Daily Answers

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

1-across – : FATHOM

4-across – : WHIMBREL

9-across – : VERGES

10-across – : GRANDDAD

11-across – : JUXTAPOSITIONS

13-across – : ACHAPTEROF

14-across – : ZERO

16-across – : CUYP

18-across – : BURGLARISE

21-across – : DRANKLIKEAFISH

23-across – : NONTOXIC

24-across – : XANADU

25-across – : SEDATELY

26-across – : UNITED

1-down – : FIVE

2-down – : THROUGH

3-down – : OVERTYPE

5-down – : HORNSWOGGLE

6-down – : MINUTE

7-down – : REDROSE

8-down – : LODESTONE

12-down – : PREJUDICIAL

13-down – : ACCIDENTS

15-down – : KAUFMANN

17-down – : YEARNED

19-down – : INSTANT

20-down – : EKEOUT

22-down – : QUID

8-across – Nick has bet, having lost 7 : PECULATE

9-across – Place of learning once first to propagate growth : POLYP

10-across – One catches 15 shot : HOOK

11-across – 15er – he needs an answer when spinning : SHANEWARNE

12-across – 15er’s headgear : BOWLER

14-across – The birth of 15? : DELIVERY

15-across – The game of the century : CRICKET

17-across – 15er, the devil, collecting runs : BRADMAN

20-across – Figures so reversible carrying label in blue : OCTAGONS

22-across – 14 by royal House, Windsor : YORKER

23-across – Sore head bringing compassion : TENDERNESS

24-across – A 15ing gaffe? : SLIP

25-across – 15 shot, one clearing the way for Father Christmas? : SWEEP

26-across – 14 – piece marked Fragile? : CHINAMAN

1-down – Time for a 2? : ZEROHOUR

2-down – A failure at 15 to take evasive action : DUCK

3-down – Rope was tangled inside that lady : HAWSER

4-down – 2 away from 6 14s and a raised level : VERANDA

5-down – 12 asking a policeman out loud : APPEALER

6-down – Sad all over poor country : ELSALVADOR

7-down – 15er, 13 part two : OPENER

13-down – Two English 15ers secure under this? : LOCKANDKEY

16-down – Secured during climbing of steeple, journeys alone? : EGOTRIPS

18-down – US girl, amid mild expletive, dismissing 7 : AMERICAN

19-down – Nature cold in many quarters : ESSENCE

21-down – Might 15er leave his to stop maintaining resistance? : CREASE

22-down – With this, salute the old ship, one close to harbour : YESSIR

24-down – If 12s hit this, one’s stitched up! : SEAM

1-across – Curls connected less closely with the above : RINGLETS

5-across – Attack on the community? : CHARGE

9-across – The never ending cheese? : MOUSETRAP

11-across – One of 6 in addition from 12 : RIDER

12-across – He : LABOURLEADER

15-across – The A Team’s maybe one of evil : AXIS

16-across – Stomach is tum: lips are wrong : PSALTERIUM

18-across – The Queen before William, then, one that needs hoarding : BILLPOSTER

19-across – Starving in the party sense? : RAVE

21-across – Miss Marple’s mentor endlessly seen at classical shrines : ROMANTEMPLES

24-across – More outside? : EXTRA

25-across – Psychiatrist grasping return of satisfaction voiced during corporal punishment : LARRUPING

26-across – Commander has died outside site : LOCATE

27-across – Good lots of solvers in red, with iris not in spectrum : GREYEYED

1-down – Male, summoned, went wild : RAMP

2-down – See 19 : NOUS

3-down – Song about small rise in latitude : LEEWAY

4-down – The wrong love is two points to damnation : TORTOISESHELL

6-down – Apocalyptic 4 seem out of order in the Cape : HORSEMEN

7-down – It’s true about parent station in space : REDADMIRAL

8-down – Don’t initiate endearment : EARTRUMPET

10-down – Appropriate colour for ruler : PURPLEEMPEROR

13-down – Candidate for Miss SE5? : CAMBERWELL

14-down – Politic mad? Politic mad : DIPLOMATIC

17-down – Pit not reserved for people on stage : OPENCAST

20-down – See 13 : BEAUTY

22-down – Cairo, Istanbul, Tripoli and York, for starters : CITY

23-down – See 1 : AGED