Daily Answers

1-across – First composition in biro? : BIOPIC

4-across – Rascal dumping LA opera house on jester : SCALAWAG

9-across – Needing fresh air, cut nettle : URTICA

10-across – Rope lassoing bird circling South Island : GUERNSEY

11-across – Officer’s paper about fairy facing death when camping? : SUPERINTENDENT

13-across – Third composition secures about three shillings for posh garment : DRESSSHIRT

14-across – Woman to overeat : ENID

16-across – Second’s not infrequently subdued : SOFT

18-across – Ancient Syrian kitchen implement holding garden implement back in 10 etc : PHOENICIAN

21-across – Ibo joining anti-poll tax riot? : BLAXPLOITATION

23-across – Collector dropping bits of tin for member of house? : AQUARIAN

24-across – Magic circles following others into disease : VOODOO

25-across – D-Dickensian family’s residents? : DWELLERS

26-across – God’s not beginning to take gold : HORROR

1-down – Evens out bulk user : BLUE

2-down – Thrust ISP into nothing 1 down : OBTRUDE

3-down – Expand lest soldiers invade : INCREASE

5-down – Fake aristocrat hugs tree, if rumbled : COUNTERFEIT

6-down – Cat pinching a king’s piece of breathing apparatus : LARYNX

7-down – The Guardian’s back! : WESTERN

8-down – Ancient beast, not initially hideous, to see other side of river … : GLYPTODON

12-down – … hot, hairy scout dismembered another : ICHTHYOSAUR

13-down – Control panel shows theologian cuddling pig under tree : DASHBOARD

15-down – Star player turned out in new visor : VIRTUOSO

17-down – Exploit flower : FEATURE

19-down – Recipe ironed out, as all should be : INORDER

20-down – Winding up the French with tears : SPIRAL

22-down – Held up by marionette : NOIR

1-across – Do remove the front of that festive headgear : PARTYHAT

5-across – Compensate for inoperative company : OFFSET

9-across – People being treated, say, with forbearance : PATIENCE

10-across – Stick the plug in this place : ADHERE

11-across – Most drained one wine during trial : TIREDEST

12-across – Al’s map spoiled by some of the blood : PLASMA

14-across – A neat way to go down under? : STOCKROUTE

18-across – One of the ship’s company has a possible cut limb : CREWMEMBER

22-across – Flowering lily initially planted in a time of rapid growth : ABLOOM

23-across – Filthy stalls containing poor bub’s little bottles : STUBBIES

24-across – What President Coolidge was said to have done with liquor outlaw : BANDIT

25-across – A speed car comes first with a hard top : CARAPACE

26-across – Sprinter, the German, remains inside : DASHER

27-across – Dwelling for rival not finished, housed in temporary accommodation : TENEMENT

1-down – Immature creature devoured in move towards adulthood : PUPATE

2-down – Eritrea, unsettled after losing leading athlete, has to withdraw : RETIRE

3-down – Returns and surrenders : YIELDS

4-down – It takes so long to retrieve computer data from MCC — easiest altered : ACCESSTIME

6-down – Musicians cooking the books? : FIDDLERS

7-down – Leaves briefly with records secured by strapping : STEPSOUT

8-down – Adolescent has unwisely eaten half of burger : TEENAGER

13-down – Emphasise stress created by university at each introduction : ACCENTUATE

15-down – The resting place of many an old wreck? : OCEANBED

16-down – We must have time to get nets in swampy areas : WETLANDS

17-down – Not moving, I’m with a crowd three quarters of a mile below : IMMOBILE

19-down – A sort of bread-and-scrape? : ABRADE

20-down – Road rage is an illusion! : MIRAGE

21-down – Right? Redistribute seats around state : ASSERT

1-across – 5 down player and American writer, name of Lee : HARPER

5-across – Scotsman’s far away river for all in 21 letters : MURRAY

8-across – It’s sporting an animated conscience : CRICKET

9-across – Start of Strauss opera with no middle and no top part : SOPRANO

11-across – Cambridge’s latest birds find study of cancer largely — two thirds myth : ROBINSONCOLLEGE

12-across – I’m very busy so I wear the burka : UPTO

13-across – Little birds here should be feature of wedding — Euan Blair’s? : HATCHERIES

17-across – Fairy before returning sweet is ready to be kissed : PUCKEREDUP

18-across – Mark beginning, not ending : STAR

20-across – A lot of 5 down, or my Scotch penny is counterfeit : SYMPHONYCONCERT

23-across – Repair to meadow with the man who contrived to 21 its clue : DARNLEY

24-across – 21 inversely bein’ emollient : INSOOTH

25-across – See 12 : MYEYES

26-across – One desiring to be extended? : LONGER

2-down – Thermodynamic formula, one possibly a bit acid : ADIABATIC

3-down – Girl entertaining family in city, formerly : PEKING

4-down – Why not let everyone have as much beer as they want? : RATIONALE

5-down – Sound of cat? Yes, that’s correct : MUSIC

6-down – Beans, say, in scarlet are rejected : REPULSED

7-down – Humiliate a singer, say? : ABASE

8-down – Teacher wrote 5 down — report is put around : CIRCUMPOSED

10-down – Apply too much pressure to passages of 8 across — time to go back to church : OVERSTRETCH

14-down – Curmudgeon embracing offspring nearly 19 years older than 11 : CHURCHILL

15-down – Zenith possible for one mentally ready to achieve it : INTHEZONE

16-down – Permit astronomer to drop drug with fatal effect : LETHALLY

19-down – Public servants at one in 5 down : UNISON

21-down – Scottish queen — imprisoned queen indeed! : MARRY

22-down – Couldn’t Alfred make up his mind? : NOYES

1-across – Killer back in work, one tied up on board : TOPSAIL

5-across – Bank is reversing into bus garage : DEPOSIT

9-across – I spill the beans, choked by surprisingly artful prisoners : FIRST

10-across – Thin person originally filling carriage; he ate all the pies! : GREEDYPIG

11-across – See 9 : PERSONSINGULAR

13-across – After looping the loop, Red Arrows fly from here : OCHE

14-across – Diagram showing the average to take to the left, gaining height : BARGRAPH

17-across – Such a hotel might be in favour of accommodating bear scoffing last of breakfast : FOURSTAR

18-across – River takes poem to river : ODER

21-across – Clothes fasteners securing border bind poorly — whatever next! : THEMINDBOGGLES

23-across – Again letting out? Yes! : RELEASING

24-across – Cool, hot below : NEATH

25-across – Wonderful character getting thinner : ACETONE

26-across – Ending in defeat, dabbler’s move rubbish : TWADDLE

1-down – Some part of uninspired vegetarian’s diet : TOFU

2-down – Drink gets the pub down, which is novel : PORTERHOUSEBLUE

3-down – So positionally top-class crickets declare : ATTEST

4-down – Big name for big toe? : LEGEND

5-down – Hymn fades, one listener having turned up : DIESIRAE

6-down – Psychiatrist’s head gets back into anxious teaching : PEDAGOGY

7-down – How business works flexibly, joiner having called up daughter : SUPPLYANDDEMAND

8-down – Ferocious swimmer good during rows? Listen! : TIGERSHARK

12-down – Antipodean machine with multiple teats of ice water malfunctioning : COWFETARIA

15-down – A fool so upstanding given to repeated musical expression : OSTINATO

16-down – Get Paul’s explosive : LANDMINE

19-down – Sound type wanted : SOUGHT

20-down – Zulu offering conclusions along with a nation : UGANDA

22-down – Bottom off bicycle part, I’m running down the hill! : WHEE

9-across – Bikini, say, kept by nanny for cleric : AYATOLLAH

10-across – Tedium in endless night abroad : ENNUI

11-across – Tool for handling all or part of … : CATSPAW

12-across – … fliers: about time it changed : TITMICE

13-across – Tie knot indeed : MARRY

14-across – Inflame St Matthew with reduction in job which oddly is … : FIRSTMATE

16-across – … 22 down 20 that after moment’s stop in pub died : SECONDINCOMMAND

19-across – Pet arrives with prince producing mucus : CATARRHAL

21-across – Rude dismissal without point from land with 20 : FEOFF

22-across – Extended part of 1, an easy target : LONGHOP

23-across – Disease encompassing land returned by poet : BARRETT

24-across – Bond boy finds one in lough : ERNIE

25-across – Show business here, after raid botched : TRADEFAIR

1-down – I’m accused falsely about new movement with notes : DANCEMUSIC

2-down – Sailors in charge of acid : TARTARIC

3-down – Roman in Hampshire, tapster in play : POMPEY

4-down – Lento, foster-father of Greek vase : SLOW

5-down – Needing no answer from arch-toiler : RHETORICAL

6-down – Spinner nearly dry? I’m not sure : TEETOTUM

7-down – Sang in a choir, my part giving a lot of pain : ANGINA

8-down – See 4 : TIME

14-down – Overhead course for stairway? : FLIGHTPATH

15-down – Why say happily ever after? : ENDOFSTORY

17-down – Hareton’s novel fuel source : NORTHSEA

18-down – A swine holds up Pevsner’s piece, which is at a premium : ABOVEPAR

20-down – Tiller for another raft: enter man with steering : TENANT

21-down – See 20 : FARMER

22-down – See 23 : LIEU

23-down – Lover’s romance for everyone in Hampshire : BEAU