Daily Answers

8-across – Caught with dancing muse in river, I’m sorry I have to go : EXCUSEME

9-across – Perfunctory medic with heart replacement : QUICK

10-across – Second favourite revolving stage : STEP

11-across – Old master’s dreadful composition — see inside : FEUDALLORD

12-across – Tart’s topping dislodged by Jack’s nervous movement : JITTER

14-across – Back cooler on top of fur cape, which is just awful : NAFFNESS

16-across – Capital new look waistband : NAIROBI

18-across – A bit of a state when completely surrounded by foreigners : EXCLAVE

21-across – X-ray unit processes not green : ROENTGEN

23-across – Like more piano? Relate : PREFER

24-across – Take care to avoid ox on plain : STEERCLEAR

26-across – Beat bird back : TONK

27-across – Easily get through Disney zone? : WALTZ

28-across – Insecure person taking drugs as the answer : RESPONSE

1-down – A country’s get-out: providing former broadcaster with tax-free investment : EXITVISA

2-down – See 23 : PUMP

3-down – Livestock provided in here free : HEIFER

4-down – Old lay sister being involved with EU : BEGUINE

5-down – Paraquat has no peripheral role as water : AQUA

6-down – Poem: The Holiday Home, the Royal Mistress and Earl : VILLANELLE

7-down – Blue-pink endless island : SKYROS

13-down – Lively Italian piece of music: thank-you rave by jazz legend : TARANTELLA

15-down – Cause discolouration of a Quaker? : FOX

17-down – Plumb ugly housing tap : BUG

19-down – Like Schubert’s rocking Seven in E : VIENNESE

20-down – Forget studies of tragic role in curtailed Nunn production : UNLEARN

22-down – Capital raised by ace inventor: zero : OTTAWA

23-down – Petty mythological abductor with hard footwear : PARISH

25-down – Intimate chat of a lord with a good track record, reportedly : COZE

26-down – Pace is wrong on the rebound : TROT

1-across – A new party shed clothes charity : HANDOUT

5-across – Podiatrists do it, scrubbing heels for service charge : STUDFEE

10-across – Fair Sally worked with her in 4 : AUNT

11-across – Test French pupil with puzzle? It’s not on : ELEVENPLUS

12-across – Plump lady’s architect : FATHER

13-across – A very loud one upset tiny singular 9 : AFFINITY

14-across – Floor cleaner preserves one framed canvas : DECKCHAIR

16-across – Irish veto banking issue in Glasgow : BAIRN

17-across – Kid’s mum’s nurse : NANNY

19-across – 10 across represented forebears : ANCESTORS

23-across – Public path said to be superior : OUTWEIGH

24-across – Firm briefly employing 1 of 9 : COUSIN

26-across – Man’s bulge gets very soft in water : ADAMSAPPLE

27-across – John gathers large group with 9 : CLAN

28-across – King George with his mother and her mother : GRANDMA

29-across – Classic Stones on stage were stripped : STLEGER

2-down – Essentially, pulp in a fruit gets flatter : ADULATE

3-down – Wife’s job finishes early at church : DUTCH

4-down – Find caribou near these borders : UNEARTH

6-down – Drive opponent over into grass : TEEOFF

7-down – Minor secretary kept goal during depression : DEPENDANT

8-down – English paper’s redhead dropped? No latitude there! : EQUATOR

9-down – Loves displaying oriental craft : RELATIONSHIPS

15-down – Perhaps 10 winks stirred old chap : KINSWOMAN

18-down – Split a tabloid’s article for Berliner : ASUNDER

20-down – Renew the case for old reversion of property : ESCHEAT

21-down – Rule doesn’t end at entrance to Esher : REIGATE

22-down – Win over Germany is a romp, oddly : DISARM

25-down – Obscure Arab ignored 1 of 9 : UNCLE

1-across – Quiet French writer recalled trees : SUMACHS

5-across – Person robs poor to make cut? : OSBORNE

9-across – Bed solicitor missing wife : LAYER

10-across – Thinks too much of Gove : OVERRATES

11-across – The split, without a majority, it could turn to red or blue : THERMOSTAT

12-across – Perhaps we give money to poor now? : PAWN

14-across – Drop off in calls after bank’s closure — protection for consumers rolled into these? : NAPKINRINGS

18-across – Act while describing series of holes in changes of policy : TURNAROUNDS

21-across – Hunt ignoring hospital patient : CASE

22-across – Fliers distributed; sheet contains mockery : PERSIFLAGE

25-across – Balls is mad near Pickles : MARINADES

26-across – Campaign entry : LOBBY

27-across – More poor in northeast, back on dole, have had it, right? : NEEDIER

28-across – Give up place: pile : LAYDOWN

1-down – Left shows contempt about cuts : SPLITS

2-down – Home secretary’s border chaos : MAYHEM

3-down – Formal lie — Cameron after Labour : CEREMONIAL

4-down – See 12 : SHOPS

5-down – Start to squeeze proportion working : OPERATION

6-down – Writer cut Boris off : BIRO

7-down – Focuses on leading schools again : RETRAINS

8-down – Sick feeling question avoided, it’s simple : EASINESS

13-down – Time to deteriorate? Quite, in a way that might be naïve : TRUSTFULLY

15-down – Supplies spin round seller in US : PROVENDER

16-down – US warehouse guy and soldier after part for gun : STOCKMAN

17-down – Can head to pound store : PRESERVE

19-down – It might make polls, we hear? Con: missing last three : BAMBOO

20-down – Clarke perhaps backing a vote against African : KENYAN

23-down – Warsi’s allowed house plant : SISAL

24-down – Lord’s letters, partly 14 : INRI

1-across – Upstanding characters are as patent in the county : BIPEDS

4-across – Meantime, I make way for firm’s in-house phone system : INTERCOM

9-across – Syrian leader in power to leave office : RESIGN

10-across – States accepted by Poles, perhaps, for adoption : ESPOUSAL

11-across – The French, about four in the morning, may start mating with it filling the blanks? Au contraire! : LIVEAMMUNITION

13-across – Seeing Troy destroyed by donating a gift, for example : GENEROSITY

14-across – Greta Garbo’s agent? : AGAR

16-across – Nearly all of very coy men get beaten : OVER

18-across – Nothing underground is part of the circuit : VACUUMTUBE

21-across – Line taken by screen devotee about minist­erial residence, almost a game : BLINDMANSBLUFF

23-across – Teachers’ fire dies out : EDIFIERS

24-across – Escort’s performance at technological centre : GIGOLO

25-across – Joint drinks parties : KNEESUPS

26-across – Sound made by one old lover in the wing : ANNEXE

1-down – Chocolate soap? : BARS

2-down – Strong feeling includes animated extract from panel discussion : PASSION

3-down – Might he be 7 5 or 16 22 with 15? : DOGBERRY

5-down – Plants possibly turn as one in rising filth : NASTURTIUMS

6-down – Fancy that is no longer focused on the ear : EXOTIC

7-down – Sing and act? Resulting in selection : CASTING

8-down – Tender rules, almost meant to be broken : MALENURSE

12-down – Might she be 7 5 or 16 22 with 15? : MRSMALAPROP

13-down – Escape from Olga? : GAOLBREAK

15-down – Perhaps milk with muesli made available : EMULSION

17-down – 23 church to replace Queen’s monument : EDIFICE

19-down – Not just tuneless, with zero potential released : UNFROZE

20-down – Gives access to passages round mountain top : ADMITS

22-down – See 16 : COME

1-across – No hero of football team at home : VILLAIN

5-across – A right from one US state to another : KANSAS

9-across – Where to keep the money when you’ve made a profit : INPOCKET

10-across – Compel someone to act as a substitute? : MAKEDO

12-across – Subscribed and accepted financial responsibility : UNDERWRITTEN

15-across – Blunders — gives short change : OVERSIGHTS

17-across – Heart-to-heart listener : EAR

19-across – Low state of mind on departure of daughter : MOO

20-across – Man of principle made riches the right way : ARCHIMEDES

22-across – Strong defence, yet speedily broken : SOUNDBARRIER

26-across – Eye disease — girl catches it : IRITIS

27-across – Fish I caught in a basket : BASSINET

28-across – Ann set out for a city in France : NANTES

29-across – Pope with aspiration, leading to becoming emperor : HADRIAN

1-down – Broadcast live coverage : VEIL

2-down – Rounds of drinks? : LAPS

3-down – Head gets most important lead, showing cunning : ARCHNESS

4-down – Exact about a point being relatively close : NIECE

6-down – Scored slowly : ADAGIO

7-down – Knots rope with loops : SHEETBENDS

8-down – Belly jeans, for example? : SPOONERISM

11-down – Light whip for light control : SWITCH

13-down – A cut above other ranks? : COMMISSION

14-down – Heads rolled in this French affair : REVOLUTION

16-down – European composer : GERMAN

18-down – Put into liquidation? : IMMERSED

21-down – Respect number trapped in a sticky situation : ADMIRE

23-down – Make master, finally a head : REACH

24-down – Not in favour of social worker being put over one : ANTI

25-down – Machine gun nest blown up : STEN