Daily Answers

1-across – Fairies going to hospital to die : PERISH

4-across – I live by a sunken valley in part of Europe : IBERIA

9-across – Small Helpings, a book about universal currency, is in verse : NOUVELLECUISINE

10-across – Congress takes on heavyweight churchman : SEXTON

11-across – Geometrical proportions in transport company : BUSINESS

12-across – Drawing of ship replacing recipe in lads’ magazine : ESQUISSE

14-across – Fugitive lacking a point of departure : RUNWAY

15-across – Help back, carrying a good bundle of leaves : TEABAG

18-across – Form of bribery involving plate of fruit : BILBERRY

21-across – Sack for disrupting oil flow outside : SPOLIATE

22-across – A sign of resignation : NOTICE

24-across – Confused flower bearing the dead to The Band From Hell : DISCOMBOBULATED

25-across – A redhead wearing pink beads : ROSARY

26-across – Not a popular success – pasty, gutless and flaccid : FLOPPY

1-down – Declare academic has no alternative : PROFESS

2-down – Bolt taking top off shrub : RIVET

3-down – God of the French in the cavity : SILENUS

5-down – Hard man from Uruguay is interrupting literary uncle’s brother : BRUISER

6-down – Place bet on Fiddler”s Wax, an unpromising horse : ROSINANTE

7-down – Mental blank rendering travelling men incontinent? : AMNESIA

8-down – Penny Black in German river turned to stone : PEBBLE

13-down – Lifeline to Mum losing head and feeling sick when carbon replaces oxygen : UMBILICUS

16-down – Without hesitation, perimeter can be made less populous : EMPTIER

17-down – Traditional subject getting right into Greek character and Roman leader : GRAMMAR

18-down – Back without king of northwest France? : BRETON

19-down – Nothing, on reflection, to chuckle about, losing tip of tongue : LINGUAL

20-down – Queen’s introduced to pugilist’s garden feature : ROCKERY

23-down – Vagrant gin-drinking Frenchman : TRAMP

9-across – A memory’s about, but it’s over : REMAINDER

10-across – Teacher’s pet that’s fast-breeding must be docked : RABBI

11-across – Prisoner captures king at sea, we hear : LARGELY

12-across – Bar offers beer to entertain hospital and university : SHUTOUT

13-across – Small part, though wide, perhaps? : EXTRA

14-across – A case of something a farmer might fill to the brim : CARTRIDGE

16-across – Melodramatic production sounds dull, given mistake from Spooner? : BLOODANDTHUNDER

19-across – Get away! Shed’s confused! : SCRAMBLED

21-across – Compiler sold last year for a tenner … : ROVER

22-across – … whose beastly pal collects profit, it’s said, for another : FIDELIO

23-across – Lunatic can and must find holy refuge : SANCTUM

24-across – Criminal, then virtually all right? On the contrary : FELON

25-across – Entering branch, seeing red and orange : TANGERINE

1-down – Do your best, without lines, to produce such transport : TROLLEYBUS

2-down – A horse drinking nothing alcoholic wants nothing but an alcoholic drink : AMARETTO

3-down – I’m spent in a round, but if you’re offering…? : MINESA

4-down – Donkey losing head – it swirls : EDDY

5-down – Trollop held up by Freud’s complex will be disappointed : FRUSTRATED

6-down – Ornamentation made with a four-by-two : FROUFROU

7-down – Where Bennett’s Englishman was with an American girl : ABROAD

8-down – See 3 : PINT

14-down – Rocky peak avoided amongst inclines with narrow transport : CANALBOATS

15-down – Hearing piece for organ and brass : EARTRUMPET

17-down – Pat swallows horribly limp kneidel : DUMPLING

18-down – Parliament, having secured vote, passed round joint : DOVETAIL

20-down – The problem with pepper : RIDDLE

21-down – Coe’s nose, perhaps : RUNNER

22-down – Kingdom instrumental to the Scots? : FIFE

23-down – Place in which to wash pot : SINK

1-across – Wet, tottering Noah, ere ‘e dines with wife, got idea Chesterton expounded : IDONTCAREWHERE

9-across – Comic poet has nothing to grind without study : OGDENNASH

10-across – Turned out from Plymouth with glands : LYMPH

11-across – Crown’s backing for island and the sun : TIARA

12-across – Small-time quarrel with centre forwards? : SECONDROW

13-across – See 1 : ITDOESNT

14-across – Stress, in a manner of speaking : ACCENT

17-across – Butt or object of wag? : DOGEND

19-across – Part of column makes one in part of book : CHAPITER

22-across – I’m upset, natch, in view of the very long odds : FATCHANCE

24-across – Try to deceive and don’t sail away : LIETO

25-across – Faded-looking small craft losing height : DINGY

26-across – Wives and mothers all do badly on the other side : OLDLADIES

27-across – Setter without domestic help being suicidal… : DOINGFORMYSELF

1-down – … accepts the situation and a drink : IDONTMINDIFIDO

2-down – One single 26 has a game of cards : OLDMAID

3-down – Bond turned up article on Lincoln and tropical fruit : TONKABEAN

4-down – Hoarding shows a church piece with one sharp : AMASSING

5-down – Behavioural questions affected the first gas : ETHICS

6-down – Bird embracing the French ship launcher : HELEN

7-down – Deep regret about TV detective : REMORSE

8-down – See 1 across : THEWATERGOESIF

15-down – A column dividing extremes of country has its attraction : CAPILLARY

16-down – Destroyer of documents – don”t say a word – increasingly embarrassed : SHREDDER

18-down – See 1 across : GETINTO

20-down – See 1 across : THEWINE

21-down – Remove the top … of the car”s summer feature : UNROOF

23-down – Composer followed by Sikh, say : HAYDN

1-across – Large pork pie : WHOPPER

5-across – King Edward the Scholar : LEARNED

9-across – After two failures, 13’s half government department: I’m not like 13! : THIRD

10-across – See 9 : TIMELUCKY

11-across – Liberal Dems eat the butter-tree: they do lots of walking : MILLIPEDES

12-across – The saint of the tree ring : ELMO

14-across – 14 good, 8 down best? Here’s no way to start the day : GETOUTOFBED

18-across – Aunt worried about child in league is insincere : PUTSONANACT

21-across – See 14 : SIDE

22-across – See 14 : ONTHEWRONG

25-across – Previously mentioned government department during Greek war needs help : AFORESAID

26-across – Sign of a lot of books : LIBRA

27-across – Half 12’s what three quarters of it is in film production : ELSTREE

28-across – One of the usual? Guess! : SUSPECT

1-down – See 24 : WITHME

2-down – Bird call around river in Spain : ORIOLE

3-down – 24 putting on more weight after poor start : PADDINGTON

4-down – Produce an extra bond to give some sureties : RETIE

5-down – Italian writer : LAMPEDUSA

6-down – Having skill which can be tolerated after 24 : ABLE

7-down – American coin uttered by Dickens’s family : NICKLEBY

8-down – Endless Edwin’s taking in youth group leader’s drapery : DRYGOODS

13-down – Who lets Australian leaders reform the new state? : SOUTHWALES

15-down – Produced at ticket office to be eaten in dining car? : TRAINFARE

16-down – Turncoat gets a job making tea : APOSTATE

17-down – Where there are horses there are bills, making one 5 across : STUDIOUS

19-down – Roughly mend stone? : COBBLE

20-down – A genuine beginner has time to be shocked : AGHAST

23-down – Abode of the dead, not the second ditto? : HADES

24-down – Please wait for seller, do you understand? : BEAR

1-across – The wind in Jersey? : ZEPHYR

5-across – Shed’s inclination to join the players : CASTLIST

9-across – The old men get over abuse that’s started us off in the Taj Mahal? : POPPADUM

10-across – Suspension of work being carried out to hedge : LAYOFF

11-across – Commander deployed squadron with it and he gained control : CONQUISTADOR

13-across – It’s only fair : JUST

14-across – One sought to contact propagator of mischief, resulting in this : IRANGATE

17-across – With so may executives outstanding, have orders to replace one : TOPHEAVY

18-across – Ring Times about some of the Rev. Charles Dodgson’s letters : OXON

20-across – Steeplechase observed in 2 or 22 : POINTTOPOINT

23-across – Thief changing sides for 5 cents : NICKEL

24-across – New bud seen when Thrower gets working round top of garden? : REGROWTH

25-across – Cushion from pressure, etc? : HEADREST

26-across – Powerful wines getting demolished, the last one from Burgundy : SINEWY

2-down – Mark rising with tuition here? : ETON

3-down – Finding source of beer and whisky in child’s play : HOPSCOTCH

4-down – Yorkshire’s a third up : RIDING

5-down – As encountered in 15? The reverse! : CCMMUNITYSPIRIT

6-down – He is doomed on stage, but more than one may go about nameless : SALESMAN

7-down – The song Teletubby Tinky-winky’s finally taken to heart : LAYLA

8-down – p evidently preferred to f here! : SOFTOPTION

12-down – Car phone, apparently hand free : AUTOMOBILE

15-down – Source of gold attracting large numbers, originally thriving, now abandoned : GHOSTTOWN

16-down – Be let out of a quiet prison : BASTILLE

19-down – Nothing I serve will hold her : HINGIS

21-down – Uncovered wound, top taken off : NAKED

22-down – 2”s shuffled pack : STOW