Daily Answers

7-across – Unconvincing verdict on reorganisation : CONTRIVED

8-across – Western sultanate’s frailty, according to Hamlet : WOMAN

9-across – Like a great stylist Puritans love madly : PROUSTIAN

10-across – Baffle with incomplete limb : STUMP

12-across – Folk band turned into premier ethnographic exhibit, for starters : PEOPLE

13-across – A bird, dropping one animal, returned diving equipment : AQUALUNG

16-across – Philosopher placing article amid pieces of music : BARTHES

19-across – Snake’s exhausted, holding soldiers back : SERPENT

22-across – Disagree about American electrical apparatus : DIFFUSER

25-across – Promise to put piano on shelf : PLEDGE

27-across – Be useful to island engulfed by reflux of magma : AVAIL

28-across – Eels prove slippery and fail to rise : OVERSLEEP

29-across – Slow down born libertine : BRAKE

30-across – Important person’s documentation found in here : PRESIDENT

1-down – Unrefined blades in church : COARSE

2-down – Set about 30 8 of 18 3? : STRUMPET

3-down – True vice half-destroyed, surprisingly, by its opposite : VIRTUE

4-down – Escape from 5, getting A & E confused : GETAWAY

5-down – Entrance friend eating golden treacle to begin with : PORTAL

6-down – Squirrel’s introduction to nut curtailed by fish : SALMON

11-down – Odoriferous plant secures second trick : RUSE

14-down – See 17 : USE

15-down – See 16 : GET

16-down – Be thrifty and move on time : BUD

17-down – Say no to iron getting turned into 11 : REF

18-down – Requiring little effort to be relaxed : EASY

20-down – Rule out piece of Chopin, say, covering his head : PRECLUDE

21-down – Virtuosic old city set in Spanish coast : BRAVURA

23-down – Upend fountain erected around the beginning of November : INVERT

24-down – Loud, dangerous and full of fun : FRISKY

25-down – District capital’s hospital : PARISH

26-down – Novelist about to infiltrate some DNA : GREENE

1-across – Vote to keep unusual slim footwear : PLIMSOLL

5-across – Reptile next to American flower : CROCUS

9-across – Compiler’s heading to appropriate island to conserve Old Norse legends : CAPTIONS

10-across – Speaker’s destiny said to be more peaceful : CALMER

12-across – Wrong note taken to English university : FALSE

13-across – Easy trick involving king and vegetable! : SWEETCORN

14-across – Proven expert said to welcome head of research : DEMONSTRATED

18-across – Hero devours bananas and small starters : HORSDOEUVRES

21-across – Padre is troubled by Ireland’s sorry state of affairs : DISREPAIR

23-across – Took a picture featuring wild animal : OKAPI

24-across – French person’s standard article : NORMAN

25-across – Foreign king and husband Edward duly honoured? : KNIGHTED

26-across – Drink supplier claiming right to brewery’s last contract : TREATY

27-across – Boycott involving East European gardening equipment : BEANPOLE

1-down – Restriction lifted, provided end of 26 is calm : PACIFY

2-down – Spear almost getting top of African antelope : IMPALA

3-down – Farm worker finds drink in piece of pottery : SWINEHERD

4-down – Mahler song on travelling dock worker : LONGSHOREMAN

6-down – Emperor upset about cook’s second dish : ROAST

7-down – Contents of Communist strongholds? : COMFORTS

8-down – Sad ears need music : SERENADE

11-down – Priest never cares about sinner’s penultimate resolution : PERSEVERANCE

15-down – Rich girl debuts in Roedean playing keyboard instrument : REEDORGAN

16-down – UN agency director taking part in murder story : WHODUNIT

17-down – Paddington’s foremost store of marmalade? : PRESERVE

19-down – Communist statesman spread gold around : CASTRO

20-down – Young woman covering daughter with English garment : GIRDLE

22-down – Short book on law is accurate : EXACT

8-across – One to cut French daily drink : LEMONADE

9-across – Many? Not so long and thanks for fish : MANTA

10-across – In the 1980s, perhaps, one picking up hitchhiker’s guide to galaxy? : FORD

11-across – Queen at start of race is changing jockey? : EQUESTRIAN

12-across – Pen good section with feel for describing : PIGSTY

14-across – Selected by The X Factor, a person’s story’s entertaining from the beginning : ABINITIO

15-across – Prefect reversing in car outside : MONITOR

17-across – Find short Arthur Dent’s stripped off : UNEARTH

20-across – Apes left pair of primates to go around island by Thailand : IMITATES

22-across – Drink, leaving head to settle : EVENUP

23-across – Endlessly amusing for visitors, not old, like 25? : FUTURISTIC

24-across – See 2 : MAPS

25-across – Some terrific stuff in retrospect: like Life, the Universe and Everything? : SCIFI

26-across – Flying first class, queen goes to island, briefly : AIRBORNE

1-down – Cheese and soft, green fruit regularly not out : PECORINO

2-down – Or Adams short work, And Another Thing … Guides for hitchhikers? : ROAD

3-down – US restaurant at end of universe with English lines for cover : EATERY

4-down – Country and its location left for study : PERUSAL

5-down – Lack job, love to go to the top : OMISSION

6-down – Big edition ran spread : INORDINATE

7-down – Adventure mostly harmless and dry : SAFARI

13-down – Is nautical tour to show island? : SAINTLUCIA

16-down – Toes cracking? It’s a problem with bone : OSTEITIS

18-down – Great time having sex : THUMPING

19-down – Camels go out here? Hot, missing covers : ASHTRAY

21-down – Sweet American dear by the sounds of it? : MOUSSE

22-down – See 10 : ESCORT

24-down – Show behind heartless idiot : MOON

1-across – No college boy’s beaten an average player : COLONELBOGEY

9-across – Chap working at a sort of card : SIMON

10-across – Coffin covered in betel leaf, one for a Muslim, probably : PAKISTANI

11-across – More than enough to convert penalty : APLENTY

12-across – Shaking off cold, one doubting being free of germs : ASEPTIC

13-across – Clock change in spring getting support : LEAPSECOND

15-across – Flower girl’s brief stand : DAIS

18-across – The American behind strike : BUTT

19-across – Judge put our lad off recommended course : PLATDUJOUR

22-across – This other Eden … is partly spoken in defiance : SOTHERE

24-across – Doctor’s back after unknown infection : ZHIVAGO

25-across – Interrogated with pants down? : DEBRIEFED

26-across – Became aware of a pan at back of stove : AWOKE

27-across – Prestige car is offered to woman and son? They go on foot : ROLLERSKATES

1-down – Following orders, excellent to get up during illness : COMPLIANT

2-down – Red Square is up: being old fashioned, want to go round : LENINIST

3-down – Cold, like a crab’s claws? : NIPPY

4-down – Large furniture maker knocks up large quant­ities, probably : LIKEASNOT

5-down – Inspection team ejected with force, not united : OFSTED

6-down – Former officer receives half an honour : EXALT

7-down – Set about a journey by sea, say : ASSAIL

8-down – Shreds chapter to be used in extracts : MINCES

14-down – Came and collected what is necessary : CALLEDFOR

16-down – Badly translated old manual so eccentric : ANOMALOUS

17-down – What gets insect drunk, like sheep, perhaps? : RUMINANT

18-down – From this doctor’s manner, only one died nearby : BESIDE

20-down – Native Australian had meal under cover : ROOFED

21-down – Gong I held in the middle : MEDIAL

23-down – Cheers, expression of dissent being banned : TABOO

24-down – Party in South Africa terminal for black priest : ZADOK

9-across – See : WELLS

10-across – Fish from port perturbed European cooks : TORPEDOES

11-across – Top person now harbouring unconscious mass of primitive energies : PRESIDENT

12-across – Get extremely tiddly, imbibing rum in this? : TODDY

13-across – Pass on education, primarily, in this : COLLEGE

15-across – Occupied regal office in foreign edifice : REIGNED

17-across – Good-heartedly backed this see : SIGHT

18-across – Ungainly vessel nevertheless returned : TUB

20-across – See 28 : DERBY

22-across – In place of bishop, I’d put back old chessmen, oddly : DIOCESE

25-across – See 23 13 across, or 11 : LINCOLN

26-across – Minimal information about English fellow in suit : BEFIT

27-across – Middle East airline introducing key moves to land elsewhere : EMIGRATES

30-across – Otherwise stern, sees what’s lacking in long sentences : TERSENESS

31-across – Piece of choral music in Anglican town : CANTO

1-down – Hands over in exchange : SWAP

2-down – Award for seaside resort that’s sad and weary : BLUEFLAG

3-down – It’s a north-facing wine region : ASTI

4-down – See step broken on end of flight most difficult to climb : STEEPEST

5-down – Dramatist, say, who corrects things that are wrong in speech? : WRITER

6-down – Spanned, it’s clear, in first study : BESTRIDDEN

7-down – See 5 : LONDON

8-down – See getting regular letters from episcopacy : ESPY

13-down – Prepared to steal from box with diamonds : CASED

14-down – Prayers irritate when inserted in records : ENTREATIES

16-down – Academic accepting you once as leading figure in field : DOYEN

19-down – Bishop and I cutting version of St Luke that’s taking up most space : BULKIEST

21-down – Applauding after son’s caught settling down to sleep : ROOSTING

23-down – See 29 : OXFORD

24-down – See 23 13 across : EXETER

26-down – See : BATH

28-down – People care when the odds are switched : RACE

29-down – From what we hear, drive away, partly brake : SHOE