Daily Answers

1-across – Southside plant : SEDGE

4-across – Dance, one involving sailors, before one exercises : HORNPIPE

8-across – Sign one’s on the hook is, perhaps, sign one’s off the hook : ENGAGEMENTRING

10-across – Put trust before a tie between mother and child : PLACENTA

11-across – Fasten case that’s not closed : ATTACH

12-across – Leaderless team citing poor form is perplexing : ENIGMATIC

15-across – Rising riffraff, including upper-class slime : MUCUS

17-across – Damp smell badly gets one down initially : HUMID

18-across – Back strain comes over bearing obstacle : HINDRANCE

19-across – Virtually only one comfort : SOLACE

21-across – Who’s boss? Bond’s answer could cause trouble : MISCHIEF

24-across – Precaution found in drapers? : COUNTERMEASURE

25-across – Spring roll sounds civilised : WELLBRED

26-across – Provided by top firm : SOLID

1-down – See chapel and set off? : STEEPLECHASE

2-down – Assertion of opinion over divinity degree dispelled mist : DOGMATISM

3-down – Bird dog slips lead : EAGLE

4-down – Embroider problem surrounding nightmare place that student quits : HEMSTITCH

5-down – Let rip : RENT

6-down – This worker has scope to catch up : PARTTIMER

7-down – Beast said to indulge? : PANDA

9-down – Seat in Parliament? : CHESTERFIELD

13-down – Here in France, new award covers healing : MEDICINAL

14-down – Fraud business reporter verified : CONFIRMED

16-down – Always going on functional assignment without woman : CONTINUAL

20-down – Be mated without love to relax : LOOSE

22-down – Credit fool with being stupid : CRASS

23-down – Composer’s peculiar day off : WEIR

8-across – Thematically I’m buttonless, as there wasn’t ____ : MUSHROOM

9-across – 8 eaten by carnivore? No kidding! : ENOKI

10-across – Sensible letters read out : WISE

11-across – 8 food and its source, a quarter in blue : CHAMPIGNON

12-across – See 21 : INKCAP

14-across – Cover chastity, not head, after brief moment : SECURITY

15-across – Police set about invading Watford area : GESTAPO

17-across – Dalai Lama, for instance, finds Greek character canned? : TIBETAN

20-across – To stagger is not to crash into tree : ASTONISH

22-across – Eatery with inventive Hungarian stew half eaten : BISTRO

23-across – Little house on estate I’m developing : MAISONETTE

24-across – Rascal beheaded one in cathedral … : NAVE

25-across – … when I entered, Lincoln? : GREEN

26-across – Exclamation of contempt for burglars sounded : KNICKERS

1-down – Bewildered Euclidean left to go like the clappers? : AUDIENCE

2-down – Perhaps Oxford bags inch too wide, the ends of which required … : SHOE

3-down – … and the end of which required to walk up : TOECAP

4-down – Official residence making a packet? : EMBASSY

5-down – Navigator capsized vessels indulging in kinky vice : VESPUCCI

6-down – Creatures which may have gone slippery in fishermen’s traps? : CONGEREELS

7-down – Briefly visit shops perhaps from home, returning to get purse : NIPOUT

13-down – Source of oil – raise river bed first by lots : COTTONSEED

16-down – Touching and panting when writhing, embracing love : POIGNANT

18-down – First creature on an opening leaf looked up? : AARDVARK

19-down – 8 providing benefit without success : SHITAKE

21-down – 8 giving sea bird severe pain circling old South American rock, finally swallowed : SHAGGY

22-down – 8 missed the opportunity? : BLEWIT

24-down – Bomb : NUKE

8-across – As 1, 2 and 6 are unable to bear one of the French 5 : CIDEVANT

9-across – Ornithograph that’s showing presence of thrush : APHTHA

10-across – Old slag fell out of old scripture : SCORIA

11-across – Sleepy royal butter provider might, perhaps, deny Lear : ALDERNEY

12-across – Artistic licence? : FREE

13-across – She interpreted Weill, yet not all ‘e composed : LOTTELENYA

15-across – One makes things compatible, fitting between a daughter and the common woman : ADAPTER

16-across – Concerning Kate’s float? : READIES

18-across – My crime sat unsettled and out of order : ASYMMETRIC

19-across – Wonder at disparity in trade with East : GAPE

20-across – Hard on a pieceworker’s liver : HABITANT

22-across – One of Putin’s 16 : ROUBLE

23-across – Sally! One’s not out to get it! : INJOKE

24-across – Mustard to singe one’s hair? : CHARLOCK

1-down – 8 20 of 7 delivering gigantic address : GISCARDDESTAING

2-down – 8 20 of 7 from the centre of Paris : GEORGESPOMPIDOU

3-down – Vichy leader with story about Louis XIV’s mistress : LAVALLIERE

4-down – Castle where Walpole ran into Bismark? : OTRANTO

5-down – See 12 : HAND

6-down – 8 20 of 7 turned out to be a legal scheduler : CHARLESDEGAULLE

7-down – Where 1, 2 and 6 all appeared in The Bill, see? Look mate, ‘e’s finished! : THEELYSEEPALACE

14-down – Philip II’s complex putting off callers? That is nothing! : ELESCORIAL

17-down – Works of Blue Period with aural insert : EROTICA

21-down – Charge card not for a gringo? : AMEX

1-across – Blame taken by ex-leader for current peril : RAPIDS

4-across – Paint porcelain : EGGSHELL

9-across – Flowers for Molly and Leopold : BLOOMS

10-across – Fighter in battle with palace spaniel : BLENHEIM

11-across – Donkeys, say – stubborn as feed is flaky : BEASTSOFBURDEN

13-across – Byzantine Empire band giving first performance : PREMIERING

14-across – Tuber brought back from Flodden Field : EDDO

16-across – Green manure : LIME

18-across – Fuel is taken from a car – then it packed up : ANTHRACITE

21-across – Mischief caused by king in financial dealings : MONKEYBUSINESS

23-across – Province holding back number one citizen : NATIONAL

24-across – Strip joint attended by saint : DIVEST

25-across – Bats need ears for the evening air : SERENADE

26-across – Bill, a leader of the Stones : AGATES

1-down – Girl Guide’s first absence from school : RUBY

2-down – Give me a call in the linguistics unit : PHONEME

3-down – Head’s cane not stopping servant : DOMESTIC

5-down – Measures taken after duke is trapped by game birds : GOLDFINCHES

6-down – Make fun of sentence : SENDUP

7-down – Put right crossword compiler who’s turned over : EMENDED

8-down – Fish and fruit given Spanish acclaim : LEMONSOLE

12-down – Directors given time and place for launch : SPRINGBOARD

13-down – Naval officer detaining almost all king’s horses : PALOMINOS

15-down – Ghostly appearance that is difficult to forget : HAUNTING

17-down – Screen lizard : MONITOR

19-down – Vet required when little creature has swallowed coin : INSPECT

20-down – Focus on love at home : ZEROIN

22-down – They deliver notes and letters – initially in Anthony Trollope work – before publication : ATMS

9-across – Extremes of bad taste, not to be gone into : OFFLIMITS

10-across – Primula – it’s at the wrong beastly end for soup-making : OXLIP

11-across – Man relocated from American plant : ERICA

12-across – Start to boast of part in 3 : SCARECROW

13-across – Fungus grower’s support to end : BEARDIE

14-across – Cannes’ opener: Times We Live In sought by 24 down in 3 : COURAGE

17-across – Reserved a scrubber with no expression of joy : ALOOF

19-across – Ancient Everest pass leads back climber : PEA

20-across – Media mogul, no saint, sought by 23 in 3 : HEART

21-across – Web community member not gross? One school of thought : NETIZEN

22-across – Fish swallowing hot molten lead in 3 : DOROTHY

24-across – Cheek and gums make-up? Yes and no : LIPSTICKS

26-across – Like a beanpole put round two fertiliser elements : LANKY

28-across – Hearsay broadcasting with Dee, say : ONDIT

29-across – Property deal puts energy in Black Sea resort : LEASEBACK

1-down – Cook, oriental, sought by 22 across in 3 : HOME

2-down – Land father in a modern art venue : AFRICA

3-down – Classic feature of western comic’s non-Pommy equivalent, it’s said : WIZARDOFOZ

4-down – Time Magazine edition’s absorbing stuff : TISSUE

5-down – Potential beef spread abroad? : ESTANCIA

6-down – Head of Bury United sought by 22 across’s 25? : BONE

7-down – Blimey! Again, sadly, without Britten opera : GLORIANA

8-down – Throw upstart of seventeen on seat : SPEW

13-down – Bishop Bucket sought by 12 in 3 : BRAIN

15-down – Not published abroad, as New York Tribune is : UNHERALDED

16-down – Debut – make yours on solving this : ENTRY

18-down – Start to dip in to scoop out squids? : OCTOPODS

19-down – Pinhole camera’s top removed for a game : PINOCHLE

22-down – Hell might be appalling : DISMAY

23-down – Outdated money piece seen in 3 : TINMAN

24-down – Millions, though not Lean, up for part in 3 : LION

25-down – 3’s pet character in this is entirely Latinised : TOTO

27-down – Hairy beasts’ gasses : YAKS