Daily Answers

1-across – Boasted about grub missing last crop : CREWCUT

5-across – Rural spelling bee, you see? Oh ‘ell, I see! : BUCOLIC

9-across – Fleeced Irishman in Blarney? : SHORN

10-across – Quango is so badly cut with needle : UNELECTED

11-across – Only line omitted by Guardian’s second old president? Get outta here! : ONYOURBIKE

12-across – Produce held back by nail guns : UGLI

14-across – Evil one quits wife-beating? : MALEVOLENCE

18-across – Bear’s face : COUNTENANCE

21-across – Compound soulless LP : ALUM

22-across – Bill enacted by this statesman : ROBERTPEEL

25-across – Inability to move capital stopped by a sly transfer : PARALYSIS

26-across – Two letters delivered in county : ESSEX

27-across – Duet sees review that evens out merit : DESERVE

28-across – A garden location comes in to spoil the antithesis of hippy philosophy : MAKEWAR

1-down – New scout master’s convention : CUSTOM

2-down – Titular person’s upset by setter’s emphatic refusal : EPONYM

3-down – More than able to finish off with sex : CONSUMMATE

4-down – Yes, it’s up – no, it’s down! : THUMB

5-down – What the Parisian does to 11 to be square : BREAKEVEN

6-down – Grind nut as wanted : CHEW

7-down – Dating doesn’t start ’til after work for one in suit : LITIGANT

8-down – One helping to control fish where they”re mostly coarse : CODRIVER

13-down – Indecent to flash by running stream without pausing : BLUESTREAK

15-down – Crustacean could be gelatinous without one : LANGOUSTE

16-down – Put up a fight when dumped : SCRAPPED

17-down – Whisper about USSR capturing American city once : SUSURRUS

19-down – Now and then spot this in the playground : SEESAW

20-down – Anger consumes team lifted by tonic : ELIXIR

23-down – Where to keep so many pens? : EPSOM

24-down – Slight indistinction of speech : SLUR

9-across – Hardy trainee mostly in such schools : ACADEMIES

10-across – ‘Enry’s bucket had this yellow liquid : OLEIN

11-across – See 22 down : NESTPAS

12-across – See 22 down : UNEPIPE

13-across – Fur makes female feel uncomfortable : FITCH

14-across – One officer and another into weird music and spooky practices : OCCULTISM

16-across – Act like a painstaking cruciverbalist and be tactful : CHOOSEONESWORDS

19-across – One brought in tenth possibly – to be put across counter in this? : TITHEBARN

21-across – Bank’s reception : LEVEE

22-across – Around the edge, drag computer graphics files : CLIPART

23-across – Spooner’s fellow, bumpkin making a pile in the country : HAYRICK

24-across – Mammal, one without love for another : COATI

25-across – See 16 : CAREFULLY

1-down – In fact, Magi may have been excited by words from Mary : MAGNIFICAT

2-down – Voice of loud gangster starting row : FALSETTO

3-down – At bottom of Greek valley find hard beans : TEMPEH

4-down – Again conceals a one-sided tendency : BIAS

5-down – Wounded revolutionary protected by English lad – a symbol of honour? : ESCUTCHEON

6-down – Dish provided by king’s decree : COLESLAW

7-down – Name of important family doctor coming before lunchtime? : MEDICI

8-down – Woman’s way to avoid extremes : ANNE

14-down – Branch of lexicography soon in trouble – coming across something sticky? : ONOMASTICS

15-down – Try to do this as a music student – they’ll give you many openings : MASTERKEYS

17-down – I censor a terrible plot for stage work : SCENARIO

18-down – Soldiers going to a heroic place of death heard bugle sound : REVEILLE

20-down – Pacific fish god, venomous creature : TAIPAN

21-down – Stop decider losing initial power : LAYOFF

22-down – Nice pet pin-up ceases to be funny as work of surrealist art : CECI

23-down – Fling with actress leaving you upset : HURL

1-across – Spanish chap in bedroom penetrates : HOMBRE

5-across – Two-hour shift revealed by shadow on timepiece : DOGWATCH

9-across – Something undesirable has started: lion’s feasting on sheep and half a horse : HEREWEGO

10-across – Angel cuts back on hydrogen : SERAPH

11-across – Time to seize a head in Florida : DAYTONABEACH

13-across – Reproduction of sound poem in corner square : HIFI

14-across – Still, two ducks get devoured by the wild canine : EYETOOTH

17-across – New immigrant to Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Ireland : HIBERNIA

18-across – Does old Mrs Cotton hit it off? : DOTH

20-across – With this type of application you may renew capital growth : HAIRRESTORER

23-across – Watford player’s unusual other name? : HORNET

24-across – Unexpected hitch for sports body thought to have no time at all for touring : HICCOUGH

25-across – Evening Star this fellow’s getting to read? Not quite all of it : HESPERUS

26-across – Get someone involved in the Net? : ENMESH

2-down – Moulding American’s expression of surprise : OGEE

3-down – Spooner’s taken charge of salt water subsistence level : BREADLINE

4-down – Name-dropping what’s not oddly male or female : EVELYN

5-down – Imitate Cockney while designing this particular grid? : DROPONESAITCHES

6-down – Light white china for holiday collectors : GOSSAMER

7-down – Consent to a European donating £1,000 : AGREE

8-down – Top expert holds comic actor up to qualify : CAPACITATE

12-down – Soldier to sleep all right in luxury, an unknown commitment : PIGINAPOKE

15-down – Demands here what Moneypenny provides? : ORDERFORM

16-down – It may appear to be the end for many soldiers : ANTEATER

19-down – From soak, pungent-leaved plant’s emerged in nursery : CRECHE

21-down – Hurriedly build approach : RUNUP

22-down – Wage slave takes a long time : AGES

1-across – Garden pests round Lord Coe entering carpets : ROSEBUGS

5-across – Sweet old plant for cutting : PEASEBLOSSOM

13-across – I smell tobacco : SNOUT

14-across – Uppercut going fast undoubtedly : TONSURE

15-across – Florida and surrounding states? : THESEUS

16-across – Greek character reduced speed : PHILOSTRATE

17-across – Large beastly volunteers : HIPPOLYTA

18-across – Gershwin hero topped in binge : ORGY

19-across – Road into deity : HERMIA

20-across – Return weapons to local room : SNUG

21-across – Surrounded by part of Egyptian feature : AMID

25-across – : FLUTE

27-across – Test in, aid out, possibly : AUDITION

28-across – Marmalade maker? : QUINCE

29-across – Some venom found in bird : STARVELING

31-across – Coffee can be a soft drink, swallowed by forward journalist : PERCOLATED

33-across – Halt collection of books with moan : LAMENT

34-across – Football field St Laurence was on : GRIDIRON

37-across – Jersey etc worn by most of 18’s dog : CORGI

40-across – Corpse of son embracing daughter : BODY

41-across – Another word for hospital : MOTH

42-across – Nut on net? : COBWEB

43-across – Traveller on ice : PUCK

47-across – I mustered characters : DEMETRIUS

49-across – Astronomer in US playhouse has car with dickey : THREESEATER

50-across – Bird craze no starter : TITANIA

51-across – Georgia’s fast woman dropping article : ATLANTA

52-across – Man in college used drugs : EGEUS

53-across – Fronting attack, woman eats fruit and a row with God begins : SPEARHEADING

54-across – Darnley’s problem : LYSANDER

1-down – Incorruptible countryman largely quiet on tiles? : RUSTPROOF

2-down – Family in bad atmosphere due to vice : SMOKING

3-down – Base translated here : BOTTOM

4-down – Succumb as 3 and 25 did in play : GOTOTHEWALL

6-down – High-spirited old German super-insect : EXUBERANT

7-down – Listener finds way for moral atmosphere to be adequate : STETHOSCOPE

8-down – Advertisement for spa: don’t let baby down : BATHPLUG

9-down – Honour for small boy : OBERON

10-down – Not well like Pip? : SEEDY

11-down – Wet earth holds 40 and river’s rising : MUSTARDSEED

12-down – Hospital not needed with 26 being OK : UNHARMED

22-down – 3 as 43 said 50 was in love with, part of the great war against terror? : MONSTER

23-down – Like 43 to 9 – insert transport : SERVANT

24-down – Steer the first two of the last into a barricade : BULLOCK

26-down – International community’s bad dream about judo? : UNARMED

29-down – Fruit on plate in Yorkshire town when taken from shelves : SELLBYDATES

30-down – Where to find Wellington : NORTHISLAND

32-down – Secessionists had dinner in pyramid before fast : CONFEDERACY

35-down – Fatality without number at first part of capital event : DECATHLON

36-down – Deprive alternative worker of strengthener : ROBORANT

38-down – Crimean man’s ears bent in special rubber : INKERASER

39-down – Boss compiler’s turning up? Give over : DOMINATE

44-down – Tendency to improve new punter’s number : UPTREND

45-down – Junkie indulging in lapidation : STONER

46-down – State capital : HELENA

48-down – Joint church cover : MITRE

1-across – Soft and undemanding quandary : PLIGHT

5-across – Cook’s equipment, say, starts to get swamped by vermin : EGGSLICE

9-across – Haggard’s permitted token of defiance : GAUNTLET

10-across – Goat’s new in the marketplace : ANGORA

11-across – Throwaway line in dim but erotic performance : OBITERDICTUM

13-across – Country left hanging after election? : CHAD

14-across – Sign of arousal that doesn’t begin to receive a response : REACTION

17-across – Way to spur on fish : STURGEON

18-across – Born on brink of glitch : BLIP

20-across – Sound of brewing economic disaster dogs astronomer : HUBBLEBUBBLE

23-across – Rescinded slapper’s A levels : STRATA

24-across – Shed put off being a sinner? : IDOLATER

25-across – Boy competed impressively — but he was eclipsed by his sisters : BRANWELL

26-across – Fuel ceases to function on railroad : DIESEL

2-down – Man’s armour is returned : LIAM

3-down – Wrong dupe blown up by it? : GUNPOWDER

4-down – Lofty is a master of polyphony : TALLIS

5-down – Willingly undertaking to bend ear and reel punter in : ENTREPRENEURIAL

6-down – Foster parent squashed iguana crossing road : GUARDIAN

7-down – Straight thinking required of soldier during Passover : LOGIC

8-down – Abundance of grain about to replace model in ideal world : CORNUCOPIA

12-down – Athlete’s spinning top penetrates part of camera : SHOTPUTTER

15-down – It goes on board with Muse endlessly holding Western Isle up : TABLEWARE

16-down – Influence going to the head of Lady Edna? : LEVERAGE

19-down – Having gone out with a lady from New York : ABROAD

21-down – Reported magician’s skin ailment : BLAIN

22-down – Does it determine the predilection of Bishop Robinson? : GENE