : LEEWAY

11-across – See 24 : THEMOUTH

12-across – Greek character catching on with a ton of speech sounds : PHONIC

15-across – See 2 : THETOWEL

16-across – Went I re hole? : ALLINALL

19-across – Ease decimal point to the front : SOFTEN

21-across – Dickensian character stretched, say, Elizabeth to become star : BIGTIMER

22-across – M — give it ten? : HANDIN

24-across – Go blue — B? : DOWNIN

25-across – Cut off gent’s ear in a frenzy : ESTRANGE

26-across – B — carry rain? : BEAR

27-across – Sovereign, dirty colour : ROYALBLUE

1-down – See 22 across : GLOVE

2-down – Dr Castier? : THROWIN

3-down – Cream like a Welshman? : IVORY

4-down – Gritty novel about English bird : GREYTIT

5-down – Unable to sniff, possibly, keeping one quiet : NOISELESS

6-down – African river burst through stretched wheels : LIMPOPO

7-down – Platypus, say, hides first of nuggets in low plant, eating McDonald’s : MONOTREME

13-down – Sing Crackle? : HOLEINONE

14-down – Digger, I’m clear, needing no ground : COALMINER

17-down – Extract from chaplain to nervous chanter : INTONER

18-down – Criminal nearly caught for theft of personal property : LARCENY

20-down – Flier takes soldier in crash : FANTAIL

22-down – Books into the infern­al place, though not quite Fawlty Towers, say? : HOTEL

23-down – Exposed to wind, not a place for fire : INGLE

1-across – Demand for many tissues finds selective process unwelcoming : STREAMINGCOLD

10-across – Insect seeking mate between 2 11s : CRICKET

11-across – One of 14 that is appearing soon : EARLYON

12-across – Present of iron from Paris : OFFER

13-across – St Peter, etymologically, to scrub the deck : HOLYSTONE

14-across – House of 9 10 4 : LORDS

16-across – Gets on bad with modifications for 9 10 4 : EDGBASTON

18-across – Start of play on island with flexible toy : ACTIONMAN

19-across – Assume there’s an order to take a pew : POSIT

20-across – Mesopotamian maybe disturbing Abraham’s right : MARSHARAB

23-across – Look to circle on floor : DECKO

24-across – Security device keeps prisoner from drug : SECONAL

25-across – Region of 9 qualification in type of opera : SIBERIA

26-across – Backing slave has always covered platform for the rejuven­ated : FRESHASADAISY

2-down – First-class student on trees races round backwards : TAILFIRST

3-down – English river — English river with gravelly deposit : ESKER

4-down – See 10 : MATCH

5-down – Want walker with 9 body to have Prussian weapon : NEEDLEGUN

6-down – Detective on wheels has instrument for cheat : CARDSHARP

7-down – Moor safely with some booty almost raised : LAYTO

8-down – A lot of fish, a lot of spread, to say nothing prim and old-fashioned : SCHOOLMARMISH

9-down – Confine, at island, Lenin’s first Communist organisation : INTERNATIONAL

15-down – Don’t talk about entering footwear for native Americans : SHOSHONES

16-down – Novel Gypsy damsel wandering outside period : ESMERALDA

17-down – 9 pack to show if TVs are OK : TESTCARDS

21-down – Come again about dog : RECUR

22-down – Nearly illegitimate enough? : BASTA

23-down – Buy wildly into lawyer for president : DUBYA

1-across – What about street in foreign capital providing special accommodation? : RESTHOME

5-across – In geographical circle what’s discussed includes river : TROPIC

9-across – Nun curtailed disturb­ance in crowd : PRIORESS

10-across – One of 4 I learn about : LANIER

12-across – Greeting anything that brings soothing : SALVE

13-across – Enamelware endlessly looked at containing various oils : CLOISONNE

14-across – So to slip cage is a possibility for him? : ESCAPOLOGIST

18-across – Unmistakable narratives may be seen in large American churches? : CLEARSTORIES

21-across – Like some fiction I start to read in French — no good : ALLEGORIC

23-across – Shrewd troublemaker skirting copper : ACUTE

24-across – Group of nine men, one mad — not a leader among them : ENNEAD

25-across – Information’s the thing I have in case : GENITIVE

26-across – Old Persian king with bone half bent back : DARIUS

27-across – Contributes forcibly to argument — makes audible entrances : WEIGHSIN

1-down – About to have something like macaroni? Not a meal! : REPAST

2-down – One of 4 offering protection : SHIELD

3-down – One may be working near horses wanting nothing to drop off : HARNESSER

4-down – Noted schoolteachers? : MUSICMASTERS

6-down – Ways Cecil articulated : ROADS

7-down – Cloakroom fixture securing one black foreign gown : PEIGNOIR

8-down – Spanish explorer stopping short — check inside vessel : CORVETTE

11-down – Navy may be involved in this plan : COLOURSCHEME

15-down – Where you might see aileron move? That can be frightening : OVERAWING

16-down – Get off eating cold scrap that the butcher may supply : SCRAGEND

17-down – German vessel sunk by block of ice almost : BERLINER

19-down – One of 4 loveless relat­ions : CUSINS

20-down – This person being embraced by cleric brings disgrace : DEMEAN

22-down – One of 4 given secure university : GRABU

1-across – Guitar piece with avant garde middle section entertaining funky penguin : TUNINGPEG

6-across – Foremost of dorks, little black doofus : DWEEB

9-across – Say why German figure gets boat : YACHT

10-across – Local inheritance initially dismissed as a teenager : PUBESCENT

11-across – Funny but sad man inhaling smoke, falling back, I see : TRAGICOMIC

12-across – Spooner’s to flourish the canvas, showing green slogan : SAVE

14-across – Attach as bloodsucker, piercing boy : STICKON

15-across – Hospital cuts, as it were, lacking : SHORTOF

17-across – Tend to enter competition to take all the prizes : CLEANUP

19-across – See 24 : BATTERY

20-across – Tongue violating undersecretary : ERSE

22-across – So Saturday dawns, cool for amity : FRIENDSHIP

25-across – Clergymen treated pal as a slave? : CHAPLAINS

26-across – 1 down erasing my northern residence : IGLOO

27-across – Women’s magazine which for some provokes a re­action? : WHEAT

28-across – Devil’s extremes during travels, insidious as a heathen : GODLESSLY

1-down – Go over last of minutes, having little time for meeting : TRYST

2-down – Bizarre crate among square fruit : NECTARINE

3-down – Spooner’s taking mine as fussy? : NITPICKING

4-down – Spooner’s : POPCORN

5-down – Upset listener discards rubbish : GUBBINS

6-down – One’s served a beauty : DISH

7-down – Endless time before a medical injection : ENEMA

8-down – Spooner’s to pass as it does, as insect? : BUTTERFLY

13-down – Party entitled to be flexible where documents ratified? : DOTTEDLINE

14-down – Broadcast about some land, Washington, which must be praised : SACREDCOW

16-down – See 12 : THEWHALES

18-down – Spooner’s initiating step for Central London premium? : PARKING

19-down – Damned, or holy? : BLESSED

21-down – See 18 : SPACE

23-down – Actor finally punches lousy agent : PROXY

24-down – Spooner’s you’re such a gorgeous pipistrelle — no charge? : FLAT

1-across – Customs! They seized the mine, unfortunately : MORESTHEPITY

8-across – Cover for the Listener when Wyatt catches retreating boy : EARFLAP

9-across – I don’t exactly mean that Fe is tritium : IRONIST

11-across – Old Hollywood actor had gold he gave to charity : DONATOR

12-across – Momentum first encountered by American without power : IMPETUS

13-across – Flock if it’s this : HEARD

14-across – OK to put on the table of the Queen in the story : OFFERABLE

16-across – Push needed to get university job? : BATHCHAIR

19-across – Heavenly sound in the 17 : ARIEL

21-across – City father’s promulgation : ROMULUS

23-across – Visible requirement for psychotherapist : INSIGHT

24-across – Fizzy stuff to place round plant : SHERBET

25-across – Merchant becoming baddie in the 17 : ANTONIO

26-across – Flag for speed — that’s how it usually goes : STANDARDRATE

1-down – Setter’s backing currency with a girl of the 17 : MIRANDA

2-down – Told of 1, 5 and 25 : RELATED

3-down – Bright star is ours, orbiting by means of eggs : SUPERNOVA

4-down – From my dacha it is over 600 miles to Caracas : HAITI

5-down – 17 maker briefly to do well : PROSPER

6-down – Conclusion of great success, but put up for old-fashioned wash : TWINTUB

7-down – Winter slogan: provide for dished and bereft : FEEDTHEBIRDS

10-down – Novel heroine left in bliss to the making of mosaics : TESSELLATION

15-down – False friend with prince in the 17 : FERDINAND

17-down – Try to hold directions in a storm : TEMPEST

18-down – Part of US state that had prohibition in the 17 : CALIBAN

19-down – Area for old London criminals or dogs — as a tail unfolds : ALSATIA

20-down – Green type takes turn in revolutionary engine : INGENUE

22-down – Pose for king, first getting spruce : SITKA