Daily Answers

1-across – Secretary — person with importance that tops the pile? : PAPERWEIGHT

9-across – New classes seeing how films are recorded : INTAKES

10-across – Drive back suspect, like top-class fighter of old : SAMURAI

11-across – Freshly crowned leaders of Greece and Rome put down : GARLANDED

12-across – Little devil that’s caught cutting part of plant : BRACT

13-across – See 14 : RENT

14-across – Cereal crop cut at end of season for nominal fee : PEPPERCORN

16-across – Great sport with deer — sadly it’ll set you back a bit : RETROGRADE

19-across – See 16 : STEP

20-across – Poor journalist longing to get back outside : NEEDY

21-across – Muse as setter consumes exotic lemon pie I overlooked : MELPOMENE

23-across – Eg Boris’s message rejected by Scotsman : ETONIAN

24-across – Good place for reception where trouble may flare up? : HOTSPOT

25-across – Slips in field, perhaps, chasing cunning wingers : FLYCATCHERS

1-down – New Father Ted plot curtly condemned as child’s work : PETERANDTHEWOLF

2-down – Authentic sound coming from cockle : PUKKA

3-down – Novelist’s career to come to an end : RUSHDIE

4-down – Chilled dessert served up after rest : EASEDUP

5-down – Grouse, maybe, as valiant effort restricts runs : GAMEBIRD

6-down – Eponymous man of Nazareth appearing randomly in records : TARZANOFTHEAPES

7-down – Criminal deferring pint, impressed by police? : FINGERPRINTED

8-down – In office, reasonably well placed : SITTINGPRETTY

15-down – Cyclist skirting large metropolis, Rome perhaps : HOLYCITY

17-down – One state’s revolutionary broadcast blocked by another : ROMANIA

18-down – First to last, benefit in backing police is hard to fathom : DELPHIC

22-down – Bizarre public reaction, battle being lost : OUTRE

1-across – TS Eliot’s timeless Gnostic, quixotic sect member : SCIENTOLOGIST

10-across – A case of what should properly be used to cover a floor : CARPETBAG

11-across – Field of European football team not banner-free? : REALM

12-across – Evacuation: one leaves before last of Tory Opposition : ENEMY

13-across – Find oneself getting round Aintree : ORIENTATE

14-across – Allowance: Southend, given space, takes hint : STIPEND

16-across – Gruesomely large openings on total wreck of part of larynx : GLOTTAL

18-across – British sort of insult: Camp outfit! : BUTLINS

20-across – Cordial poured over hot body support : CHASSIS

21-across – Not one initial interaction with USA, which went down controversially : LUSITANIA

23-across – Ray: gather name’s changed to Miles : GLEAM

24-across – Stockhausen wasn’t a heavyweight — a Lambert! : TONAL

25-across – Tip over mock seaweed : CARRAGEEN

26-across – Whose patients are laid back? Yes and no : PSYCHOANALYST

2-down – Not first winter transfer taken by Price, the player : CORNETIST

3-down – Reflective lines of energy on stage yard : ELEGY

4-down – Rag label cover protecting ring : TABLOID

5-down – Trailing insulation : LAGGING

6-down – Radius covered by diagonal shaped candleholder : GIRANDOLA

7-down – Indian songbird — medicine man removes tail : SHAMA

8-down – A drug-taking bicyclist is transforming ease of comprehension : ACCESSIBILITY

9-down – Decorating audacious men libels them : EMBELLISHMENT

15-down – English politics constituted of letters : EPISTOLIC

17-down – Ease up as a master sommelier? That’s rude : TASTELESS

19-down – Plant used science to change carbon to oxygen : SENECIO

20-down – Charing Cross? Exasper­ation! : CHAGRIN

22-down – Star lives over a narrow cavity : SINUS

23-down – Greek pain container of legend : GRAIL

1-across – They ruminate about ex-PM not reaching a conclusion : CATTLE

4-across – Bemoan period of doing without cakes before noon : LAMENT

9-across – Magridal Bizet’s penned in city by the Tarn : ALBI

10-across – Longed to receive team’s kit with lined motif : PINSTRIPED

11-across – Exactly what the bare-bosomed have rejected : SPOTON

12-across – Perish, then arise miraculously in this hymn? : DIESIRAE

13-across – Head of municipality to pull in favours for thriving areas : BOOMTOWNS

15-across – See 16 : WALK

16-across – It’s easy to rouse Irish port, according to Spooner : CAKE

17-across – Bacterium gets bought, we’re told, or gametes : GERMCELLS

21-across – Sacrifice no time in playing Bach motet : HECATOMB

22-across – Symbol of peasant’s morbid and empty life : SICKLE

24-across – Tenor disheartened in melody fit to be forte : STRONGSUIT

25-across – Stern king with sensitivity for music : REAR

26-across – They collect scraps of some early jazz pieces : RAGMEN

27-across – Tinker half-heartedly with perfumery’s ultimate potpourri : MEDLEY

1-down – Seductress’s lacy pants with edging of pearls round : CALYPSO

2-down – Son tucked into goose; he sought seconds : TWIST

3-down – The French show attack on Turks : LEPANTO

5-down – Patriotic work, extremely American, but not US? : ANTHEM

6-down – Strike off priest I meant to reform : ELIMINATE

7-down – Fixture to support curtain feature : TIEBACK

8-down – See 14 : ANDDANCEABOUT

14-down – Fuss over Madonna, due back on a stage to be choreographed : MAKEASONG

16-down – Composer’s moving tear, captivated by French horn : CREATOR

18-down – Speechless about group’s bagpipe : MUSETTE

19-down – What may soothe infant with head dropping : LULLABY

20-down – Hum and turn round — that is rhythmic music : BOOGIE

23-down – Motor lubricant but not one for a girl : CAROL

1-across – Kids grabbing parent’s front or back : SPONSOR

5-across – In September, the dog’s tied up : BERTHED

9-across – Bury Football Club : INTER

10-across – She’s abandoned for driving surprise sell in recession, papers assumed : GOLFWIDOW

11-across – Investigator playing every tape first for impact : PRIVATEEYE

12-across – Dated briefly, making move : PASS

14-across – Media editor not oddly involved in his work : OLDMACDONALD

18-across – Perfect example of sequence isn’t complex : QUINTESSENCE

21-across – More than one viewer is heard : EYES

22-across – Associating bum-wiggling ban with one extremely moved : NETWORKING

25-across – My whitewash is embraced by Labour leader losing election in the end : CORBLIMEY

26-across – Filmed orphan taking relatives inside : ANNIE

27-across – Gave up : YIELDED

28-across – They can’t bear young European students grouped round church : EUNUCHS

1-down – Aired jumper on box : SKIPPY

2-down – Clothes not in the closet match : OUTFIT

3-down – Small runners struggle in last metres : STREAMLETS

4-down – Con man’s side-splitting accents : ROGUE

5-down – With short boat, beauty catches carp : BELLYACHE

6-down – Noises from 19th group back? : ROWS

7-down – Husband’s theory: road leads to escape : HIDEAWAY

8-down – Drawback of wind does for resort : DOWNSIDE

13-down – Army, perhaps, taking time in bad weather? Definitely! : FORCERTAIN

15-down – Set dimmer switches labelled incorrectly : MISTERMED

16-down – Wet starts to summers quite upsetting — everyone loves comparatively hot years : SQUELCHY

17-down – Want 3 down by hotel that’s seen in forest : PINETREE

19-down – British couple carrying on about superhuman : BIONIC

20-down – Grease monkeys in suits : AGREES

23-down – Name of chap going up the A1? : WAYNE

24-down – 50 like peas in clump : PLOD

9-across – Ticker no good in underground dwarf? : METRONOME

10-across – Lowlands town then lower, low in police inquiry might you say? : ALLOA

11-across – Setback as initiative primarily missing from revolutionary framework : RELAPSE

12-across – Underwear I fetch is short, creating suspicion : VESTIGE

13-across – Greek character is out tracing Athenian origins : IOTA

14-across – Chinese shoot person, but a liberal : BEANSPROUT

16-across – Georgia, its location full of oxygen — the state of oxygen! : GASEOUS

17-across – Artist, name embodying hideous woman : CHAGALL

19-across – Oaf, a dog in his hat? : MUTTONHEAD

22-across – Back following a style : AFRO

24-across – Tramp in snow, perhaps? : DRIFTER

25-across – See last of sunset in red and white before heading for shelter : WITNESS

26-across – Hearts of faith forsaken, each biblical patriarch : ISAAC

27-across – Shinto leader in state of release with positive affirmation of the church : BASILICAN

1-down – Mr and Mrs God? : AMARRIAGEMADEIN

2-down – Almost all these trained to keep fit, ultimately sportspeople : ATHLETES

3-down – Blooming thing, like modern music : POPPY

4-down – Desperate, unlike the Road To films? : HOPELESS

5-down – See 1 : HEAVEN

6-down – Foolishly, Paul’s aim to box head of rampant kangaroo, perhaps? : MARSUPIAL

7-down – Centre of Hull bypass drawn up last month : ULTIMO

8-down – Permission for a minor split in rearrangement of plans at once : PARENTALCONSENT

15-down – Bouncer, moment after bribe taken up secreting pass : POGOSTICK

17-down – Curve lifted over web is turned sideways : CRABWISE

18-down – Outside company of great king, daughter snubbed : ALFRESCO

20-down – One in touch with an Australian snake : TAIPAN

21-down – Energy in plant above satisfactory, finally, as a result of this : HEREBY

23-down – Item made of fur, poached : STOLE