Daily Answers

8-across – Arguably an excess of emotion when cataloguing bug? : LISTERIA

9-across – Stop and stand : STALL

10-across – Beautiful message by 22 down – for her character : JANE

11-across – Roman copper coin, a rare fake featuring head of Balbinus : CARABINERO

12-across – 22 down character remains attached to English lord in senselessly joining club : ELINOR

14-across – Game pie calls for dried fruit : ALLSPICE

15-across – Comedic theatre where amusing hosts made merry : DRAMEDY

17-across – Foot carrying cut, very anxious : PANICKY

20-across – On the rack – in italics? : STRESSED

22-across – One that’s correct, though not entirely sharp : ACETIC

23-across – LS’s extra dining room? : HOLLOWLEGS

24-across – Drunkard, sweating, dropping time and time again in London area : SOHO

25-across – Greenfly for example with love for green stuff : PESTO

26-across – Mesmerising guru, one accompanying Scandinavian lass : SVENGALI

1-down – Part of fish, large on threshing shark : FINAGLER

2-down – Mark eyed in first year : STYE

3-down – Seller of food that’s less appetising, we hear? : GROCER

4-down – See 10 Across : FAIRFAX

5-down – 22 down character personifies a despicable pleb loather : ISABELLA

6-down – For example, Fitzgerald’s behind sacrifice, 22 down character : FANNYPRICE

7-down – 22 down’s Mr. Collins, say, cut from poem and caught : CLERIC

13-down – Book contains three-fifths of tales untold : NUMBERLESS

16-down – See 12 Across : DASHWOOD

18-down – In speech, 22 down character’s noble : KNIGHTLY

19-down – Bad day punctuating a creative work : ADVERSE

21-down – See 5 : THORPE

22-down – Author, ‘X’ from Oz? : AUSTEN

24-down – Long narrative, a talk written up : SAGA

1-across – Getting denounced, recollecting satanism? I got it : STIGMATISATION

9-across – Remove remains of meal lucky fugitive might get : CLEARAWAY

10-across – Stockholder has girl round : LASSO

11-across – New song alto gets ready in west Africa : NAIRA

12-across – Toughest part of job, getting gardens concreted over? : HARDYARDS

13-across – Affectionate gesture, given smartphone for example : HANDHELD

14-across – At short notice, book expensively for one : ADVERB

17-across – Keeping it in the family, getting home back is best : NICEST

19-across – Judge park calm : RECORDER

22-across – Host isn’t one to convert believer : SHINTOIST

24-across – Sweep’s friend covered in coal dust : SOOTY

25-across – One’s counterparts work to withdraw concession : OPPOS

26-across – In Missouri car pool went west, he went east : MARCOPOLO

27-across – Describing a number of teeth after a time on scanner falling out : TRANSCENDENTAL

1-down – Charity perhaps offering spare part for old clock? : SECONDHANDSHOP

2-down – European home welcomes police chief : IBERIAN

3-down – Mexican ensembles have charisma, I fancy : MARIACHIS

4-down – Private hospital in multi-storey municipal building : TOWNHALL

5-down – Detective writer speaks without hesitation : SAYERS

6-down – Order back in penalty box : TELLY

7-down – Notice paper is short : OBSERVE

8-down – Intruder an idiot, but sweet : GOOSEBERRYFOOL

15-down – Fumbles ice-cream and cake : DROPSCONE

16-down – What’s missing from book? O my, a tiny bit : DEUTERON

18-down – Fast ship a cutter? Yes and no : CLIPPER

20-down – Tiny drink not allowed unsuccessful ex-student : DROPOUT

21-down – Snack needed by someone overweight in the rain? : BIGMAC

23-down – Great boxer’s extremely tiny child : TYSON

1-across – Top stated means of getting mobile after a fall : SLEIGH

5-across – Advance to be doubled – you don’t mean that, surely? : COMECOME

9-across – Dash on hearing ‘rehearsal’ : TRIALRUN

10-across – That is awfully mean to put one out : NAMELY

11-across – Bright-red tool on reversing crane : CHERRYPICKER

13-across – It indicates action of lover boy’s heart : VERB

14-across – One joining Plato in discursive medium : OILPAINT

17-across – Cancelled electronic dial for the present : OFFERING

18-across – Disclosure taken by peer : LEAK

20-across – Astounding, inspiring : BREATHTAKING

23-across – Modern means of hooking up – it should catch well : TINDER

24-across – Juvenile leads in iconic musical needing to grow up : IMMATURE

25-across – Technological aspects of farming sparking angry mood almost : AGRONOMY

26-across – Force of habit, eating last of tiramisu : DURESS

2-down – House lacks south wing? What a surprise! : LORD

3-down – Cross Siberia travelling with Communist League vans : IRASCIBLE

4-down – A way to interrupt female only set : HARDEN

5-down – Point at which weight is concentrated = v : CENTREOFGRAVITY

6-down – Moon shot? College is game! : MONOPOLY

7-down – Sulphur extracted from beyond earth is rich : COMIC

8-down – Factory in lane, possibly one of a modern generation : MILLENNIAL

12-down – Ballet etc fragments prior to change : PERFORMING

15-down – Gorilla at play, that has an enormous bite : ALLIGATOR

16-down – Success with female, initially triumphing only so far : HITHERTO

19-down – Caught on camera covered in PVC? : FILMED

21-down – Sound made by car : AUDIO

22-down – See 12 : ARTS

8-across – Elvis due to reincarnate? Unreal! : DELUSIVE

9-across – Dear church members, you need a cat here : OCELOT

10-across – A band of zebras? : STRIPE

11-across – War memorial not cheap to rebuild : CENOTAPH

12-across – Some blame Zeus for Greek food : MEZE

13-across – The Swiss state is in N Italy, true? False : NEUTRALITY

15-across – Part of a summer shower, in itself regularly mild : PERSEID

16-across – Work garment more than a couple of pounds : OVERALL

18-across – Eccentric or angry, as Humpty ended up : OFFTHEWALL

19-across – Primate burying saint in rear of church : APSE

20-across – Lifting weights with this a breeze, to a girl : WINDLASS

22-across – So far, fox fed itself : TODATE

23-across – Where every country can obtain water for the sick? : UNWELL

24-across – Racing here, great deal? : GOODWOOD

1-down – Flier the RAF redefined to have failed : FEATHEREDFRIEND

2-down – Possible employer looks carefully at A-level choice : BUSINESSSTUDIES

3-down – This may speed through the streets, if I re-engineer part : FIREENGINE

4-down – Hangman promoted? The sauce : KETCHUP

5-down – Almost pretty Scottish city : BONN

6-down – Sadly lament holiday not operational, given health crisis : MENTALBREAKDOWN

7-down – Being taken in, isolation is path for treatment : HOSPITALISATION

14-down – Unveiling the final book in the series : REVELATION

17-down – Extract bus ticket and get on : PASSAGE

21-down – Colleague that puts an end to a lot of adverbs : ALLY

8-across – Leaders of first revolution in crash … : MONARCHS

9-across – … way before next bust, perhaps … : STATUE

10-across – … fearful of acting next : AWED

11-across – Critical of population growth: wild animals taking over next : MALTHUSIAN

12-across – Next target for the ambitious and spirited : FRISKY

14-across – Next heretical saint, Lucifer’s follower : SATANIST

15-across – After start of assembly, next socialist moving to Left separately : ASUNDER

17-across – Maintain surveillance over next terrible riot : MONITOR

20-across – Patrons of hospital: Boatman : HABITUES

22-across – Country’s next dash : SWEDEN

23-across – Boatman’s cell, harsh at first, next emerged empty and vividly coloured : BRIGHTHUED

24-across – Next ton of material for glass : FRIT

25-across – A place in the heavens for next to win, say : SATURN

26-across – Odds and ends from next drains : SUNDRIES

1-down – Due to conflict over the middle of the Red Sea ahead : FORWARDS

2-down – Tough end cut off vegetable : HARD

3-down – Contemptible but delectable, showing no resistance : SCUMMY

4-down – Pursue aliens: ask ‘even this is futile?’ : USELESS

5-down – Really minced its oaths : ISTHATSO

6-down – Woman rings boy to collect rustic drink : DAMSONWINE

7-down – Leaders of hominids, usually making a nuisance somewhere? : HUMANS

13-down – Badly stung, I go in bawling : SINGINGOUT

16-down – Rejoicing in extravagance, raised by parent, ultimately a six-footer : EXULTANT

18-down – A joke describing the Titanic, for example : ONELINER

19-down – Station on the Oxted line where one second is painful, time slipping away : ASHURST

21-down – Gay porn stash discovered: they keep the blood flowing : AORTAS

22-down – People used to call for these to bear them, but some ceased answering : SEDANS

24-down – Report of having taken part in battles – here : FORT