Daily Answers

1-across – Wipe over new cab bonnet : MOBCAP

5-across – Poor Billy, regularly infested with moth : BEGGARLY

9-across – Not aware Italian worker has lost son : IGNORANT

10-across – Eagerly accepts two drinks : LAPSUP

11-across – Soft drink?, one snorts : COKE

12-across – St Francis’s body beginning to strengthen after long periods on soup : BROTHERASS

13-across – Extract from record small, more than enough : SAMPLE

14-across – What family shares includes island country : SURINAME

16-across – Fisherman’s position on water’s edge : STANDREW

19-across – Period in which court is closed: left on foot : DACTYL

21-across – Set of labels dotted about, bearing the same important title : DOMAINNAME

23-across – Slippers into which these go : EELS

24-across – Make a grab: hello, sailor! : HIJACK

25-across – After exercise, got fit? Wrong to quibble : PETTIFOG

26-across – In both hands, you may grasp smooth character from Athens : LYSANDER

27-across – Controller fitted with 5 down? Unlikely : REMOTE

2-down – Love fine 8, say, in tiny new case, as one may well believe : ONGOODAUTHORITY

3-down – Leave no gaps for picture : CLOSEUP

4-down – Fruit brought round rest area — take it as it comes : PLAYBYEAR

5-down – Panto character putting bum on seat, no worry : BUTTONS

6-down – Caught lover’s head in embrace, falling into ravine : GULCH

7-down – Poisoner I contact, lacking ultimate drug : ASPIRIN

8-down – She wrote automatically, so needing editing : LOUISAMAYALCOTT

15-down – Soundly interpreted character as special : REDLETTER

17-down – An Indian tune, popular, rises and falls : NIAGARA

18-down – Striker puts on women’s jacket : WRAPPER

20-down – Fragments of music: A, E, and Cs : CAESIUM

22-down – No head wound without 18 : NAKED

1-across – Give a new name to brand leader? Agreed to differ about that : REBADGE

5-across – Tree enthusiast chasing firms : COCONUT

9-across – Smoke irritated Craig : CIGAR

10-across – German meat and food rejected by queen : HAMBURGER

11-across – Lucky rollover for 20? : CHANCELLOR

12-across – Back Tory moderates in a pickle : STEW

14-across – 1910 is a geneticist ignored at first, as is John : MENDELSSOHN

18-across – Realign energy in turn with love across the channel : REORIENTATE

21-across – Draw to be inadequate : SUCK

22-across – Most in need of tip to form relationships : LIONSSHARE

25-across – Memo from lover accepting command : BORDEREAU

26-across – Stop urban division : BLOCK

27-across – Say Saddam has chemical and biological weapons in 1910 : WHOPPER

28-across – Il est un misérable bain-marie, peut-être : UTENSIL

1-down – Chanel in gold reflected style : ROCOCO

2-down – 1910’s oversized coat : BIGMAC

3-down – Free up climate change of unwelcome post : DIRECTMAIL

4-down – Your imprisonment by extremely evangelical radical : ETHYL

5-down – Romance rudely interrupted by … JIFFY AD! : COMMONERA

6-down – Stick card : CLUB

7-down – Denial from Antigone : NEGATION

8-down – Disagreement thins out acts to put back into play : THROWINS

13-down – Professed East German deposing sensible leader : OSTENSIBLE

15-down – No French police centre in the neighbourhood is disproportionate : NONLINEAR

16-down – Hybrid front weapon : CROSSBOW

17-down – Chapter two ends, having covered pre­vious work by 14? : CONCERTO

19-down – Celebrated without her in ramshackle farmhouse : FAMOUS

20-down – Involved in battle, Kremlin revolutionary of 1910 : MERKEL

23-down – Beginning to near Australia, unfortunate refugees upset to be incarcerated here : NAURU

24-down – Every other phase in rising tide : NEAP

1-across – Hurry, if you want to use the weighing machine : STEPONIT

5-across – High-rise central block : MASSIF

9-across – It’s put up for work on the outside : SCAFFOLD

10-across – Who’s this first on TV? No, in Bond film : DOCTOR

12-across – Girl’s back to oriental island : ELSIE

13-across – It’s only a rude version of song and dance : ROUNDELAY

14-across – The key part of a Houdini contract? : ESCAPECLAUSE

18-across – Far away — and not appearing to be distressed : ABSENTMINDED

21-across – A device for catching people in the act? : SAFETYNET

23-across – Alan’s wrong to be nosy : NASAL

24-across – Sailor, a Scotsman, is seen on the roads : TARMAC

25-across – Breaks in knee-length trousers, we hear : BREACHES

26-across – A method for dealing with traffic? : ONEWAY

27-across – Stout friend, about 50, who shares digs : FLATMATE

1-down – Relationship between matron and nurse : SISTER

2-down – Pass in English, overlooking slight error : ELAPSE

3-down – Not on time, when trade is slack : OFFSEASON

4-down – I shall receive therapy for abuse : ILLTREATMENT

6-down – Stay clear when hungry prima donna turns up : AVOID

7-down – Pay to take residence at university? : SETTLEUP

8-down – They go from bank to bank to stay business : FERRYMEN

11-down – Turns up a real oddity — it’s uncanny : SUPERNATURAL

15-down – Plan to surprise carol singer, after extra rest : LIEINWAIT

16-down – It sounds highly unnatural : FALSETTO

17-down – Refuse CO agitating to send in troops : USEFORCE

19-down – A way the head master initially receives a complaint : ASTHMA

20-down – Place for a president to see twice : ELYSEE

22-down – Crown jewels? : TIARA

9-across – Funny swimmer? : CLOWNFISH

10-across – Daughters leave mottled fruit : APPLE

11-across – Turning over, she finally sleeps in lace : SPIKE

12-across – Talent show from America — edited, soulless and tired : KNACKERED

13-across – Deer knocks back glitter : SPARKLE

14-across – Bet pound on leading filly, say : FLUTTER

17-across – Unacceptable to only score 99? : NOTON

19-across – Quiet? Yes, quiet : SHY

20-across – Make Broad an extra batsman at the end : WIDEN

21-across – Before victory, South led amazing trick : SWINDLE

22-across – Colourful old children’s TV show? : RAINBOW

24-across – To suggest making love handle, rip apart! : PHILANDER

26-across – Reportedly want massage : KNEAD

28-across – Surrey town, for example, hot in the morning : EGHAM

29-across – Stories about small mammal drawings : LOTTERIES

1-down – They’re cold inside, that is, on top of stick : ICES

2-down – Bareback rider? : GODIVA

3-down – Runabout conked out, requiring energy not taken into account : UNRECKONED

4-down – Finger food with black liquid centre : PINKIE

5-down – Pest breaking the law in France — why?, they ask : WHEATFLY

6-down – Rowling receives a first Christmas card : JACK

7-down – Ran over dear pet — tragic! : OPERATED

8-down – Drink made at sea : MEAD

13-down – Not even science is above society functions : SINES

15-down – Greek character’s upset with reading faulty Kindle — no lines? : UNWRINKLED

16-down – Frenchman’s wife to start again : RENEW

18-down – Evening time on island, around 1:50 : TWILIGHT

19-down – It delays working in a controlled way : STEADILY

22-down – It’s unusual for the Queen’s Trust to exclude the Church : RARITY

23-down – Indian cigarette is close to the end : BEEDIE

24-down – Dishes regularly spoiled with 25% salt : PIES

25-down – Mary served as host : ARMY

27-down – Bolt had worried about start of sprint : DASH

8-across – Poet, otherwise sister to poet and painter : ROSSETTI

9-across – American who had four sisters in family in rural cottage : ALCOTT

10-across – Humorous writer, tragic figure abused by children : LEAR

11-across – Poet and novelist whose father was a detective : CHESTERTON

12-across – Brothers putting together macabre writing : GRIMMS

14-across – Mother dismissing the recorder of minutes for legal writer : MORTIMER

15-across – Novelist repeating conclusion reached by member of 22 across’s family : BENNETT

17-across – A book revised in new volume for son of Russian statesman : NABOKOV

20-across – Source of novel combination of children and partners : LAWRENCE

22-across – Novelist finding little energy in dotty aunts : AUSTEN

23-across – He wrote about brothers in party changing votes — heavens! : DOSTOEVSKY

24-across – Friends of French literary father and son : AMIS

25-across – Etonian yearbook author whose elder sibling saw everything : ORWELL

26-across – Martin’s father, 19th-century novelist : KINGSLEY

1-down – Happen in company encountered on way from Paris : COMETRUE

2-down – Ruler initially used in producing triangle, square and rectangle : TSAR

3-down – Spears and bows : STICKS

4-down – Cover up work of 22 across that’s problematic : DILEMMA

5-down – Cause of illness in kind of camel endlessly needing drug injected : BACTERIA

6-down – Offensive son, eager to learn about right, left separately : SCURRILOUS

7-down – Performer’s assistant goes to pieces when given new order : STOOGE

13-down – Relatively small groups one newcomer upset in digs : MINORITIES

16-down – In loving way, making proposal, with lady taking no notice : TENDERLY

18-down – Singular craft seen in short humorous piece : ONELINER

19-down – Clearly produces Hawaiian instrument or Japanese ornament : NETSUKE

21-down – On vessel overseas with king going south : ABOARD

22-down – In a US city married undistinguished person : ANYONE

24-down – Fail as boy, being oddly deficient in addition : ALSO