Daily Answers

1-across – Blight form : MOULD

4-across – Where milk once regularly placed with piece of bread? : DOORSTEP

8-across – Wake-up call, cross-party talks? : COCKADOODLEDOO

10-across – Discrimination therefore involves a thousand people : EARTHMEN

11-across – Range from Ark ultimately covered by dove? : COOKER

12-across – Funny serial about shaving people from behind, very prickly! : IRASCIBLE

15-across – Arabian Peninsula city Arabs rebuilt : BASRA

17-across – Bright boy speaking up? : SUNNY

18-across – Chaining cycle, punctured tyre on it : TETHERING

19-across – Line in a report that’s out : ABLOOM

21-across – March slightly lacking in recollection of spring, for comparison : PARALLEL

24-across – Jazz Age superstar, wild thing masking pain, she be dancing? : JOSEPHINEBAKER

25-across – Plant saving fuel, plant saving fuel? : REPEATED

26-across – Scruffy legion fed gruel, primarily : MANGY

1-down – For which Roux trains when cooking? : MICHELINSTAR

2-down – A nice turn that’s high up in the air : UNCERTAIN

3-down – The inevitable schadenfreude at house arrests : DEATH

4-down – Muck in bidet soon spattered about : DOONESBIT

5-down – C_A_C_? : ODDS

6-down – Get large drink and experience its effect? : SEEDOUBLE

7-down – Digital reference, nothing in Japanese city coming up : EBOOK

9-down – Moving left and right with angularity, one way, then another and back? : TRIANGULARLY

13-down – Content to leave early in matches with East Asian, once : CEYLONESE

14-down – Ten wheels came down on public transport : ENTRAINED

16-down – Thin piece that’s served up I finish off in bites : SPILLIKIN

20-down – Hanging head in embarrassment, going places earlier? : LOOSE

22-down – Salt pocketing black book : ALBUM

23-down – Still ruined : SHOT

1-across – Marriage added to traditions that we recently abandoned : CUSTOMSUNION

9-across – Fat blokes concealed signs of what’s to come : OMENS

10-across – Colourings? Yes, time to be put into puddings : DYESTUFFS

11-across – Waste a sporting triumph : ATROPHY

12-across – Active type, welcoming party, flipping left: he seems bored : DOODLER

13-across – Revolutionary party in thrall to curiously gauche Marxist : CHEGUEVARA

15-across – ‘Long-limbed?’ Scratching head … shaped like Humpty Dumpty! : EGGY

18-across – Major name in astronomy : URSA

19-across – Putin’s aim: to finally shatter belief in better world : UTOPIANISM

22-across – Flatbread taken from fellow at lunchtime? : CHAPATI

24-across – Principally, Achilles’ heel dipped in waterway somewhere in Greece : ARCADIA

25-across – Top biscuit : GARIBALDI

26-across – French river a little Frenchman’s in : SOMME

27-across – To sum up: conservative puncturing diversity’s sister principle : INCONCLUSION

1-down – Grim mating activity including silly leer : CHEERLESS

2-down – Rolling Stone icon on perpetual comeback tour : SISYPHUS

3-down – As mausoleum’s location is seen in Algeria? : ODDLY

4-down – Danger, by the way, for those over 70 : SPEEDTRAP

5-down – No, I sun myself up in the country : NATION

6-down – Anglo-Saxon king, large, wanting the trimmings : OFFAL

7-down – Fragmentary picture of ancient lawgiver : MOSAIC

8-down – Leprosy not beginning to upset bird : OSPREY

14-down – Expressing ill-will, three engaged in civil unrest : VITRIOLIC

16-down – Lad musing about member of association : GUILDSMAN

17-down – Component of woven arc is sinuous flowers : NARCISSI

18-down – A French experimental composer’s release : UNCAGE

20-down – Escaping from trap, Dracula’s prey increasingly beastly : MEANER

21-down – In Bond, female bodyguard almost given licence to kill pandas like this? : BAMBOO

23-down – ‘Ora pro nobis’ partly offering protection : APRON

24-down – Sign-off that might end with an ‘x’? : ADIEU

8-across – Off and on, Angus cattle close to Midlands town : NUNEATON

9-across – Depart in extremely enticing topless garment : EGRESS

10-across – Wings of airplane or back of aircraft : AERO

11-across – Wind from backside after beer, also when drinking unknown port : ALEXANDRIA

12-across – Unfortunate bloke missing first trick : ILLUDE

14-across – Way-out questions? : EXITPOLL

15-across – Siren in collieries barely active after loss of current : LORELEI

17-across – Old coins aired in works : DENARII

20-across – Case of medicine clears up tissue-hardening : SCLEREMA

22-across – Fly from two identical places after cycling : TSETSE

23-across – Hybrid ash tree not brown or green? : EARTHTONES

24-across – Smuggled bottles over bay : ROAN

25-across – Uproar caused by corporation in the last month : TUMULT

26-across – Plant disease Kelvin found in Toronto ground : ROOTKNOT

1-down – Pure breaks in Oslo, possibly luxurious place to go : SUPERLOO

2-down – I will be found underneath large bricks etc? : LEGO

3-down – Adult badger relaxed : ATEASE

4-down – Bury hosts grand European number : INTEGER

5-down – Natural to welcome oddly edgy opposite : NEGATIVE

6-down – Pat alerted about temporary addition to new estate? : TRADEPLATE

7-down – Observation using psychic powers in all likelihood seen up-front : ESPIAL

13-down – Rough time, 50% of team being run-of-the-mill : UNEVENTFUL

16-down – Mammals in lair bitten by English terriers repeatedly : EDENTATA

18-down – Available where subs may be working : INSEASON

19-down – Social deportment of a princess married lady entertains : MANNERS

21-down – Answer question skirted by this group of sycophants : CLAQUE

22-down – Arguably become startled with lush artist : TISSOT

24-down – Eastern spirit, Egyptian god and heartless Hindu goddess : RAKI

1-across – In the past, cutter put out stern first : TIMEWAS

5-across – Seeing they help girls, give them a good start : GLASSES

9-across – Peace and quiet in a number of families : ORDER

10-across – Her career progresses by leaps and bounds : BALLERINA

11-across – Cushy number, creating alternative to sauce boat? : GRAVYTRAIN

12-across – Disgusted expression as one pulls rabbit’s head out of sack : FIE

14-across – On march noticing English have left is disheartening : DEMORALISING

18-across – About to take pew, shy, after sister’s beginning to chant this? : NUNCDIMITTIS

21-across – Secret message doesn’t start in verse : ODE

22-across – Value bus lane: travelling regularly eases : USABLENESS

25-across – Soldier near failing, consumed by pity : MERCENARY

26-across – I’m not straight in the feet : IAMBI

27-across – Bureaucracy offers old advice about where to find water : REDTAPE

28-across – One coming from nowhere puts out pictures : UPSTART

1-down – Out of hospital, clear of depression : TROUGH

2-down – Some may catch one tampering with fruit tree : MEDLAR

3-down – They may relieve tension, but be sad to do this? : WORRYBEADS

4-down – Shed tears over queen’s grave : SOBER

5-down – Seek pleasure in a grand house kept up and not empty : GALLIVANT

6-down – A city rises – from the ashes? : ANEW

7-down – Wrong about a bit of news fodder : SAINFOIN

8-down – Time we get off this planet? : SPACEAGE

13-down – Gloom and doom crushing popular run of programmes : MINISERIES

15-down – Go en masse to perform, sticking to the script : ONMESSAGE

16-down – Home-maker and singer : INFORMER

17-down – Concluded one far-right group was making a mistake : INFERRED

19-down – Woman’s purpose, to pick up dreamy lover : HERMIA

20-down – Having strong desire, succeeded moving up top : TSHIRT

23-down – Marshy land in inlet edges well away from ground : BAYOU

24-down – Cheese knife takes hearty slice : FETA

1-across – Illicit tool criminal concealed in sponge : BOOTLEG

5-across – Stomach-churning musical great : SATCHMO

9-across – Keen to restrict Neddy’s revelry : WASSAIL

10-across – Court can, if reconstituted in the capital : ROMANCE

11-across – Working with board that supports constitutional procedures : OPERATING

12-across – See 11 : TABLE

13-across – Material leak covered up by discontented tabloid : TWEED

15-across – Ill, Mark’s failing to meet objective : OFFTARGET

17-across – Outline something commonly associated with moon : SUMMATION

19-across – Barge below rocks : ELBOW

22-across – Not wanting to incriminate myself I take it? : FIFTH

23-across – See 22 : AMENDMENT

25-across – Staggeringly rich? : ROLLING

26-across – Taxes on the vacated port : TRIESTE

27-across – Marine creature managed to turn over by itself almost : NARWHAL

28-across – Screen made of reeds or bananas : REREDOS

1-down – Solemn type enters competition to claim a wicket : BOWLOUT

2-down – Indecent old book site : OBSCENE

3-down – Tarzan’s means of getting around a pin-up? : LIANA

4-down – Western female at border with oil rich peninsula : GALLIPOLI

5-down – Brat presenting second short broadcast : SPROG

6-down – Casual and tense, by chance? That’s to invite bad luck : TEMPTFATE

7-down – Accessory of workman getting the sack : HANDBAG

8-down – Public welcomes each cut? Get stuffed! : OVEREAT

14-down – Inclination to pass on ground wheat dish : DEATHWISH

16-down – Hot air from this nut with an old gun : FANHEATER

17-down – Orange-yellow shifts for fans : SAFFRON

18-down – Gag writer’s ultimate neckwear : MUFFLER

20-down – Maybe Brian’s not so great in the sack : BLESSED

21-down – Evidence of liquid nitrogen in contaminated sweets : WETNESS

23-down – One needs to blend honey : ANGEL

24-down – Comparatively boring towel? : DRIER