Daily Answers

8-across – Graduate, Master of Music, taking position after retirement : BACHELOR

9-across – Well-known where yours truly pointed : ICONIC

10-across – See 24 down : SALT

11-across – Buzzing about only bees do — only them! : NOBODYELSE

12-across – Improvise, serving some chicken with vermouth : WINGIT

14-across – Delicacy brought first of tummy upsets : TRUFFLES

15-across – Rare kiss for hillbilly : REDNECK

17-across – A sharp funny line in a few words : PHRASAL

20-across – Timeworn stratagem in English county not entirely backed : OVERUSED

22-across – Supervisor in military office? : WARDEN

23-across – Opt for crucible? : MELTINGPOT

24-across – Top evidence initially disregarded : ROOF

25-across – Oxygenated 3 in de-oxygenated channels? : VENOUS

26-across – Start with boy admitting bad speller? : SWITCHON

1-down – A point south of friend on a hill : PALATINE

2-down – NASA’s possible question to lost space probe — seriously? : WHAT

3-down – See 2 : PLANET

4-down – Paean, book for all to see in stock : TRIBUTE

5-down – It produces sustainable power with immigration of race for these scandalously treated people : WINDRUSH

6-down – Intellect welcoming valentine’s lips, just romance : LOVEAFFAIR

7-down – See 19 : TISSUE

13-down – See 5 : GENERATION

16-down – Confidentially intimate feeling in functions with Boris, ultimately : COSINESS

18-down – See 2 : AREYOUON

19-down – Fat deposit a tricky matter : ADIPOSE

21-down – Mae West’s sheepish part in film is seen : VIEWED

22-down – Cool joker beaten : WITHIT

24-down – Make last possible contents of cellar? : ROCK

1-across – Page with dotty portraits lacking an introduction to Roy Lichtenstein? : POPARTIST

6-across – Film having problem over copyright : SCUM

10-across – Exploit dwarf : STUNT

11-across – Eviscerating every actor in short musical — judgement’s hard in these situations : GREYAREAS

12-across – Shops occasionally team up to train staff at the centre : EMPORIA

13-across – Forgive unsuccessful service — then turn on computers etc : LETITGO

14-across – Something found on desktop computer’s terminal following look into corrupt betting app? : BLOTTINGPAPER

17-across – Work by LS Lowry principally means I mostly see factory features : ASSEMBLYLINES

21-across – It’s Sooty and Sweep’s workplace? : CHIMNEY

22-across – Recalled Rod Liddle’s content to leave somebody : NOTABLE

24-across – Dictator’s stone castle, somewhere in France : ROQUEFORT

25-across – Friend trimmed old fabric : CHINO

26-across – Notice the edges frayed at both ends : HEED

27-across – Weak-willed aide yells out : EASILYLED

1-down – Transmit series made for TV Times and Observer? : PASSERBY

2-down – Round in quiz, entertaining student : PLUMP

3-down – Nutter dancing, wearing plastic red nose on Queen’s chart hit : RETURNTOSENDER

4-down – After breaking two hips, older relative wants new implant : INGRAIN

5-down – Couple careful on vacation with international power accessory : TIECLIP

7-down – No ordinary raconteur’s floundering over start of story — here’s where things go downhill fast : CRESTARUN

8-down – Charm maiden on course? : MASCOT

9-down – I call 1 across about making small, ultimately filthy sort of broadcast : PARTYPOLITICAL

15-down – Painter inspired by place of worship, making master free slave : ODALISQUE

16-down – A drug, which is out of this world : ASTEROID

18-down – Staff used to celebrate once prime minister called election : MAYPOLE

19-down – Medicine initially under suspic­ion after lawyer’s debut in court : LINCTUS

20-down – Lightly burn hard resin shoes on the counter : SCORCH

23-down – British river bad for fish : BRILL

1-across – Put together our clothes, prepared to sign up : JOINTHECOLOURS

9-across – Finally securing a little energy: that’s something : ATLEAST

10-across – See increases in slow slender creatures : LORISES

11-across – Alcohol? A tiny taste, about two months back : PIMMS

12-across – Gives mail out, based on a score : VIGESIMAL

13-across – Waiting for security pass, as Stalin’s nephew might have said? : UNCLEARED

14-across – Prime ministers given a flatbread : PITTA

15-across – A great deal expected soon in this : SIGHT

17-across – Result of overindulgence perhaps troubling, Pepys said : DYSPEPSIA

20-across – Simple song: could it be any louder? : ROUNDELAY

22-across – Competitive place a long time back : ARENA

23-across – Artistic style of boxer’s, with rapid movement around : REALISM

24-across – Whisper, about to go in to get clean : BREATHE

25-across – A peculiar match abandoned with reference to drugs : PHARMACEUTICAL

1-down – Compiler in trousers: are you about to become intellectual? : JEANPAULSARTRE

2-down – Sort of faith I will take lots of tricks, diamonds mostly : ISLAMIC

3-down – Short-lived rain’s poured in many a time : TRANSIENT

4-down – Old legal right in French is superior : ESTOVER

5-down – Bound to make line break important in dictionary : OBLIGED

6-down – Master reacts offensively principally falling over rootstock : ORRIS

7-down – Stalks over the floor in a hurry, cutting friend short : RUSHMAT

8-down – Callas’s able somehow to retain musical sense with purest tone : ASCLEARASABELL

14-down – Stop admitting a latitude that’s commonly accepted : PREVALENT

16-down – One morbidly interested in death, say, remains in a stew : GOULASH

17-down – Tricky position, lying on front between two women : DILEMMA

18-down – Always in black, which is OK for a speaker : SAYABLE

19-down – One doesn’t believe it’s cold through the month, almost freezing! : SCEPTIC

21-down – Cyclist has her day in the lead, weather having improved : DRIER

7-across – Minister backed intervening in harbour subject to tremors : QUAVERY

8-across – Leading measure when considering steam? : AHEADOF

9-across – Nut, losing head, with shift of active enthusiasm : ZEAL

10-across – Take a long time consuming a lot of pretty drinks : BEVERAGES

12-across – Limitations on soup — cold or hot? : SPICY

13-across – On the off chance, accepting second note in additional amount : INCREASE

15-across – Beam and grate left unfinished : GRIN

16-across – A new outburst dismissing universal apprehension : ANGST

17-across – It’s coming now — a lot of odd ideas about oneself : HERE

18-across – Also : TWOBYTWO

20-across – Key point rejected, as far as celebrity is concerned : PIVOT

21-across – One eliminating small old city in type of game : DESTROYER

22-across – See 1 : SWAN

24-across – Against accepting defeat? One’s in the soup : CROUTON

25-across – Quick to carry a blade : CLEAVER

1-down – Musician’s accessories lacking colour, getting the bird : MUTE

2-down – Visual adjustment subject to forcible separation : AVULSION

3-down – Ill-mannered clamour about pop group curtailed : CRABBY

4-down – Right about blocking call for a quicker approach : SHORTCUT

5-down – Accessory, Louis Vuitton article, containing new item of jewellery : BANGLE

6-down – See 17 across : GOES

11-down – One in leading group savage about Liberal boasting : VAINGLORY

12-down – Mammal calculating tail not needed : SHREW

14-down – Argument about recipe: he and his wife had very varying dietary tastes : SPRAT

16-down – Former area far from the coast, not island : ANTERIOR

17-down – Jilted bride experiencing losing no-good fraud : HAVISHAM

19-down – Soup book is rather lacking in sex appeal : BISQUE

20-down – Turned up literary detective : PURPLE

21-down – Knight getting silver, engaged in challenges in times long ago : DARK

23-down – See 21 : AGES

8-across – Church dignitary that’s opposed to 15 : CARDINAL

9-across – A selfish desire to get something done! : AGREED

10-across – Be inclined to write things in order : LIST

11-across – Name a small number after one in ultrashort time : NANOSECOND

12-across – Take wicket, then settle down in ground in final season : WINTER

14-across – Kind of yarn in the reply after exchange of a couple of letters : THREEPLY

15-across – Service guide available from Ford in album : ORDINAL

17-across – Fourth book nurse composed about doctor : NUMBERS

20-across – Number that’s loud also heard : FORTYTWO

22-across – Second coffee and third piece of tart : LATTER

23-across – As for No 10 being reformed, PM starts with these : AFTERNOONS

24-across – Continue as ultimate model for Oxford, say : LAST

25-across – Shut up and take notice — this group’s bigger than ABBA : PENTAD

26-across – Guy taking bronze from place to field : THIRDMAN

1-down – In bar, I’m with a female that’s upset close friend : FAMILIAR

2-down – Second of three equal parts in premeditated corrective action : EDIT

3-down – Private penning article that’s comparatively silly : INANER

4-down – Among which ours comes third, but isn’t included in seven, musically : PLANETS

5-down – Nigerian university admitting French or German woman : HAUSFRAU

6-down – A couple of flyers that striker uses when dispatching deliveries : CRICKETBAT

7-down – Unprincipled about runs in first season : VERNAL

13-down – Two days before Ides of March, say, unluckily positioned? : THIRTEENTH

16-down – Dine out after start of play -— one of fifteen occupying a certain table : ACTINIDE

18-down – Mistreated those trapped by informer — that keeps resistance under control : RHEOSTAT

19-down – Leave game after three, we hear : GOFORTH

21-down – Not acting, arrange an evening out : OFFSET

22-down – Young woman having cool drink on 4th of June : LASSIE

24-down – What, historically, Martha became, following double first : LADY