Daily Answers

1-across – One taking children to walk idly round lake : MOLOCH

4-across – Low life’s initial expression of surprise, getting cash : MOOLAH

9-across – Press Clear: it fails at first : URGE

10-across – Ready for Hitler to smash riches, note : REICHSMARK

11-across – Vital to stay home, son, for the other reporter : KINSEY

12-across – 3 man to stick in peripheral areas : SIDJAMES

13-across – One most hated female in church bites into host : ARCHENEMY

15-across – Eat … horse : ETCH

16-across – Comic miss, one of four here : SIMS

17-across – Demolish Humpty-Dumpty’s so convincing argument : KNOCKDOWN

21-across – Rowan’s producing pears? : WILLIAMS

22-across – About to take a turn in the circuit — 21’s business : RACING

24-across – Poet unsure about its contents, for starters? : SOUPTUREEN

25-across – Got up in pink : ROSE

26-across – Extremely liberated Welshman breaks foot : FREEST

27-across – Poem being recited needs attention, alas : OHDEAR

1-down – Result, they say, of being more and more drunk : MERRIER

2-down – City suffers vital loss as bishop retires : LEEDS

3-down – Fuss with such luggage? : CARRYON

5-down – One tanned hard in compound … : OXHIDE

6-down – … beaten, innocent creature endured being beheaded : LAMBASTED

7-down – Its men sung, as king facing execution heartily went to church : HARLECH

8-down – Top politician starts to find issues mount up, seized by right and left : FIRSTMINISTER

14-down – What’s eaten in a basement together? : HUMBLEPIE

16-down – Incidental development from some bowling at a single stump : SPINOFF

18-down – International hotel supports my city : CORINTH

19-down – Barbara Castle : WINDSOR

20-down – The world his stage: filled with cold, he’d become a fifth here : JAQUES

23-down – Following into the centre, one of four here : CORFE

1-across – Possibly time to finish messing about with our crossword, finally — staff should be locked up! : FOURTHDIMENSION

9-across – Being amorous in the centre of Birmingham with Elvis? : NECKING

10-across – Modern sound then obvious, basic to the core? : NUCLEAR

11-across – Field bound to be cut : LEA

12-across – The man I saw’s recollected? No! : WHATSISNAME

13-across – Inspector cunningly concealing university second degree in music : SUPERTONIC

15-across – Inventor of the phone call? : BELL

18-across – See 20 : STEP

20-across – Anything misbehaving types put on as a consequence? That’s it! : THENAUGHTY

23-across – Spanner beginning to rotate, accessing both nuts in kitchen appliance : FORTHBRIDGE

25-across – Intelligence lacking in underwear : BRA

26-across – Delivery service longing for improvement : UPSURGE

27-across – A racket involving queen, say, backfiring — so stomach calmer? : ANTACID

28-across – Old money is securing items of furniture — is one for an Italian friar? : FRANCISOFASSISI

1-down – Perhaps two left in a line among manual weapons : FINALISTS

2-down – Release relative, not entirely a killer : UNCLASP

3-down – Mine triggered by this error message : TRIPWIRE

4-down – Philosophy of the puppy feeder? : DOGMA

5-down – Missing unit — it’s taken away, dashed? : MINUSSIGN

6-down – Sweet things in book collection most delightful : NICEST

7-down – Repeat, that is, about three times? : ITERATE

8-down – Conductor showing fortitude : NERVE

14-down – Diversity there on abandoned ship : OTHERNESS

16-down – Giant in dispute with neighbour idly playing with alien : LEYLANDII

17-down – Glass tubes broken up for starters, one of us getting knocked over : BURETTES

19-down – Is a route across the Channel going north of a huge land mass? : EURASIA

21-down – Japanese cooker hot with vital energy, one degree higher : HIBACHI

22-down – Smart clothes are endlessly turning up for French politician : CHIRAC

23-down – Slip down : FLUFF

24-down – King getting wings clipped over female, very petite : DWARF

1-across – Where you might find sheep to hug : INFOLD

5-across – Tamper with gold or silver, by the sound of it? : MEDDLE

8-across – Erratic leader of London embroiled in capital cock-up : AIMLESS

9-across – Artist admitted to revolutionary artist’s workshop : SEMINAR

11-across – Sorrowful musings, having called honeymoon off : ODEONMELANCHOLY

12-across – Food from cooks in Hackney : EATS

13-across – New home, tax-free, that is housing five : INNOVATIVE

17-across – Love plumpness? It’s a puffed-up quality : OROTUNDITY

18-across – Force back cold brandy : MARC

20-across – Imprisoned old fellow given sentence before it’s too late : INTHENICKOFTIME

23-across – Intended, without waiting, to break ruler : KNOWING

24-across – Miserable wretch in sort of cloth hat : REPTILE

25-across – A setter — one in the money! : CEMENT

26-across – One won’t stand for teacher penning dry English : SITTER

2-down – Cracked town walls in dark shade offering a short cut? : NUMBERTWO

3-down – Southern and Indian cane so in need of cultivation? : OCEANS

4-down – Round object made without a saw : DISCERNED

5-down – Tea from the south Tuscan town : MASSA

6-down – Politician’s curse about rejected advance : DEMOCRAT

7-down – Zip up coat of gigolo making speech : LINGO

8-down – Reason to fall out of boat one scuttled with sharp tool : ABONETOPICK

10-down – Maybe ABBA anthem cut short amid wild cheers by yours truly : RHYMESCHEME

14-down – Clearly not straight bypasses in suburbia? : OUTSKIRTS

15-down – Put slant on current story — one Conservative is involved : ITALICISE

16-down – Spooner’s in favour of county, it’s guaranteed : SUREFIRE

19-down – Rancid milk on the turn? Exactly : OFFPAT

21-down – Figure in time line : TROPE

22-down – Metal block’s hot, with raised thermal resistance : INGOT

9-across – Raw beauty at its core, on neutral ground : AUNATUREL

10-across – Baron with line in chocolate? : BROWN

11-across – Foreign viceroy — not a chief in Kiev, anyway : KHEDIVE

12-across – Village, or giant housing land? : GEORGIA

13-across – Railway: the regional torture! : TRACK

14-across – Put wad on a sporting match and laugh uncontrollably : ROLLABOUT

16-across – Evidence of possession of muscles expanse I left to spread : ABSTRACTOFTITLE

19-across – Take a look at all-female Ring Cycle opera : LOHENGRIN

21-across – Chuck in backing, say, the theatre : GLOBE

22-across – Cleric’s tight, transitive headband : CIRCLET

23-across – Possessed large body, loathed clothing it : HAUNTED

24-across – Occupying thoroughfare to make water course : SWEET

25-across – To perform a pop genre really badly could mean quite a stretch : MURDERRAP

1-down – Warm yourself before ballet movement, a competitive activity : BASKETBALL

2-down – Guards keep sand out : KNEEPADS

3-down – Star spewing out sulphur and then earth is not safe : ATRISK

4-down – See 21 : FREE

5-down – Instrument following toboggan line projection : FLUGELHORN

6-down – Unnatural boast about strangling old relative : ABSONANT

7-down – Consequently, river by grand house is a source of sugar : SORGHO

8-down – Former South American skincare product : INCA

14-down – Director shot Maine, which has never been bettered : RECORDTIME

15-down – Range of dumps accommodating virile blokes by day : THEMENDIPS

17-down – Butterflies buzz and I propose we should : RINGLETS

18-down – Racehorses go tailless ahead of fish-eaters : TROTTERS

20-down – Henry Moore entrances overwhelming real fancy city neighbourhood : HARLEM

21-down – Refulgent, bursting with energy and so more tolerable to some? : GLUTEN

22-down – See 23 : CASH

23-down – Playing card included in #realmoney : HARD

9-across – Company for pitmen’s frisky 6 11 : ORCHESTRA

10-across – In Harare, natural amphitheatre perhaps : ARENA

11-across – Drug mule’s mother : HORSE

12-across – The stale and overfamiliar 22 across on Revolutionary Road : CHESTNUTS

13-across – Singer misbehaves — soprano quits : RESIGNS

14-across – Land engulfed in tsunami, biannually : NAMIBIA

17-across – Topless vicar? That’s flaming wrong! : ARSON

19-across – Go off recipe books : ROT

20-across – Early riser takes turn protecting a village in Africa : KRAAL

21-across – Songbirds with time for explosive lunges : THRUSTS

22-across – British 11 12 game — caught out those at it : BONKERS

24-across – Dish thrown out as lost cause? : CASSOULET

26-across – Group has second number one hit, finally : SWEET

28-across – Initially, little young Einstein looked like a Victorian geologist : LYELL

29-across – Perhaps make an anagram out of the bottom row? : REARRANGE

1-down – My attempt to keep quiet : GOSH

2-down – High-flyer is circling around Rugby : ICARUS

3-down – Put off toilet cleaners : DETERGENTS

4-down – Library books stored here? Loads! : STACKS

5-down – Cob : HAZELNUT

6-down – Barrow by rail, shortly to return : CART

7-down – Exercise with Greek character : PENUMBRA

8-down – Voice in Bottom’s head — where did it come from? : BASS

13-down – Pan right next to oven : ROAST

15-down – Confirming 11 is outside college at university : MAKINGSURE

16-down – Finally reduced map collection : ATLAS

18-down – Under pressure to serve up 26s : STRESSED

19-down – Leaves, perhaps, as neat movers also lower knickers for the audience : RUSTLERS

22-down – Cricketer that’s second out — Wayne, the night watchman? : BATMAN

23-down – Flower given to a French model as they leave the stage : EXEUNT

24-down – Capital of Czechoslovakia : COLD

25-down – Capital of Czechoslovakia : OSLO

27-down – Bucket down at start of 13th hole? : TEEM