Daily Answers

9-across – Pleasant air has little – very little – sent back with grains in it : SWEETNESSANDLIGHT

12-across – White part of joint originates inferior performer : HAMFAT

13-across – Bad luck being held by doctrinaire? : HARDLINES

14-across – Bribe on board : DASH

15-across – Bird’s report of 32 writer with Somerville : ALBATROSS

16-across – Rain indoors? : CATSANDDOGS

18-across – Writer with state reportedly more veiny : PENCIL

20-across – Araucaria’s … not so young as he’d like you to think? : IMAGE

21-across – Alien beast backed to make sheets : LAMINATE

23-across – Ratings show displeasure at pack : LOWERDECK

25-across – Assent for a second, in cargo boat several months : AYEARORSO

26-across – Fawn who had ministry arranged – just DIY job? : WITHMYOWN

28-across – See 26 : FAIRHANDS

30-across – Strongly suggestive of expenditure swallowing income : REDOLENT

31-across – Way in which partner is cut to the quick : SWIFT

32-across – Hall bachelor enters with his eyes open : ALBERT

34-across – Windows file hard to decipher after lethal effect of large crowd? : ALLTHEWORLD

36-across – Getting on when bird is off? : NOCHICKEN

39-across – Piece of garden for English writer : BEDE

40-across – Symbol erected to speed by the French : TOTEMPOLE

41-across – Game set and band : RUBBER

42-across – 36 grown out of diet extravaganza and cross about it : WRONGSIDEOFTHIRTY

1-down – Craft now used for piece that’s obsolete in the first place : TWOFRANC

2-down – Writer’s right : DEXTER

3-down – See 34 : ANDHISWIFE

4-down – Take over the Guardian, former city page : USURP

5-down – A whole new one often, but is it cricket? : BALLGAME

6-down – Labour lord, Tory butterfly : ADONISBLUE

7-down – Premier writer with Scottish county name : WILSON

8-down – One rode a horse and the other _____ : RHODODENDRON

10-down – Familiar precipitation descended with painful sound to spring on police : HAILFELLOWWELLMET

11-down – It’s good to see work of art without regret: I must leave evening party by agreement : ASIGHTFORSOREEYES

17-down – Writer making aristocracy fashionable? : RANKIN

19-down – Western town has telescoped cricketer and French girlfriend : LARAMIE

22-down – Change one with a drug : MORPHIA

24-down – Unlacerated? These days the books are for idiots : WITHOUTTEARS

25-down – Business, one to be exposed with maximum row? : AFFAIR

27-down – Remove hesitation from cockroach specialist: I can make him see straight : ORTHOPTIST

29-down – We don’t look out in time to find model in Roy’s team : INTROVERTS

31-down – Fairy with monster’s head comes into marquisate – 26 28? : SELFMADE

33-down – Sheridan’s scandalous knight found in the Tiber? : BACKBITE

35-down – Navigator’s assistant with head cut off surviving : EXTANT

37-down – Not exactly diehard socialist writer for reporter : HARDIE

38-down – Writer, repeatedly told to leave, left : GOGOL

1-across – School mark approving funny business : SCHTICK

5-across – Bismarck ruled this land of blue and Prince this land once red : PRUSSIA

9-across – Momentous thing, heart rate’s disturbed : EARTHSHATTERING

10-across – Aviation route switched in flight : STAIR

11-across – Indifferent to conversion of Caledonia : LAODICEAN

12-across – Trawlerman with a PC full of contacts? : NETWORKER

14-across – Sri Lankan maiden trapped by shadow : TAMIL

15-across – Lonely Lakeland water-bearer : CLOUD

16-across – High point of some 9 recipe with ten ingredients : EPICENTRE

18-across – Liquidates a joint society : AMORTISES

21-across – Total bill for one from the arboretum : SUMAC

22-across – Endue child of all creation with The Catcher in the Rye : HOLDENCAULFIELD

23-across – Immaturity of redhead? : RAWNESS

24-across – What Bacchus waved in years hence? Switch! : THYRSUS

1-down – As Phaedra’s Hippolytus crushes underfoot : STEPSON

2-down – Great exemplar with all to do: watch for failing : HARDACTTOFOLLOW

3-down – One taking Hood’s place as playwright : ISHERWOOD

4-down – Knight, a prince of the Jewish community : KAHAL

5-down – Smells coming from this river, right? Our tip erupted : POTPOURRI

6-down – One true offspring: some mothers do ‘ave ’em! : UTERI

7-down – Long John Silver’s expression in his aspen grove? : SHIVERMYTIMBERS

8-down – Like the pain from Algerian gin almost : ANGINAL

13-down – In which calves take cover : KNEESOCKS

14-down – Bloodsucker in knitted twin-set? Run! : TSETSEFLY

15-down – Pain in the heart nearly finished tutor : COACHER

17-down – What an enigmatist does, getting up to perform during scene change : ENCODES

19-down – Substance of article on the setter : THEME

20-down – Burst of speed put on by jet : SPURT

8-across – Compound of nitrogen with annoying effect? : RINGTONE

9-across – Island finding ways to communicate : RHODES

10-across – See 19 : CHAD

11-across – Right about answer on poetry getting across : TRANSVERSE

12-across – See 24 down : DINNER

14-across – Blimey, it’s virtuous : GOODNESS

15-across – Author who could balance a pint on her head while playing billiards, they say? : BEATRIX

17-across – Matches turn on flat set : STIFFEN

20-across – Sex symbol a little short getting through capital : MONROVIA

22-across – Independent leader into social equality : PARITY

23-across – Where priests found crime in book, perhaps : PARSONAGES

24-across – The Elephant Man experienced suffering : HURT

25-across – I start to nap in holiday home, though light : IGNITE

26-across – Turned out well about infertility treatment female dismissed, one giving birth : NATIVITY

1-down – Carping woman? : FISHWIFE

2-down – Archaic interjection, for example, since Jesus Christ! : EGAD

3-down – See 15 : POTTER

4-down – Paul left the Guardian almost totally in confusion : MELANGE

5-down – Radical protects political street fighter : PRESCOTT

6-down – See 24 : SOMEONEFOR

7-down – Yankees to cage as animals : BEASTS

13-down – Legal position for sailor, given year unable to sail around? : NOTARYSHIP

16-down – Opening point kept in mind, though not initially made up : INVENTED

18-down – The whole of eternity? : ENTIRITY

19-down – Country in favour of capital punishment – why Bush beat Gore? : HANGING

21-down – Why I can never get a signal on my mobile phone network? : ORANGE

22-down – Extremes of price fixed with a coin of old : PESETA

24-down – So might a cannibal entertain? : HAVE

1-across – Student at Sheffield, perhaps, revolutionary child of noble race : LONDONMARATHON

9-across – Invar, say, used as preservative : VINEGAR

10-across – Antony’s words about health – vet it – restore fruit’s possibly fatter edge : THEEVIL

11-across – Poles outside America may get a black eye … : SUSAN

12-across – … before going in, they get one from African park : SERENGETI

13-across – Tree’s two ways to shorten letter – that’s what counts : FIRSTSTEP

14-across – Past lane without turning : ALONG

15-across – Provide English joke : EQUIP

17-across – Capital almost rhyming with … : KATHMANDU

20-across – … See 10 : THATMENDO

22-across – Pinching pink paper : THEFT

23-across – ‘e’s last in the field to get support : ENDORSE

24-across – Put pronouns in before forming request : PRITHEE

25-across – Five in a set at quarry’s what’s more for computer than playground : ADVENTUREGAMES

1-down – See 10 : LIVESAFTERTHEM

2-down – The good news, hesitantly reported – I don’t do drugs : NONUSER

3-down – Bodily dysfunction that has sound effects? : ORGANSTOP

4-down – Sequel to memento for lush impressionist : MORISOT

5-down – Let’s away from broken-down old vehicle with pedal : RATTRAP

6-down – Link with cup match at home : TIEIN

7-down – Struggle to put gold first where there’s wine : ORVIETO

8-down – Pier showing hair in the air, without qualification : FLYINGBUTTRESS

14-down – Publicity hand in glove initially with making concessions : ADMITTING

16-down – Instincts lead journalist to follow single girl on her own : UNAIDED

17-down – Giving least pain to family from the east of France? : KINDEST

18-down – I swear the actor’s had a change of heart : TROOPER

19-down – Biochemist seems to require food : NEEDHAM

21-down – Little girl on the fat side : MARGE

9-across – Pipe stuffed with opium, as seen on TV : UPPOMPEII

10-across – Cat and what it will do on seeing mouse with no head : OUNCE

11-across – See 23 : FROMTHE

12-across – Much earlier expanded silver ring : LONGAGO

13-across – Fuel substance : COKE

14-across – Unbiased, thinking in terms of swings and roundabouts? : FAIRMINDED

16-across – Issue not allowed? Now look here! : OUTCOME

17-across – Divorce? Get ready to take your horse away : UNHITCH

19-across – Hand to retreating crowd inside to get hold of an incendiary device : NAPALMBOMB

22-across – State force to secure a bit of an iceberg : CALF

24-across – One site associated oracularly with Apollo Theatre : ADELPHI

25-across – One who scored four times in a year with three short women : VIVALDI

26-across – Palpitate and pong during flipping exercise : THUMP

27-across – Enlivening drink taken with, say, backing band : GINGERING

1-down – They’ll accept a gamble, giving territory report to social workers : TURFACCOUNTANTS

2-down – Price, in electrical outlet, of an engaging piece of machinery : SPROCKET

3-down – Hit song’s opening spot : SMOTE

4-down – See 6 : SERENADE

5-down – Daisy possibly married – no better afterwards : MILLER

6-down – Do another job: be a romantic singer of 5’s theme song : MOONLIGHT

7-down – Surrounded by light, though not by the sea : INLAND

8-down – Where the forehead may be found?, as 5 co-wrote : BEYONDTHEFRINGE

15-down – Suckers, those who enjoy these popular pieces : LOLLIPOPS

17-down – Stopped being a failure as a tear-jerker : UNMOVING

18-down – Lacking a true stem, roots or leaves, it’ll do for cultivation : THALLOID

20-down – Once put in an extra one of 5’s trilogy : PLEXUS

21-down – See 23 : BRIDGE

23-down – Work of 5, as seen through a ship’s captain’s eyes? : AVIEW