Daily Answers

1-across – Actors were first to have moved two pieces at once : CASTLED

5-across – Founder obtained work books : GOTOPOT

9-across – Catch a ball? : ROUND

10-across – Lands awkwardly, interrupting chicken sandwich, perhaps : COLDSNACK

11-across – No weirdness in weird Tony Blair having upgraded his degree? : NORMALITY

12-across – Road and river in the 21 : MIDON

13-across – Openings, of course : HOLES

15-across – Original sin in the 21? : FIRSTSLIP

18-across – A number in crooked dealings indicated : SIGNALLED

19-across – Victimise participant in 21 sport : HOUND

21-across – The battle could be magnetic : FIELD

23-across – Fool given sack with meat : CHUMPCHOP

25-across – Recovery of tree with viral disease : RETRIEVAL

26-across – Confession of being 20-ed left out by soak : IMBUE

27-across – Duelling Dickensian doctor goes to prison : SLAMMER

28-across – Reels collecting scrap? : TOTTERS

1-down – Mr Redgrave hasn’t finished the port : CORINTH

2-down – Not quite the wrong thing for 9 13 in the 21 : SQUARELEG

3-down – Languish in the Daily Sport : LYDIA

4-down – Cute 21 played false : DECEITFUL

5-down – Channel in the 21 : GULLY

6-down – Trial marriage on the 21 : TESTMATCH

7-down – Welsh part of Scots dress : PLAID

8-down – Adopted and raised a little boy among sheep : TAKENUP

14-down – The way with business is not to waver : STANDFIRM

16-down – Revolutionary island with alien fish : REDMULLET

17-down – Ridiculous to give Bella a hug? : LAUGHABLE

18-down – Journeys of fliers when climbing on islands : SAFARIS

20-down – Lower of French papers : DEPRESS

22-down – More, many more, indicate an accumulation in the 21 : EXTRA

23-down – See 22 : COVER

24-down – See 22 : POINT

9-across – Where firewood stacked in valley, nothing acceptable : INGLENOOK

10-across – Saw the era of commercialism? : ADAGE

11-across – Beau literally captured by savages, terrified : GESTE

12-across – Watcher of words in editorial about rip-off : LIPREADER

13-across – Poor grade should be marked up as entertainment : FUNFAIR

14-across – Shake tambourine, not the Guardian’s, but closely related : AMBIENT

17-across – Teacher finds beast incomplete … : RABBI

19-across – … but the complete female to take drugs? : DOE

20-across – Heading for torture, instrument a source of discomfort : THORN

21-across – Former lover can court when long gone : EXTINCT

22-across – Select composition for a keyboard instrument : CELESTA

24-across – Design of RAF engineer not popular, no battery : FREERANGE

26-across – Sob about river of promotional text : BLURB

28-across – Study of note, impromptu duet : ETUDE

29-across – Hairy beast found thanks to natural selection? : TARANTULA

1-down – 3 captain’s duty to grass : SING

2-down – Pushes when timer’s set for 3 1/2 minutes? : EGGSON

3-down – For whom offer of offal would produce a negative response, primarily : VEGETARIAN

4-down – 3 sliding boot in posh car : ROLLER

5-down – Snow vehicle should avoid part of motorway : SKIPLANE

6-down – 3 checkout strip stripped : BARE

7-down – VI – IX II = US city : SANDIEGO

8-down – 3 midwife, perhaps, finds 19 across : DEER

13-down – 3 lucky to be strong : FORTE

15-down – Courage needed to rely on something green : BOTTLEBANK

16-down – Bearing found in gear of ancient Roman islands : TONGA

18-down – Blandish mountain goat? : BUTTERUP

19-down – Set off to wrap film in present : DETONATE

22-down – Sob about woman one stoned : CHERRY

23-down – Shed, during drink, put a sock in it! : SHUTUP

24-down – 3 served in lit spirit to provide nourishment : FEED

25-down – 3 shown to grass : REED

27-down – 3 islands offering beastly sounds : BAAS

5-across – Bananas free! : MADRID

6-across – It turns amphibian : TIRANA

9-across – Tree preserver under fire : ASHCAN

10-across – Is temporarily in charge of New Holidays : HOLDSTHE

11-across – See 10 : FORT

12-across – Like Jowett with letting outside Cayenne, say? : ALLKNOWING

13-across – British : BRINESHRIMP

18-across – Fear about wriggly worm left in Shadowlands? : DREAMWORLD

21-across – Backwater that comes back to where it started : LOOP

22-across – Ismaili leaders ask Ghana for change : AGAKHANS

23-across – Philoprogenitive boy, loveless and cross inside : BROODY

24-across – Greek well opening: what secures the bucket? : EUROPE

25-across – If this is the case, why join most of the foregoing? : LISBON

1-down – Scrambled gold coin for English teacher : EDUCATOR

2-down – Queen’s number’s up : VIENNA

3-down – Overhead projector on plate between road and ship : MILLINER

4-down – Fighting talk? : WARSAW

5-down – Little time on boat : MOSCOW

7-down – Consonant consequential to vowel : ATHENS

8-down – Relic of summer to heartless revolutionary : THELASTROSE

14-down – Offer for Aladdin’s? The answer could be Psalm : NEWLAMPS

15-down – Bingham’s associate in Dorset – sounds to some more like Devon! : MELCOMBE

16-down – Change of sides during pestilence : PRAGUE

17-down – Line like Rostov or Rotherham : LONDON

19-down – Make the ship secure, d’ye hear? : ANKARA

20-down – Turn lacking vision, putting the last first : DUBLIN

9-across – Smelly and acne, the best features : HIGHSPOTS

10-across – Tyrone town not good for a city on the Missouri : OMAHA

11-across – Loopy work, note, having lost one time : CROCHET

12-across – Advocate of conflict, losing head fighting, died – stiff : AWKWARD

13-across – Brain, but idle : LOAF

14-across – Liqueur to ruin a pair of trousers? Put back to front : MARASCHINO

16-across – Bird at speed must find concentration : TITRATE

17-across – Dickensian character about to secure victory is fretful : PEEVISH

19-across – Line across moon composed of iron matter : TERMINATOR

22-across – 25’s short dress : GARB

24-across – A horse and sheep, one as a shepherd? : ANAGRAM

25-across – See 3 : ACTRESS

26-across – Small hooter for Manilow, lethal injection? : OWLET

27-across – Trick on track, but not one to voice : CONTRALTO

1-down – See 21 : CHOCOLATETEAPOT

2-down – Topless Italian man with soldier in the dark : IGNORANT

3-down – May I hold your crozier while I perform? Unfortunately she abhors sophisticated taste : ASTHE

4-down – Grass dividing two and two eights? : BOATRACE

5-down – See 21 : USEASA

6-down – Spiralling alcoholic’s requirement, perhaps? : CORKSCREW

7-down – A West African country invaded by a West African country : MALAWI

8-down – See 3 : SAIDTOTHEBISHOP

15-down – Check accuracy of a measurer of bacterial infection : CALIBRATE

17-down – Obscure poet’s written about chief product of decay : PTOMAINE

18-down – Catholic Queen Lisa about to inter murder victim : ISABELLA

20-down – In actual fact I must protest! : REALLY

21-down – A cha cast out? Came out a hopeless disaster, hopeless : ASMUCH

23-down – Bringer of life spread from this name? : STORK

1-across – Over 1,500 ft game sleep on heather, being responsible for 6… : RUDYARD

5-across – See 1 : KIPLING

9-across – … Southern Blues being on top of one another : STORIES

10-across – Rose : TREMAIN

11-across – Sheep do what pigs don’t – 21 in the 6 9 : BUTTERFLY

12-across – Hibernian flag at kick-off : IRISH

13-across – Song that’s pathetic, the appalling swamping the good : DIRGE

15-across – Refuse to start row with former bond holder : EXCREMENT

17-across – Theatre audience has not much weight : LYTTELTON

19-across – Butler : YEATS

22-across – Award, I’m relieved to say, obtained by witchcraft : OBEAH

23-across – Roman emperor’s reported links with American city : CARACALLA

25-across – Chum in the early hours going AWOL, say : ACRONYM

26-across – Involved with entering a plan for a mast : MAINTOP

27-across – Old girl and mother lose out : DAMOSEL

28-across – The church was bold – so was Lebanon : CEDARED

1-down – Immaterial name to call up, it may be gathered : ROSEBUD

2-down – Ancient surveyor turned to pride : DIOPTER

3-down – Caliph’s Kalif initially – English is similar : ALIKE

4-down – Make unfriendly staff dice with management : DISAFFECT

5-down – Diminutive 6 9’s loner to whom everywhere was 3 in the pool : KITTY

6-down – Caesar’s head lies broken in quarry : PRECISELY

7-down – Single periodical without extremes? Fancy! : IMAGINE

8-down – Report composed of 0s? : GUNSHOT

14-down – Ship then called Nomad extended by crocodile in 6 9 : ELEPHANTS

16-down – Home among pottery suitable for 3-D : CINERAMIC

17-down – After a sign, chum spots receiver in 6 9 : LEOPARD

18-down – Proposition or direction divides them : THEOREM

20-down – Brilliant lot of coins in the shrine : ALLSTAR

21-down – Put foot down ready for post : STAMPED

23-down – In 6 9 he got his own back, arrived and left : CAMEL

24-down – See 14 : CHILD