Daily Answers

1-across – Stoppage time with Italian team getting goal : INTERMISSION

9-across – Plant with yellow spike : ORPIN

10-across – Lead away from party line : SIDETRACK

11-across – It covers pot belly fine, ultimately coat’s for going out : TEACOSY

12-across – Very strong drug? Primarily it’s found in drink : CAFFEIN

13-across – Bum stops in prison : BEHINDBARS

15-across – Support Remain : STAY

18-across – Stop on the way : REST

19-across – Running caravan over grass? On the contrary : SCAMPERING

22-across – Gear for going off motorway: heading to junction going around slow-moving traffic : JIMJAMS

24-across – Tramp’s in contact with relation : STEPSON

25-across – English real butter oddly spread on cold toast : CELEBRATE

26-across – Speak of sin restraining love : VOICE

27-across – One picks up booze and ales: try rehab when drunk : BREATHALYSER

1-down – Accuses single male going with beauties : IMPEACHES

2-down – Tense one running and dancing : TANGOING

3-down – Rough lines outlining snake : RASPY

4-down – Bad taste of home furnishings? Let me see : INDECORUM

5-down – Leave TV not connected : SETOFF

6-down – Talk over judge : ORATE

7-down – Bath gushing in middle : HOTTUB

8-down – Pub atmosphere is accommodating for someone wanting a good meal? : SKINNY

14-down – Character supports strike : BACKSLASH

16-down – Drawer describing artist as ‘more eager’ : THIRSTIER

17-down – Soldier waits on reinforcements : RESERVES

18-down – Turn down release by Queen : REJECT

20-down – Sex is good: climax with that woman, husband’s away : GENDER

21-down – Initially, applicant with medical degree on day left a covering letter : LAMBDA

23-down – Second pound fairy regularly left for this? : MOLAR

24-down – Magic mushroom : SWELL

7-across – Supreme soldier’s horse : PARAMOUNT

8-across – I leave European city as champ : MUNCH

9-across – Fruit that might be blown? : RASPBERRY

10-across – What remains after fool picks up high explosive : ASHES

12-across – Celebrity: extremely risky to like the Sky at Night? : STARRY

13-across – With tail of badger, it helps brew love potions : PHILTRES

16-across – Act of avoiding the answer after retirement to ‘Do you spend?’ : EVASION

19-across – Spooner’s corrupt father on TV makes portable furniture : TENTBED

22-across – Most sharp statues crumble with time : ASTUTEST

25-across – Country surrounding Reading? Certainly not! : NORWAY

27-across – Cove to squeal out loud : CREEK

28-across – 17 is not the heart of bingo in afterthought : PAINTINGS

29-across – Play, perhaps, Hamlet, involving Claudius’s crown : DANCE

30-across – Catches prisoners stealing land : CONTRACTS

1-down – Sailor returns with another rock : BASALT

2-down – 5 and 1 primes? Wrong — they’re figures of the imagination : VAMPIRES

3-down – 5050 ÷ 1 close to infinity? That’s remote : LONELY

4-down – Seduces sexy partners right away : ENTRAPS

5-down – Group supports students’ uprising at dusk : SUNSET

6-down – Plan the start of school: a little science, then English : SCHEME

11-down – Lithium and iron sparkle : LIFE

14-down – Polish stone endlessly : RUB

15-down – Vicious man’s raising hell : SID

16-down – Rent finally collected by each foreign letter : ETA

17-down – Knack of regularly slicing carrot : ART

18-down – My numbers! : ONES

20-down – End trimmed fur being gathered by volunteers online? : TERMINAL

21-down – Shabby hotel hides a new drug : ETHANOL

23-down – Ignoring It, it’s the best horror film : SCREAM

24-down – In Paris a supermarket removes Tango for major international operation : UNESCO

25-down – Tiny robot working at nine : NANITE

26-down – Pyongyang’s typical contribution to having acute worries about the world : ANGSTY

8-across – File case of overemotional guff : FOLDEROL

9-across – Pigment good in water : SEPIA

10-across – See 24 : RACE

11-across – New variation, including a hundred old pieces : VICTORIANA

12-across – Fat queen in store … : LARDER

14-across – … very different partner in philosophy? : THINKING

15-across – Metal once found in bottom of fruit? : PLUMBUM

17-across – See 25 : INSIGHT

20-across – Laxative one girl fed to another : MAGNESIA

22-across – One banked on needing loco — did one? : ENGINE

23-across – Serving as correction, speed of light accelerating : CHASTENING

24-across – Kick people out, event usually for children : SACK

25-across – Conclusion can’t be reached — sigh! : NOEND

26-across – Piano piece, both grand and upright, thrashed out : THESHARD

1-down – Only items of quality, every one for my pleasure : NOTATALL

2-down – Covered by maid, ledge gathering dust : IDLE

3-down – See 22 across : DRIVER

4-down – Humour, vacuous amusement in setting : PLACATE

5-down – Baltic Sea? No, it turns north : ESTONIAN

6-down – A little sign left in vault : SPRINKLING

7-down – Preacher’s ecclesiastic weapon : CANNON

13-down – Finished nursing little girl, cut : DIMINISHED

16-down – Dizzy playing tunes on jazzy day : UNSTEADY

18-down – Running water options on craft, type of carrier : HANDCART

19-down – Teacher in a flap upended coffee-maker : BARISTA

21-down – How formula for poison is written in capital city : ATHENS

22-down – Little predatory bird, swallow biting leg off : EAGLET

24-down – Reportedly plant weed somewhere in London : SOHO

1-across – Film Aussie’s welcome to screen about animal : GROUNDHOGDAY

9-across – Practised fitting coats of Parisian : ADEPT

10-across – Bravado deserted guilty party : DERRINGDO

11-across – It’s viewed as what followed Labour’s Callaghan era? : FOOTAGE

12-across – Store silicon in warehouse : DEPOSIT

13-across – Rough copies spread in clergyman’s office : EPISCOPATE

15-across – Ancient Middle East kingdom, way back : EDOM

18-across – Frank or Stuart more than once plugs American news channel : ANNE

19-across – Early period in 1 across? : FIRSTLIGHT

22-across – Inclination to leave out the front entrance : ENCHANT

24-across – Theatre about to host prancing Tina Turner? : PAINTER

25-across – Curiously wild at greeting a crashing bore : TIDALWAVE

26-across – Eyeballs possibly globes, but not black : OGLES

27-across – At lido, pose in pants? It’s what strippers do : DESPOLIATION

1-down – A pope’s man metamorphosed in a novel : GREGORIAN

2-down – Away fixture is better : OUTMATCH

3-down – Jog in a revealing state around Germany’s capital : NUDGE

4-down – Point grasped by star American historian : HERODOTUS

5-down – Almost caught flu : GRIPPE

6-down – Debates lacking energy in the Guardian : ARGUS

7-down – Return of Puck with wonderful puzzle : BAFFLE

8-down – Mechanical saw bishop lifted : BOTTOM

14-down – It may be shot or longer drink, holding a party : PAINTBALL

16-down – Drug from figure with a short amount of coke : DIGITALIN

17-down – Composer from Britain penning number one : ALBINONI

18-down – People staying dry without a bit of clothing in scripture : AVESTA

20-down – Refuse to carry hard kind of metal : THRASH

21-down – Hammer in part of building work : WALLOP

23-down – Naughty so-and-so, say, twirling bum : CADGE

24-down – Letters of Euripides showing devout image : PIETA

9-across – Alien and ET do lunar dance : OUTLANDER

10-across – PC swap in Prime Suspect investigated for this : CRIME

11-across – Prime parts of London avoided panelling scandal, exposing negligence : LAPSE

12-across – It’s reported when breaking : NEWSEVENT

13-across – Change Morse and Lewis? : COPPERS

14-across – Boatman’s seen in image this way: forever young : AGELESS

17-across – Faith leaders in bedclothes, not judges : IMAMS

19-across – At work, prime cut of animals saved in this : ARK

20-across – Hollow surprise, with new head of squad at end of Prime Suspect : SENSE

21-across – As Saturnalia is to a Roman in prime : FESTIVE

22-across – Prime cut behind pig’s head — remove its skin : PREPARE

24-across – Perhaps cold cuts from an endless easterly — that’s a shame : ANTIPASTI

26-across – The end of French at the origin of Huguenots : DEATH

28-across – Prime-time entertainment genre: could be Pointless for seniors? : SOAPS

29-across – Russian river has daily alert : OBSERVANT

1-down – Twist or pass Round One : COIL

2-down – Drink plugged by prime plug : STOPUP

3-down – Pianist prime minister : PADEREWSKI

4-down – A fellow’s a fine fellow : ADONIS

5-down – Clue to minor problem : DRAWBACK

6-down – Prime Suspect claimed ID left unused : ACME

7-down – Prime entertainment with Mr T and A-team’s leader edited out : NINETEEN

8-down – Prime attraction showing prime cut, perhaps : MEAT

13-down – Prime cut from roach — ie fillet : CHIEF

15-down – Example of prime-time enter­tainment: these characters are densest : EASTENDERS

16-down – Tablet, which is reportedly very strong : STELE

18-down – Lianas curled around a treetop: it produces bark : ALSATIAN

19-down – A rebirth, with prisoner released from loathing : AVERSION

22-down – Extremely short after money taken from prime minister : PRIEST

23-down – Boatman, a rear admiral, climbing a mountain : ARARAT

24-down – Space for transubstantiation, not the front of church : APSE

25-down – Pale second : POST

27-down – Blockbusters taking prime slots in this TV show : HITS