Daily Answers

1-across – Baby eland’s content to be left by itself more than once : CUBED

4-across – Relating to drink, I bloat badly — I try avoiding it : LIBATORY

8-across – Domestic problem of depression in film actors’ guild : NEGATIVEEQUITY

10-across – Dear me, I suspect Liberal intended to make things better! : REMEDIAL

11-across – Endless rubbish stuck in which craw? : THROAT

12-across – Expressing a slight scepticism about old ways of seeing things? : GASLIGHTS

15-across – Sheepishly talk with senior having invaded Iraqi city : BASRA

17-across – A large group backing US inventor : TESLA

18-across – One abreast of new and original band, we hear : NURSELING

19-across – Husband stepping back in show of respect — or resistance? : OHMAGE

21-across – When in Paris, you prove to be most discerning : ASTUTEST

24-across – Slough’s allure is, on reflection, very English : CHARMOFFENSIVE

25-across – Insult the sovereign, say, when changing sides at the front like a traitor : DISLOYAL

26-across – Sees red Greek’s heart in tatters : RAGES

1-down – Churchgoers go on catering course : CONGREGATION

2-down – Two Dutch chaps? : BIGAMISTS

3-down – Departs, following first pairs of dazed terrapins out of the ark : DATED

4-down – Travelling through time back to Jonah in poor whale : LEVIATHAN

5-down – Source of sugar cane, reportedly : BEET

6-down – It pains me to be wearing present material : TOUCHABLE

7-down – Proportion beginning to reach one in a hundred, almost : RATIO

9-down – Honesty is his strangest failing : STRAIGHTNESS

13-down – Maiden name used during date by Laura, shortly after break-up : INAUGURAL

14-down – Loves escaping from stores, so foul and mentally draining : STRESSFUL

16-down – Sign of frigidity? Sign of wedding following tip from birds and bees! : SHIVERING

20-down – Umra and hadj regularly supported by one Muslim leader : MAHDI

22-down – Graceful, narrow ring of bone : ULNAR

23-down – Leaves Billericay at last — perhaps Ceylon’s warmer? : COSY

1-across – Actor’s pictures in the mire? : BOGART

4-across – Leave wet clothes outside with mac, both at the back : DECAMP

9-across – Who knows? Take that secret to your grave! : YOUNEVERCANTELL

10-across – Passage of music from composition in E sharp : PHRASE

11-across – Insect in diminutive temple, might you say? : MOSQUITO

12-across – Kit designed to lift the responsibilities of a defender? : BLOCKAND

14-across – Duck gathering first of rotten wood : DRIVER

15-across – Furry thing biting second fluffy thing : MOUSSE

18-across – Make something for washing ass’s rear and a pony, if messy : SAPONIFY

21-across – Behind — behind London it’s sung out loud? : DERRIERE

22-across – See 12 : TACKLE

24-across – Somewhere in London, a scandal featuring Hugh Grant? : NOTTINGHILLGATE

25-across – Nothing left, lake beyond a splash of water : SODALL

26-across – Beat Olivier up? Why not! : LARRUP

1-down – Where relations paid for hotel bar to remove a drunk : BROTHEL

2-down – Grass where a car’s drawn up, covering lawn finally : GANJA

3-down – Where I arrive, when after a resort? : RIVIERA

5-down – Upstanding banker accepting drinks ran out : ELAPSED

6-down – Legendary day in describing a spring birth : ARTHURIAN

7-down – Diminutive friend in range? : PALETTE

8-down – 2 or 3, perhaps, and 500 ready : PRIMED

13-down – Actors awarded stars? Done! : CASTRATED

16-down – Difficult individual to wake up, finally gone : ONEROUS

17-down – Undying love from one later breaking up : ETERNAL

18-down – Date on the boil : SEETHE

19-down – One on a bender, diminutive Irishman? : PATELLA

20-down – Writer was emotionally affected by clue : FELTTIP

23-down – Smoke provoking tears, though not beginning to rise : CIGAR

8-across – Free-thinking woman artist in defiant gesture : FEMINIST

9-across – Outrageous prices for abstracts : PRECIS

10-across – Painter, perhaps, leaves ship unfinished : LINE

11-across – PR guru, source of ideas, high priest and god? : IMAGEMAKER

12-across – Literary portrait by Mondrian, roughly trimmed : DORIAN

14-across – Catering for travellers to Burundi, going back: a poor place to live : TOURISTY

15-across – Allusion in Monet composition : MENTION

17-across – Belong to painter’s movement? : PERTAIN

20-across – A little love, eternally a soothing thing : ALOEVERA

22-across – Artist rejecting name of the game : HOCKEY

23-across – Shaky contrivance of abstract art: model allowed to speak freely? : RATTLETRAP

24-across – See 7 : FILM

25-across – One who would use art innovatively : SEURAT

26-across – Church painter, one who follows trends : CHARTIST

1-down – Tiny interval in opera: company gets schedules back to front : SEMITONE

2-down – Clue to artists’ financial troubles : DIRE

3-down – Boatman’s enthralled by giant of an artist : TITIAN

4-down – See 2 : STRAITS

5-down – It’s small round small Latin country with secret hot Latin Quarter : SPHERULE

6-down – Slavishly rule-following, like at first, say, a novice, is a nervous thing : LEGALISTIC

7-down – Perhaps the artist is an avant-garde 8, taking in two students : SILENT

13-down – Boatman in old ship going below? Then I disguised where my destiny lies : INTHESTARS

16-down – A dish? Who, me? Let Telemachus be revealed! : OMELETTE

18-down – A drug-taking artist: one revered as a visionary : IDEALIST

19-down – Pressure to compete causes artist to copy : RATRACE

21-down – Not even Leonardo ends well off : LOADED

22-down – Get hot about Constable — he’s cool : HEPCAT

24-down – Initiator of Fauvism? Munch historically was, a lot : FATE

1-across – Subdue back of class at frequent intervals : SOFTEN

4-across – Story gets backing — editor in high spirits : ELATED

9-across – Place to use deception at university : LIEU

10-across – Suffering with relatives? Write to these for advice : AGONYAUNTS

11-across – Strike for which the catering staff is responsible : BUFFET

12-across – Order cattle by the head : NEATNESS

13-across – How seasick people feel on disembarking? : BETTEROFF

15-across – Fruit attached to the trunk : HIPS

16-across – Intervals quietly employed in empty talk : GAPS

17-across – Ballet posture of Lincoln in square dance : ARABESQUE

21-across – Demonstrates hostility to private accommodation : BARRACKS

22-across – A number of horses making way to arena : STRING

24-across – About a hundred men come out to set the ball rolling again : RECOMMENCE

25-across – Large number seen in a doctor’s rounds : AMMO

26-across – Give a plain description of French capital : DEFINE

27-across – What boy did with toy — and same with game! : RHYMED

1-down – Capture by sudden attack : SEIZURE

2-down – Blunder will get you down : FLUFF

3-down – Retired thespian appearing as Shylock? : EXACTOR

5-down – Bet on chap not being a cleric : LAYMAN

6-down – Repeated absenteeism gets curates in trouble : TRUANCIES

7-down – Has a hatred of French exams : DETESTS

8-down – It’s cheap and any number can get it, apparently : GOINGFORASONG

14-down – Past offer may result in contracts : TAPERSOFF

16-down – OK to take the lead : GOAHEAD

18-down – Beg bread initially, then cheese spread : BESEECH

19-down – Undistinguished and mundane assembly : UNNAMED

20-down – Perspicacity shown by a hundred university chaps : ACUMEN

23-down – True capital of Moroccan kingdom : REALM

9-across – Editor stops helping on page, so the Eagle survives : PREDATION

10-across – State promise in church to secure a husband : IDAHO

11-across – Bar on which artists depend : TRAPEZE

12-across – Artless miss, say, retreating in tavern used regularly : INGENUE

13-across – Smart races, no outdated fences : NATTY

14-across – How crusaders acquired their protection? : MAILORDER

16-across – Background notes including medical units rewritten : INCIDENTALMUSIC

19-across – Bond’s nature changed with age : GUARANTEE

21-across – Fleeced animals from Africa moving west over time : STUNG

22-across – Gunners drop unremitting quest for success : RATRACE

23-across – How the legless proceed and possibly buttonhole the lady? : SLITHER

24-across – Something to play during suburban journey : BANJO

25-across – Type of radio broadcast lacking signal? : SHORTWAVE

1-down – Honourable position at university in the north : UPSTANDING

2-down – Pernickety poet finally coming to the fore in film : PEDANTIC

3-down – Half-hearted measures adopted by state security : SAFETY

4-down – Current speaker’s restrained : TIDE

5-down – Expect head to support worker here in Paris : ANTICIPATE

6-down – Band cut up, admitting source of recent infection : RINGWORM

7-down – Brown well beaten : TANNED

8-down – Single swimmer’s base : SOLE

14-down – Believer for whom the motion’s turbulent? : MONOTHEIST

15-down – Butcher : ROCKGARDEN

17-down – Stop sending up assistance — clergyman’s run off : DIAPASON

18-down – Fighter who’s put out about amateur : SOUTHPAW

20-down – Worried about zealot’s rising temper … : ATTUNE

21-down – … religion thus riven by suspicion : SHINTO

22-down – Birds dropping in sacks : ROBS

23-down – Tonics set up in Boots, maybe : SHOD