Daily Answers

9-across – Duck in animal group : HEROD

10-across – Article on love by Ancient Greek : THEODORIC

11-across – Bizarre act by the man touring Ireland : CATHERINE

12-across – Women wearing garlands : LEWIS

13-across – Form of heating brought to French city : CHARLES

15-across – Yorkshire cheek is heard? One will help man stop flapping : TIECLIP

17-across – Big gun engineers imported : GREAT

18-across – Only three bridge players currently? : NOW

20-across – A very big order for sailors : AVAST

22-across – Illustration of Indian city with dull border : DIAGRAM

25-across – Commander to be removed initially in time of revolution : OCTOBER

26-across – Food that sounds dreadful to some? : OFFAL

27-across – For the old girl I cater with difficulty, losing pounds : GERIATRIC

30-across – Series of deliveries is difficult, we hear? One’s put too much in : OVERSTUFF

31-across – Behold Scottish island, wasting time : LOUIS

1-down – Elegant young bird putting bloke off : CHIC

2-down – Enzyme operates in a strange way : PROTEASE

3-down – Paid less? Keeps doing nothing here : IDLE

4-down – Ex-football manager in on task for rebuilding : ATKINSON

5-down – Skilful, admitting each failure : DEFEAT

6-down – Drug in grown-up rave is contaminating influence : ADULTERANT

7-down – What sounds like grim yarn : CREWEL

8-down – Important people, not female stars : ACES

13-down – Like a budgie maybe of a hundred — old! : CAGED

14-down – Strict adherence to narrow understanding limits real manoeuvring : LITERALISM

16-down – Nag driving son away : PETER

19-down – Plant with strange odour, very strong : WOODRUFF

21-down – Stupid subaltern’s a mug : ALBERTUS

23-down – Cockney semi-embarrassed : ALFRED

24-down – See 21 : MAGNUS

26-down – Something round to toss up? Maybe, once : OBOL

28-down – Beer being served with ten in bar : AXLE

29-down – Go unhurriedly, avoiding a penalty : COST

1-across – Thousands attend entertainment with keyboard instruments : CONCERTGRANDS

10-across – Form of theatre in Bolton? : OCTAGONAL

11-across – Where to find good soil for cultivation in Ireland … : SLIGO

12-across – … belonging to the Irish : THEIR

13-across – In the red with our reduced means we couldn’t sniff its coming : ODOURLESS

14-across – Start grooming the young with the sparkle of celebrity : GLITTER

16-across – Registrar perhaps finds nothing lacking in senior cops : SPLICER

18-across – What takes two to get back into church becoming related : COGNATE

20-across – Panicked boy taken aback by the agency of another : FLAPPED

21-across – One interprets outbreak of pox among tories : EXPOSITOR

23-across – Many joints may be served with these : CHIPS

24-across – Rubber ball so held : SORBO

25-across – Chanel product used by Gardner in the fall : AVALANCHE

26-across – Where to find Roneo ™ copier working? : RECEPTIONROOM

2-down – Not perhaps what a chopper might be doing in flight : ONTHEWING

3-down – Like Othello losing head and going up in smoke : CIGAR

4-down – Ill-feeling of bombardier going to old city? : RANCOUR

5-down – Force sanctions gibbet : GALLOWS

6-down – A tortuous trail in America or elsewhere : AUSTRALIA

7-down – Force of Verdi composition : DRIVE

8-down – Cog teeth cease to chew dairy product : COTTAGECHEESE

9-down – Relishes provided without time to put on courses : HORSERADISHES

15-down – Model managed partner’s turnout to change places : TRANSPOSE

17-down – Free composition of cover to Darnley’s victim : CAPRICCIO

19-down – Pull out when caught from a no ball? : EXTRACT

20-down – Muddled load for distant paper round : FARRAGO

22-down – A dark blue in itself : PERSE

23-down – Provider of support for bums : CHAIR

1-across – First thought diverted : AMUSED

5-across – Marine in base is somewhat fishy : MERMAN

8-across – It’s 8 down from Memphis with California first possibility : WICHITA

9-across – Genealogy featured in 13 10 26 : DESCENT

11-across – 18 is these four walls and unfinished correspondence comprising eggs and veg : SPANISHOMELETTE

12-across – See 25 : BROW

13-across – : CLARATHREW

17-across – Strange idea in town and all over the country : NATIONWIDE

18-across – Nine inches between wing tips? : SPAN

20-across – See 25 : RUGGEDMOUNTAINS

23-across – Crop of animal without ultimate cover : HARVEST

24-across – Horse in quality maritime measure : TONNAGE

25-across – Alpine outlook: hereto, maybe, protected against cold, horse moved as in front … : OERTHE

26-across – See 13 : NURSED

2-down – Play the fool — brass in the area too? : MUCKABOUT

3-down – Whisky bottle? : SPIRIT

4-down – The last straw bad hotel is broken with : DEATHBLOW

5-down – American parent keeping French from computing device : MODEM

6-down – Determined to make newsagents finish off stocking the Sun : RESOLUTE

7-down – A small part of store with competence : ADEPT

8-down – Texas fort located outside New York: best change direction : WESTBYNORTH

10-down – See 13 : THETWINSSHE

14-down – Singular old movie actor still working on TV : REDBUTTON

15-down – Clone animal in theatrical romance : REPLICATE

16-down – Watch part of the way things are going : MOVEMENT

19-down – Junkie who administers primitive punishment : STONER

21-down – Eat too much Cheddar? : GORGE

22-down – Episcopal joint? : MITRE

1-across – Runs a bit in stressful competition : RATRACE

5-across – Community going in opposite directions has to seek to recover : RECLAIM

9-across – Doctor wearing red for dance : MAMBO

10-across – Opening drink in African country, guerrilla leader : BEGINNING

11-across – Green tree’s last branch, half cut, left describing a column : VERTEBRAL

12-across – Time before born seen in regression, year becoming minute : TEENY

13-across – In the air one wing drops off, then on the ground : LYING

15-across – Boy goes round block * : ALDEBARAN

18-across – Dress has come off, clothing no good : CHEONGSAM

19-across – Capital freed from housing agreements, so relaxes : EASES

21-across – Desperate air with extremes of depression — at such a point? : NADIR

23-across – Stuff bachelor put with a Cajun dish : JAMBALAYA

25-across – Point of etiquette may be unpolitic : PUNCTILIO

26-across – Drug blow : SMACK

27-across – Knowing about award, approaching king in sombre fashion : SOBERLY

28-across – Eating endless cheese, Leicester, perhaps : EDACITY

1-down – More gyrating, then little girl stripping : REMOVAL

2-down – How James Bond’s job application began to run smoothly * : TOMCRUISE

3-down – Plant producing laxative contains nitrogen — and nothing else? : ALONE

4-down – Show up, finding Hebridean island in awful mess : EMBARRASS

5-down – Rearing Irish setter * : RIGEL

6-down – Still after criminal — as one should be! : CONSTABLE

7-down – First to attack, be quick : ALIVE

8-down – Germany in the wars * : MEGRYAN

14-down – Dynamo, artistic type almost encapsulating poetical inspiration : GENERATOR

16-down – Standing in throne room, I meditate * : DEMIMOORE

17-down – One supporting emperor raised in a distant land — this one, perhaps? : RASTAFARI

18-down – Has the ability to work * : CANOPUS

20-down – Ringo’s real surname pressed here * : STARKEY

22-down – Turn up carrying drug * : DENEB

23-down – Happy 24? : JOLLY

24-down – Ships are all over the place : ATSEA

8-across – Round outskirts of Luton my fellow passengers and I land? Nearly, nearly : WELLNIGH

9-across – Slowly a serviceman slips into a party : ADAGIO

10-across – It’s dismal, reporting Roman theatres : ODEA

11-across – In years, about 30 — an integer oddly divisible by zero : GENERATION

12-across – Seeks to deceive more than one bank : BLUFFS

14-across – England cricketer bags duck : TITMOUSE

15-across – Middle part of statement’s omitted from free balance : LIBRATE

17-across – They remove evidence of one-age exchange for ’is and ’ers : ERASERS

20-across – Summer in Paris in clubs, right new tie being worn with the others : ETCETERI

22-across – Captain’s obsession to take back state : BOSNIA

23-across – Saw fist broken gatecrashing meeting : SATISFYING

24-across – Endure an ill-mannered fellow : BEAR

25-across – In the money, he’s one wanting to deposit yen : EARNER

26-across – Jollies restricted too warm clothes : THERMALS

1-down – City worth touring when idle : NEWDELHI

2-down – Vessel sending up comedy series? Not half : OLLA

3-down – Eat food and bring up the last traces : TINGES

4-down – Region for Asian prince to hold gymkhana — tele-vised? Contrariwise : KHANATE

5-down – He tells the story about corruption on Scottish island : NARRATOR

6-down – Places whereat to water around the stormy south and places wherein to dry : OASTHOUSES

7-down – Lacking name, Gates’s baby loss adjusters? : WIDOWS

13-down – Get one a profit from knocking down this antique instrument : FORTEPIANO

16-down – Ma scared with ferret running around commercial woodland : TREEFARM

18-down – Rabelais novel may be exalted : RAISABLE

19-down – Mounted on a horse, I had savings — take some : DIPINTO

21-down – Unexceptionally, one invading erstwhile old-time empire : TOAMAN

22-down – Less diminutive horse in nursery found in the final frame : BIGGER

24-down – Documents on female sponger : BUMF