Daily Answers

9-across – A lone crab scuttles round by the sea in Spain : BARCELONA

10-across – Key duet composition : ETUDE

11-across – Quits at university levels : EVENSUP

12-across – One of many carried by a caddy : TEALEAF

13-across – Show girl without sex appeal? : EVITA

14-across – Not a big audience — it was for charity : POORHOUSE

16-across – Church parade is just part of it : MILITARYSERVICE

19-across – Small gimmicky articles — book matches, for example? : NOVELTIES

21-across – No, I am wrong; she was Ruth’s mother-in-law : NAOMI

22-across – Master takes female, 50, in marriage : MARITAL

23-across – Something so cheap as to rule out profit? : BARGAIN

24-across – Refuse organic food? : OFFAL

25-across – Banality means one looks for new interests : TRITENESS

1-down – A meal’s been cooked for sailors : ABLESEAMEN

2-down – You do what you like with it : FREEWILL

3-down – New praise for old Iran : PERSIA

4-down – Firm work with the pen : COOP

5-down – These heavyweights experienced harrowing times : CARTHORSES

6-down – A figure of speech satisfied a figure in speech : METAPHOR

7-down – Foreign Office has its back to the wall : BUREAU

8-down – One among the lesser folk, historically : SERF

14-down – It’s not all bias : PARTIALITY

15-down – Seer? : EYEWITNESS

17-down – High romance? : TALLTALE

18-down – Fashionably tailored, he’s concerned with his image : IDOLATER

20-down – Confirm if the light goes out : VERIFY

21-down – Being annoyed, in­formed the police : NARKED

22-down – High light, low point : MOON

23-down – Note edge of radar echo : BLIP

9-across – Handle call for part of book : TITLEPAGE

10-across – Nose past drinkers outside room taking round … : AROMA

11-across – … drinks to flow? Write book first : BOOZE

12-across – Sexy and single — blood repelled American : EROGENOUS

13-across – Growth: college matter : POLYPUS

14-across – Oddly, The Green Mile lost parts form a type of message : TELECOM

17-across – Satisfied over constant rates : TEMPI

19-across – Film somewhat hard? Stephen King’s short novel : THE

20-across – Stephen King primarily published about troubles : NARKS

21-across – Writer, number one, describing punishment : PENANCE

22-across – King’s evil woman in Misery : KILLJOY

24-across – Left review that is good to fill jacket for Stephen King? : SOVEREIGN

26-across – Dark Tower’s beginning — hard drink knocked back : NIGHT

28-across – Left stuff to write pieces : LINKS

29-across – See 19 : SHAWSHANK

1-down – Shot wound : STAB

2-down – Sort out line by the main character in Long Walk : STROLL

3-down – See 19 across : REDEMPTION

4-down – Pet Sematary’s top minds going first : CARESS

5-down – One’s carried away, tied up — drive here? : DEPORTEE

6-down – Sort of characters in Duma Key : MAKE

7-down – Love actor playing in Mr Mercedes? : MOTORCAR

8-down – What’s meant by the end of Salem’s Lot? : MASS

13-down – Deviously staged, whichever way you look at it : PUTUP

15-down – Isolation left sections without a piece of text : LONELINESS

16-down – Unclear — writer’s block with first? : MISTY

18-down – They deliver Times, collecting Scotsman around 5 : MINIVANS

19-down – Support one in home that’s extremely small : TEENIEST

22-down – State answer: awkwardly ask hosts : KANSAS

23-down – Puzzle creator to shake over horror film? : JIGSAW

24-down – After It, sign detailed deal : SALE

25-down – King established support : REST

27-down – Buy Escort : TAKE

1-across – Set about upstart to get promotion : STEPUP

5-across – Woeful expression over financial centre’s indecent behaviour : SALACITY

9-across – One line in Arabic translated as somewhere in Italy : CALABRIA

10-across – Miles enters sporting heat for the community : HAMLET

11-across – Pest controller uses arsenic with a scary cry : ASBO

12-across – Spacecraft with new inside : UNFORGIVEN

13-across – Diminutive cover for cook’s dish cracked by pub : PINNIE

14-across – Etruscan cast out as dissenter : RECUSANT

16-across – Horny tip from second city of old queen? : SURROYAL

19-across – Quit when Hoover put away : VACATE

21-across – As a selective killer, Charlie bid for change : HERBICIDAL

23-across – Man’s one non-Latin thread : ISLE

24-across – One-time domain of French drink agents : MERCIA

25-across – Thespian needs some whisky — act suffers without one : DRAMATIC

26-across – Pen outside of faltering reach of English literary figure : STRACHEY

27-across – One’s bothered by exclamation no more : ENOUGH

2-down – Eastern males in madly frustrating process of becoming exalted : TRANSFIGUREMENT

3-down – Philosopher working for a group with a common purpose : PLATOON

4-down – Odour production from vapour-filled alcoholic drink : PERFUMERY

5-down – Scottish island’s casually spoken permanent employee : STAFFER

6-down – Note a river’s mud flow : LAHAR

7-down – Force to appear in pathetic sitcom — sugar-coated fare : COMFITS

8-down – Narrator unavailable? Your guess is as good as mine : THERESNOTELLING

15-down – White wine, laced, spoilt procession : CAVALCADE

17-down – Old instrument: state feminine name : REBECCA

18-down – Celebration of US city having variable input to World War II event : LADYDAY

20-down – City’s smart to acquire ace shot : CHICAGO

22-down – Ready to fence river fall : CRASH

1-across – Grub to provide food and support : CATERPILLAR

9-across – Mistake by deserter trapped by signs of hesitation : ERRATUM

10-across – A number work out how to delegate : DEVOLVE

11-across – Ran lightly towards the top — and stumbled : TRIPPEDUP

12-across – Possibly rent a poet’s cave : ANTRE

13-across – Going off in great spirits : HIGH

14-across – No tipping? Honestly! : ONTHELEVEL

16-across – Capital ideas : BRAINWAVES

19-across – Extremely nervous : EDGY

20-across – Commanded by junior : UNDER

21-across – Back stove put in new order : REARRANGE

23-across – Journals I’d taken back to sign : DIARIES

24-across – No turning back with change in working : ONSHIFT

25-across – Even in peacetime its members are prepared to fight : REGULARARMY

1-down – All that is required for the honeymoon departure? : CARRIAGEANDPAIR

2-down – Infant raised to do simple arithmetic : TOTUP

3-down – Managed to hold the first man coming up fast : RAMADAN

4-down – Sort of investigation made by bathyscape? : INDEPTH

5-down – Greatly enjoy being skilful and winning : LOVEABLE

6-down – Specifically, what makes blood thicker than water? : RELATIVEDENSITY

7-down – Go over the limits? : BEATTHEBOUNDS

8-down – Desperate employer tends to repeated and extensive use of manpower : REDEPLOYMENTS

15-down – Expressing contempt for cocaine taking? : SNORTING

17-down – It supplies one’s needs at the press of a button : AEROSOL

18-down – Delight from being in love with the French language : ENAMOUR

22-down – One out of bed seen going upstairs : RISER

1-across – Fellow runs away from European prepared to sell his soul : FAUSTIAN

5-across – Clumsy like Hollande’s politics? : GAUCHE

9-across – Show extravagant pictures from east — there’ll be scoffing here : TRATTORIA

11-across – Gobbles up accompaniment for nuts : BOLTS

12-across – Deploying sarcasm etc? It’s negative campaigning : SMEARTACTICS

15-across – Gong rings round part of orchestra : OBOE

16-across – Dailies to set out to pen paper’s conclusion in these : EDITORIALS

18-across – Loose woman rejected by respectable novelist : GALSWORTHY

19-across – Abandon offspring when outspoken : CEDE

21-across – Hones cryptic setting to produce brilliant display : PYROTECHNICS

24-across – Female’s dressing outside of Dog and Duck : DODGE

25-across – Upper seconds by alumni failing in avoiding alcohol : STIMULANT

26-across – Just holding covers for literary chronicler : EVELYN

27-across – Climb on fairground’s chief attraction? : BESTRIDE

1-down – Cheers up, entertained by extremes of fame and fortune : FATE

2-down – Where men go, but not in river : URAL

3-down – I’m off, then I’m back for oriental furnishing : TATAMI

4-down – Song by desert peoples contains constant affectation : AIRSANDGRACES

6-down – Lab re-created a heart for a fish : ALBACORE

7-down – Refined schoolboy having one butt in : CULTIVATED

8-down – Time to leave new US states and the other part of the country : EASTSUSSEX

10-down – Sparkling stuff back in print, feature by magazine showing how to save Labour? : ASTITCHINTIME

13-down – Hot dog prepared with English, fatty mishmash : HODGEPODGE

14-down – Group withdrawing pound before bank charge is levied here : TOLLBRIDGE

17-down – Nervous, tense rabbit close to anxiety : TWITTERY

20-down – Where money’s deposited and left free of charge : ACQUIT

22-down – Independent publication’s first old-fashioned spellers? : MAGI

23-down – Last year, contracted medical problem : STYE