Daily Answers

9-across – Country said to to drop right to Roman port : OSTIA

10-across – See 21 : THECIRCLE

11-across – Colour transposed on double weapon : DERRINGER

12-across – Artist associates cobalt with moonshine : COROT

13-across – See 23 : COMPASS

15-across – Is oxygen rejected in rocky moss’s diffusion process : OSMOSIS

17-across – In love? No, mate, hate! : VENOM

18-across – See 23 : THE

20-across – Start a likely place for filming : ONSET

22-across – Bar turning up large American rye starters, followed by Bells? : TUBULAR

25-across – Set out to be Europe’s premier unknown poet? : EXPOUND

26-across – Number 10, when backing a settler in Britain : SAXON

27-across – Fancy gaiters required in upmarket transport — official : REGISTRAR

30-across – Game vetting managed by major organisation : VINGTETUN

31-across – Buddhist school said have working gas : XENON

1-down – Lack of bottle, but not hot dogs : COLD

2-down – Maestro conducted North American guy with the goods : STOREMAN

3-down – Hackney’s parking area burden, I utter : TAXI

4-down – Leg fixed, so all ready to proceed with the show? : STAGESET

5-down – Loose-wired ring card : WEIRDO

6-down – Wally’s new trendy web domain number two : NINCOMPOOP

7-down – Fallen legend : ICARUS

8-down – See 1 : FEET

13-down – Fancy Old Man Time : COVET

14-down – Grants helm needs moving to be within reach : ARMSLENGTH

16-down – Full day education reduced : SATED

19-down – Pure and simple, back to front man is burgeoning : EMERGENT

21-down – Catch: girls enquire about making the impossible match : SQUARING

23-down – Packaging with definitive range that involves a complete turn­around : BOXING

24-down – It’s not common for equivalence to replace power with resistance : RARITY

26-down – State’s up at the end of the reserve : SAVE

28-down – Inviting severely disheartened divorcee to enter : SEXY

29-down – See 3 : RANK

1-across – Dog in jelly, perhaps? : SETTER

4-across – Cut article by some caustic youth leaders : SCYTHE

9-across – Chief of Hopi also called for a war dance : HAKA

10-across – 20 bans bones : BARBAROSSA

11-across – British novelist, more crafty? : ARCHER

12-across – 20 not entirely 20, one providing a spark? : GUNFLINT

13-across – One fighting to write libretto in small opera, not on : SWORDSMAN

15-across – Moustache’s back, go for a blade! : EPEE

16-across – Pen for writer of contemporary music : CAGE

17-across – Discarding thin part of neck, soft leg eaten : SCRAPPING

21-across – Decree found in letters of RC priest : RESCRIPT

22-across – 20 member on end of yardarm : MORGAN

24-across – Charity event rent asunder, if ending in boozer : FUNDRAISER

25-across – 20 bluff, by the sound of it : KIDD

26-across – 20 pieces of eight : SILVER

27-across – Brief toss to catch gold coin once : FLORIN

1-down – 20’s bird : SPARROW

2-down – 20 school : TEACH

3-down – Boards having severe problem, scrub floors on ships : EMBARKS

5-down – Hole opening in road, careful to go round it : CRANNY

6-down – I’m going to work, entertaining idle fancy about project leader : TOODLEPIP

7-down – Concentrate, having put German city centre on the outskirts : ESSENCE

8-down – You’re expecting a possible result from this? : PREGNANCYTEST

14-down – As was Guy Fawkes, playing dice with a girl? : REGICIDAL

16-down – Possible bouncers in patterned cloth, did you say? : CHEQUES

18-down – Officer places space station in Russian machine, upside down : ADMIRAL

19-down – It’s in northwest London : NEASDEN

20-down – Copy one in to babble : PIRATE

23-down – Someone stopping to shave head, leaves tidier? : RAKER

5-across – Beam over window for Spooner? : LENTIL

6-across – North American bird destroying its eggs, a number being squashed : CANUCK

9-across – Commercial is about to grab the nation : ADSUKI

10-across – Flow of water not choppy when darkness falls? : EVENTIDE

11-across – A short distance to the west : LIMA

12-across – A dreadful torment has this person spinning before death : ANTEMORTEM

13-across – Accountant and bishop meet outside front of abbey : BEANCOUNTER

18-across – Belly upset in bumpy tours made by vehicle : TROLLEYBUS

21-across – Thereupon chatter but not quietly : SOYA

22-across – Playing partners, frightful bimbos showing social discrimination : SNOBBISM

23-across – Game needing number but one missing, right? : RUNNER

24-across – Car and train about to be scrapped : HEARSE

25-across – Chamber in which worker has drink : ANTRUM

1-down – Fashionable aspect conceals fellow acting like a beast : INHUMANE

2-down – Old Roman building from which British Academy’s removed quartz : SILICA

3-down – Chaps on Thames maybe having a fixed period in overcrowded city : WATERMEN

4-down – Second grade, say : BUTTER

5-down – Boy getting left — tot, that is : LADDIE

7-down – Pull the wool over the old French commander’s eyes? : KIDNEY

8-down – Anti-personnel device — one burnt furiously, restricting revolutionary crowd : NEUTRONBOMB

14-down – Home flooded by one river rising is most dis­advantaged : NEEDIEST

15-down – Queen on island set up place for prince : ELSINORE

16-down – Female to pull wife away : FRENCH

17-down – School story — see them in the auditorium? : LYCEUM

19-down – Place for scientific working party : LABLAB

20-down – Keeping nothing for throwing away : STRING

1-across – Illustrate key opening prison after revolution with touch of euphoria : DESCRIBE

5-across – Destroy vessel, carve into it : CHEWUP

9-across – Brief title recalled in trade : BARRISTER

11-across – Reported feline relationships : LINKS

12-across – Choice of camels, husband exchanged for fifty — how sweet? : ONELUMPORTWO

15-across – I see you on old Hawaiian island : OAHU

16-across – Green no Scrooge, a saver : ECONOMISER

18-across – Certain fact : PARTICULAR

19-across – Youth getting through cigarette ends : TEEN

21-across – Celebs so unrecognisable in previously outmoded state : OBSOLESCENCE

24-across – Idiot, a blend of parents? : DUMMY

25-across – Fish me, dorsal fin at the back, swimming : REDSALMON

26-across – Eliminate gold counters, as sovereigns : ROYALS

27-across – A blast from the past, one pulled by puller, we hear? : KRAKATOA

1-down – Obligation to lift bottom onto end of seat : DEBT

2-down – Sound of the seaside? Yes! : SURE

3-down – Singer breaking rules : REIGNS

4-down – Large ship, huge fighter transporting stock, heading for the bottom : BATTLECRUISER

6-down – Introduction to a Persian poet not right — it’s cheese : HALLOUMI

7-down – Someone enjoying alcohol, one not saving water in Newcastle, says Spooner? : WINETASTER

8-down – Good cord that binds on engine component : PISTONRING

10-down – Almost everything in book and novel runs an old dated system? : ROMANCALENDAR

13-down – Held by communists after uprising, veteran prisoner getting ground cleaner : SOAPPOWDER

14-down – Told you so! Cameron always PM! : THERESAMAY

17-down – Daily Mail ultimately so shabby, not to be trusted? : DISLOYAL

20-down – Two groups without leadership getting flak : ACKACK

22-down – Filth seems moderate under Tories for starters : SMUT

23-down – Girl who may turn up? : ANNA

9-across – He conducted opera in backward province : TOSCANINI

10-across – Old blowers regularly play these : OBOES

11-across – Contribution from Vanessa-Mae’s troubling conductor : MAESTRO

12-across – French composer considers cutting speed : DELIBES

13-across – Left Gershwin tackling British scales : LIBRA

14-across – Member of top brass better with French first lady : TRUMPETER

16-across – I prefer tonight’s controversial ballet : THERITEOFSPRING

19-across – Comedienne Phyllis beset first person with retorts : DISTILLER

21-across – Instrumentalist picks this big name to tour India : SITAR

22-across – Crew occasionally hush popular violinist : MENUHIN

23-across – Composer’s place full of filthy lucre : PURCELL

24-across – Norma maybe rejects section of a report : OPERA

25-across – Briefly try old doctor, one with special instruments : TROMBONES

1-down – Pretended to keep time, given a prod : STIMULATED

2-down – Meet regular members of sestet during walk : ASSEMBLE

3-down – Ray preserves rare Hindu incantation : MANTRA

4-down – Queen performed overture to opera : DIDO

5-down – 10 perhaps more certain to come across fellow boarder : WINDSURFER

6-down – Sweet old man follows the money, as stated : LOLLIPOP

7-down – Maiden interrupts county cricketer’s fight : COMBAT

8-down – River goddess lives around South Island : ISIS

14-down – Suite probed by mariners and pioneers : THEPLANETS

15-down – Elgar fiddled with dress, whatever the conditions : REGARDLESS

17-down – Girl meets hunk, ditching second guy from Cork? : IRISHMAN

18-down – Mean to welcome ambassador eventually : INTHEEND

20-down – Operas in German too much for vocalist : SINGER

21-down – Writer’s copy found in Home Counties : SCRIBE

22-down – Low note creates atmosphere : MOOD

23-down – Play back-to-front concert : PROM