Daily Answers

4-across – Place to make a note of profit : MARGIN

6-across – August and another month almost fun, nice in the middle : MAJESTIC

9-across – Not so wild about beginning to play fiddle : TAMPER

10-across – Storyteller assembles great universal catalogue : FABULIST

11-across – ‘Hwyl fawr’, as they say in the Valleys : VALEDICTION

15-across – Wooden crown is no good to Peter : TREETOP

17-across – Country extra worthless to Scots : ANDORRA

18-across – Final decree organised area of the EU : ILEDEFRANCE

22-across – Reaction to jolt in non-upholstered carriage? : BAROUCHE

23-across – Strokes substantial ego : SOLIDI

24-across – Choose a path in abstract : TAKEAWAY

25-across – Bleed a corrupt minor official : BEADLE

1-down – Incline to keep at home, as wine may be on offer : BINEND

2-down – Territory’s head welcoming a southern European : PALATINATE

3-down – Horse in stud’s outside, glittering : SEQUINED

4-down – Encourage work on car that is inclusive of tax : MOTIVATE

5-down – What goes on in bed repels me, unfortunately : REMSLEEP

7-down – Hallucination is no end of nonsense : TRIP

8-down – Appealing to reduce noise at the back : CUTE

12-down – Chief constable is a venomous creature : COPPERHEAD

13-down – Dancing in red fez, extremely agitated : FRENZIED

14-down – In vehicle, husband once left half-cut: has he gone to Monaco? : TAXEXILE

16-down – Tease cracking obsessive up leads to actual laughter in court : TRIBUNAL

19-down – Firmly established as England captain? : ROOTED

20-down – Be up against an objection : ABUT

21-down – Journey back in seconds from ski resort’s train station : TREK

1-across – High passage diva is struggling with cut : VIADUCT

5-across – What’s left on, the electricity supply? : REMAINS

9-across – Bishop isn’t dignified gatecrashing function : SAINT

10-across – See 9 : AUGUSTINE

11-across – Under threes dancing round newspaper boss : ETHERISED

12-across – Colourless layer on fringe of arras : ASHEN

13-across – Brainbox outspoken in row : SCULL

15-across – Poorly, one way or another? : INABADWAY

18-across – Loose family members one’s seen in lodge : FREEMASON

19-across – Brilliance of recital, cellist making a comeback : ECLAT

21-across – Chicken backing away from gangster : CAPON

23-across – PM’s silver ring and Chinese dresses : CALLAGHAN

25-across – Dance groove captured by rockers’ material : STRUTONES

26-across – See 25 : STUFF

27-across – A little baby’s sallow from a very deep bed : ABYSSAL

28-across – Dirt Conservative’s found in shoe : SCANDAL

1-down – Service vehicles from Italy, it’s said : VESPERS

2-down – Wild social do — put easy chair away : ACIDHOUSE

3-down – Say back Caesar’s last words to Brutus? : UTTER

4-down – Hands on man’s bum during prison time, sent up : TRANSMITS

5-down – Soldier breaking free is not yielding : RIGID

6-down – Steed in novel Emma is to run badly : MISMANAGE

7-down – Woman rejected current husband, getting together with Harry Barker : IRISH

8-down – Rent out foxy clothes in serious fashion : STERNLY

14-down – Turning up to fix eg mink or fox coats : LAMINATES

16-down – Many a chronicler shrinks in recital : ANNALISTS

17-down – See 7 : WOLFHOUND

18-down – One’s purple in bed, if such frolics end in angina : FUCHSIA

20-down – Being so might make perform­ance of lute fun : TUNEFUL

22-down – See 2 : PARTY

23-down – Is a Liberal permitted to barge in here? : CANAL

24-down – Where ratings are lost : ATSEA

9-across – Artist and daughter wearing relative’s fashion label : PRADA

10-across – New title about way of working provided recurring theme : LEITMOTIF

11-across – Light-fingered types with permission to interrupt meals : TEALEAVES

12-across – Dance by graduate following sport : RUMBA

13-across – Steel drum keeping time with first of trumpeters in procession : PAGEANT

15-across – Police search for suspect in flowering garden close to Parliament : DRAGNET

17-across – Plant obscured by yellow heather : WHEAT

18-across – Setter leaving bread to go off : ROT

20-across – Person in group dropping money in dying fire : EMBER

22-across – Bear is swimming around island in a chilly part of the world : SIBERIA

25-across – Staff allowed to get something to eat : PIKELET

26-across – King at end of extra pilgrimage returned with eastern prince : RAJAH

27-across – Old nurse close to commode encountering aroma that’s characteristic of old age : SENESCENT

30-across – Recommended article leaving drink to editor : ADVOCATED

31-across – Bit of wood glue : STICK

1-down – Exact replica of small fruit stone : SPIT

2-down – Aggressive speech by playwright carrying a fake gun : HARANGUE

3-down – Chap partial to Nottingham ales : MALE

4-down – Move a lever to get lift : ELEVATOR

5-down – Failed to find sea surrounding island close to Rhodes : MISSED

6-down – Clever clogs right to get drink during strike : SMARTALECK

7-down – Wings of swan covering dull part of flower : STAMEN

8-down – King of Mercia once listened to proposal : OFFA

13-down – Captives welcoming year in this part of Wales : POWYS

14-down – Tremor caused by dessert wine : AFTERSHOCK

16-down – Card for sailor to turn over? : TAROT

19-down – East European given piece of butter to turn into culinary paste : TAPENADE

21-down – Official report of headless chicken in container : BULLETIN

23-down – Crikey — jack held by boy playing against Spain : BYJOVE

24-down – Judge trading shilling for time in estate : ASSETS

26-down – Substantial addition to pure alcohol : REAL

28-down – Part of window made from special wood : SASH

29-down – Son deserting post, as appropriate : TAKE

1-across – Vice squad heartily entertained — say no more! : CLAMUP

5-across – Position not conducive to firing CO? : HALFCOCK

9-across – He’s out, free to work where 8 is : HOUSETOP

10-across – Time, perhaps, Hamlet returned? So it is : TRAGIC

11-across – Rows in Costa following this order : ALTERCATIONS

13-across – Finishing early, read up on boss : STUD

14-across – An achievement, of course — yes, picked up a good looker : EAGLEEYE

17-across – Runs through a tunnel breaking out : UNLEARNT

18-across – Mysterious travellers returned from occupying country : UFOS

20-across – Main treatment centre : HOSPITALSHIP

23-across – Fury over Rex playing a stage villain : VIRAGO

24-across – Suddenly got nasty with a small number : TURNEDON

25-across – Heading off, one subsidising fellow journalist short of fare : UNDERFED

26-across – Repeat right away what’s left : ESTATE

2-down – Spoils look of tin-openers : LOOT

3-down – Deal inappropriately with the Wolverine State : MISHANDLE

4-down – Little boy is holding it : PETITE

5-down – Not on — Telegraph, evidently worried, showed sign of panic : HYPERVENTILATED

6-down – Left with broken heart — man you dumped not wanting to do anything : LETHARGY

7-down – An animal in bed : COATI

8-down – Child one is longing to lift up to secure access to Santa? : CHIMNEYPOT

12-down – Strangely resonant — it is loud : STENTORIAN

15-down – ‘Stuff it!’ — Queen unhappily entertaining Johnson : EQUIPMENT

16-down – Crooked aristocrat caught — one beyond redemption : WRITEOFF

19-down – It should be paid daily : CHARGE

21-down – When there’s no actual fighting, he’s great in the gym : PEACE

22-down – Presenter short, so had to show up : HOST

1-across – Father about heartless perform­ance: ‘It’s supposed to be funny’ : SATIRE

4-across – More than one mountain creature in the same place gets very cold : IBICES

9-across – He’s declared sane after treatment, in a state of being mentally alert : CLEARHEADEDNESS

10-across – More work here, more pleasure here? : UTOPIA

11-across – Like some roads with bit of confusion — two traffic lights but only one right! : CAMBERED

12-across – Dense group of trees in which little son hides : THICKSET

14-across – Fellow, one left being given time inside, shown to be this? : GUILTY

15-across – Portraying an image of a type of chemical bond involving carbon : ICONIC

18-across – Trees we’d chopped in small areas of land : REDWOODS

21-across – Roman emperor, hiding in enclosure, secured position : FOOTHOLD

22-across – Spy on street creating trouble : MOLEST

24-across – Ban duke? Squabble about some rehashed stuff : BUBBLEANDSQUEAK

25-across – Idiots in European port missing an entrance to shipping : TWERPS

26-across – Ogle, needing to grab comp­anion? Well he might! : LECHER

1-down – Mess made by quiet group in school : SPLOTCH

2-down – Take a walk, parking vehicle first : TRAMP

3-down – A learner missing from practice picks up again? : REHEARS

5-down – Insect and nothing more, Spooner’s said, in drinking vessel : BEERMUG

6-down – New income set to provide a small amount of money : CENTESIMO

7-down – Half the people looking to catch us have a sneaking feeling : SUSPECT

8-down – Militant Millicent, reportedly one turned on by Americans : FAUCET

13-down – Officer studies information, schematically presented : CONSTABLE

16-down – Queen being grabbed by womaniser in court game : CROQUET

17-down – Draw together as in an intimate photograph : CLOSEUP

18-down – On a bike, one’s headed North, East or West? : RIDING

19-down – Some Eden with love gone, abandoned territory : DEMESNE

20-down – Misery of endless want keeping the old man in : DESPAIR

23-down – Irish water in sunless bog : LOUGH