Daily Answers

1-across – 9 19 No 1 with spy working in cyberspace : REBECCA

5-across – Like du Maurier’s The Birds, breaking chain : CORNISH

9-across – See 25 : MRSDE

10-across – Fish swimming in cave round House on the Strand’s head : ANCHOVIES

11-across – Timeless stories, as put about by the same devotee : AFICIONADO

12-across – Novel start: enter woman, imagining deathly detail : LAST

14-across – See 12 : DREAMTIWENT

18-across – See 12 : TOMANDERLEY

21-across – Characters at back of Old Ferry Inn I misguidedly race : INDY

22-across – Top producer of dramatic works drinks mid-morning? : CAPPUCCINI

25-across – No 2 gutted Manchester team to sack one during next season : THESECOND

26-across – Tense chapter after close of Jamaica Inn describes plot : PATCH

27-across – Housekeeper’s high and barely mighty : DANVERS

28-across – Set sail with du Maurier’s ultimate former model : LUSARDI

1-down – This French writer of note ruined PhD — the making of Daphne du Maurier … : RAMEAU

2-down – … American press on supporting British admirer of George : BUSHIE

3-down – Conventional bridge tactic induced big slams : CUEBIDDING

4-down – See 12 : AGAIN

5-down – Relief for suffering fan sealing last passage on top of Menabilly : COCODAMOL

6-down – Castle Dor missing introduction about fair : ROOK

7-down – Papers covering artistic setting in Cornwall after the writer’s done copy : IMITATED

8-down – Pause is at The Breaking Point : HESITATE

13-down – Aspects I see represented over top of York? : CITYSCAPES

15-down – Means to uplift sea lover, moved with impression of Troy : ELEVATORS

16-down – With bands announced, follower of Q is not half engrossed : STRIATED

17-down – Just a little boy swallowing a fly : SMIDGEON

19-down – See 25 : WINTER

20-down – See 12 : NIGHTI

23-down – Heading for Polmear, load up bike : PEDAL

24-down – Summer for French crowned by the start of Fowey Festival : FETE

1-across – Bait cricketer : SPINNER

5-across – Casual attempt to secure image : POTSHOT

9-across – Get out good fashionable clothes : HOPIT

10-across – Spooner up for distortion by design : ONPURPOSE

11-across – Pretty boy playing with Arsenal : REASONABLY

12-across – Wet grass : WEED

14-across – Good health looking problematic then? : MUDINYOUREYE

18-across – European enquiry given testament in sharp, English wit : QUENTINCRISP

21-across – Machiavellian shackling Catholic, I see! : ARCH

22-across – Train to capital crossing river, its effect disorienting : OPTICALART

25-across – Setter reversed a state that’s flow : EMANATION

26-across – Drug dealer, one often over the limit? : SPEED

27-across – Make up accent, funny case of boring joke : PUTONES

28-across – Rock garden ends, we hear, in South American capital : CAYENNE

1-down – Field ball : SPHERE

2-down – Active as an actor? : INPLAY

3-down – Decent result of spring-cleaning? : NOTSODUSTY

4-down – Drink draught up, guzzling juice : RIOJA

5-down – Underground worker, Dickens character ending on burdensome early shifts : PIPELAYER

6-down – Initials of tiresome egotist revealing my name : TERM

7-down – Trotters cut, evidently bleeding, cleaned : HOOVERED

8-down – Judge accepts bound to be more happening? : TRENDIER

13-down – Operative in USSR, possibly peripherally as foreign agent : RUSSIANSPY

15-down – A pinhead introduced to pub grub as a toddler? : INNAPPIES

16-down – Just winning, prepare for a fight : SQUAREUP

17-down – See 26 : MERCHANT

19-down – See 27 : FACEON

20-down – Some turkey heads and old goose wings filling dish : STODGE

23-down – Charged I note, first sent off : IONIC

24-down – A shade flatter : FAWN

4-across – Shed for dog : SETTER

6-across – Prince sheltering insurrectionary flower : HAREBELL

9-across – Rope has number in Lithuania : LARIAT

10-across – Lovely, fit woman included : ADORABLE

11-across – Magician’s impulse to follow short article on gold carpet : THAUMATURGE

15-across – Musician’s introduction to dark stranger : DRUMMER

17-across – Desire to drink for five years : LUSTRUM

18-across – Braggadocio’s to traumatise a 4 across, stifling cry of pain : SCARAMOUCHE

22-across – Map-maker finding flashy car on a hill : MERCATOR

23-across – Sign of stone in Italy : GEMINI

24-across – Girl from Spain retrospectively makes amends, receiving religious instruction : SENORITA

25-across – Garment for old flame back in house, mostly : TUXEDO

1-down – Salve keeping City still : BECALM

2-down – Players, each flanking very small River Dart : BANDERILLA

3-down – Bold Provençal city piercing confessor’s heart : FEARLESS

4-down – Sidle out drunk to get freedom from company : SOLITUDE

5-down – American sailors on top in underworld : TARTARUS

7-down – Part of cartel banished to island : ELBA

8-down – Vegetable that’s not initially glossy : LEEK

12-down – Tat creator created from clay : TERRACOTTA

13-down – Training to put turn in charge : PRACTICE

14-down – 4 across’s 4 across, perhaps, 4 across to leave skin infection : IMPETIGO

16-down – Tie knot round record, getting head wiped, and go badly wrong : MISCARRY

19-down – Blouse shredded by dagger : OBELUS

20-down – Prophet giving drug up : AMOS

21-down – Make incomplete husks : BRAN

1-across – Scratching head, Joy embraces a certain female with pride : LIONESS

5-across – Saw man chasing British online commentator : BLOGGER

9-across – Are next to improbably huge robin : NEIGHBOUR

10-across – Reportedly followed progress of parcel : TRACT

11-across – A bit of a kip after extremes of heartache and passion : HEAT

12-across – Cook it with fennel or with spinach : FLORENTINE

14-across – According to hearsay, ogle slim woman : EILEEN

15-across – Team keeping discontented rattlesnake by itself : SQUARED

16-across – It gets under the feet of two mums, trapped by routine : RUSHMAT

18-across – Partly malarial Torcello, a Venetian island : RIALTO

20-across – Incensed at people rejecting seconds, start to convulse and twitch : APOPLECTIC

21-across – Runs into Hebrew sage, perhaps : HERB

24-across – See 23 down : HAPPY

25-across – Sick brother leaves NY street after thief’s confession : INABADWAY

26-across – See 23 : RETURNS

27-across – Poet describing you poetically as first in her field : DOYENNE

1-down – Set off without a meal : LUNCH

2-down – To Riga, migrating without paperwork : ORIGAMI

3-down – Real origins of European common toad probed by Henry : ECHT

4-down – Coatis cling and spit, unusually obstructive course of action : SPOILINGTACTICS

5-down – Singer tries to rebel after ban on underwear on beach : BARBRASTREISAND

6-down – Once oddly tense and thin, resembling a stop sign : OCTANGULAR

7-down – First to grow more delicate Alpine flower? : GLACIER

8-down – Half-heartedly withdraw commercial for tyre : RETREAD

13-down – Pay me later!, ordered Co-operative worker : TEAMPLAYER

16-down – Child’s hero ignoring case of betrayal : REACHER

17-down – Took bung for throwing match : SHOTPUT

19-down – Stars in east, south and west in conjunction : THESWAN

22-down – Nice article supporting young male scientist : BOYLE

23-down – Grumpy pal with piles first delivers annual greeting : MANY

1-across – Duplicitous as in political sphere, also phoniest allies, pair struggling to maintain conceit, primarily? : SPECIAL

5-across – See 21 : FOSBURY

9-across – Somewhere in Asia, hotel’s neighbour? : INDIA

10-across – Sadly, the traditions of US apartments? : CONDOLORE

11-across – Where Jack accommodated divine liturgy easily, initially : FORECASTLE

12-across – See 24 : SEED

14-across – One performing delicate work drops into flower : BRAINSURGEON

18-across – See 1 : RELATIONSHIP

21-across – Wearing tie, figure carrying small black jumper : DICK

22-across – Man after hit story that’s hot : BONKBUSTER

25-across – Save some nice old works : ECONOMISE

26-across – Not exactly a spell : ABOUT

27-across – Stalk headless monster in bar : PETIOLE

28-across – Bird for Trump? : TWEETER

1-down – Superior numbers ultimately high, one senses? : SNIFFY

2-down – Suffer demise, nation lacking leadership getting comeuppance : ENDURE

3-down – Where beer may be found to contain copper? Wrong : INACCURATE

4-down – See 6 : LACES

5-down – Last two standing in a line wearing boxers? : FINALISTS

6-down – Chelsea so poor, Oxford ties? : SHOE

7-down – Closed one end up high : UNOPENED

8-down – Soft bowing : YIELDING

13-down – Pictures I almost deleted, dead say : ARTICULATE

15-down – Compound where I’m being carried round on large animal : IRONOXIDE

16-down – Find endless fruit covering lip : DREDGEUP

17-down – Save bags to have everything you need when power’s lost : BLACKOUT

19-down – No more time after half of air gone : ATMOST

20-down – Large hole where bottom caught, with fundament in fact squeezed up : CRATER

23-down – Toll cut, tax at first went down : KNELT

24-down – Creator claims to witness decay : GOTO