Daily Answers

1-across – Twirling journalist wearing clown’s suit : SPADES

5-across – Explorer back in country, one caught spying on royalty : POLONIUS

9-across – Acceptable payment to occupy empty London club : LONGIRON

10-across – Most of sheep in the rain? One of them : WETHER

11-across – Conferred with footballer needing to be paid off? : BEST

12-across – Scots bash vessels navy moored in bay : BURNSNIGHT

13-across – PM losing head in conflict with European : ATTLEE

14-across – What makes baker stop : BREAKOFF

16-across – Verbally abuse Tory minister? Party leader’s appalled : DISMAYED

19-across – Nothing wrong with car that’s kind of blue : OXFORD

21-across – Reluctant to explore a hot and steamy novel : STAYATHOME

23-across – See 11 : OWED

24-across – Not public school receiving royal backing : SECRET

25-across – Uncovered bird or rodent or mammoth : ENORMOUS

26-across – Farm fertiliser has stable particle : STALLION

27-across – Decline in the west has society getting soft : SUNSET

2-down – Left idea for saucy yarn’s beginning with one’s newspaper : PROPERTYISTHEFT

3-down – Like some computers? Very nearly like the whole lot! : DIGITAL

4-down – Flora and Johnny involved in fling : SHRUBBERY

5-down – Criticise American pressure about promoting political unity : PANARAB

6-down – Cruciverbalist’s sidekick with some incredible wisdom : LEWIS

7-down – Tip for cooking, stuffing cut carp : NITPICK

8-down – Seek out cheerful, hazy line in futuristic picture : USETHEFORCELUKE

15-down – English wound up? In France, we could be easily aroused : EROGENOUS

17-down – After 31 days, examinat­ion of a government official : MAYORAL

18-down – Teacher, with age, defends right to be a bore : DRONEON

20-down – Diver, turning up gold fish’s head, fed : FROGMAN

22-down – Taunt a trio intermittently, giving musical instruction : TUTTI

9-across – Excessively fast bowler perhaps takes Surrey opener with closing volley? : HASTY

10-across – Infirmity deteriorating till cure inside hospital : ILLHEALTH

11-across – Punch with energy and speed — perhaps you’ll walk over this? : HOOKEDRUG

12-across – Last words betray empty jealousy : ENVOY

13-across – Food for missing links and throwbacks? : SPAGBOL

15-across – Native solver is speaking in Zulu region : NATURAL

17-across – Having got up fast, I ran to look inside : ASTIR

18-across – Bust of Edmund I, oddly effaced : DUD

20-across – Endless show of warmth: hasten round to shelter from the cold : IGLOO

22-across – Slightly more than three francs taken in high peril : PITFALL

25-across – Cheat to win golf in last round by one point : FINAGLE

26-across – Worker, really gutted, gets drunk : BEERY

27-across – Sickly sundae gobbled, devoured, made sick : NAUSEATED

30-across – Clue to gasp about: Boatman creates vintage surface treatment : LEADPAINT

31-across – Quicksand! Sense foot being caught : SWIFT

1-down – A little radioactive matter in contact with the molecular constituents of water: whoops! : UHOH

2-down – Kind of rhyming, as kid set on insect : ASSONANT

3-down – A kind face? : TYPE

4-down – Failed to manage dire slum reform : MISRULED

5-down – Motto, not quick on the draw, say? : SLOGAN

6-down – Train speed pathetically slow? : PEDESTRIAN

7-down – Be quick to get into alternative musical : OLIVER

8-down – Boatman’s way of hailing Araucaria: his leading place a towering old man here : AHOY

13-down – Quicksand of sorts? : SHARP

14-down – Primate of Europe: Pray with Arab; be daring : BARBARYAPE

16-down – Fast, not fast : LOOSE

19-down – Runs away from deadly duel fast : DEFAULTS

21-down – Force one to falsify rent in report : LIGHTAIR

23-down – Boot option to raise speed : TOECAP

24-down – Almost sick after fast food for vegetarians : LENTIL

26-down – Speed zone : BELT

28-down – Miss start in haste to get back to front in Asia : EAST

29-down – Could be 01/12, 02/03, 03/10, 04/11! : DATE

7-across – Dramatist can’t reintegrate plays : TERENCE

8-across – Doctor at filming location when a certain body sinks : MOONSET

9-across – See 1 : VIDI

10-across – Opposing the monarch’s entourage in battle : AGINCOURT

12-across – Deviate from strict formation thus to find snark? : BREAK

13-across – Use piety falsely as a High Church type : PUSEYITE

15-across – See 21 down : TELL

16-across – One had one’s work cut out getting man to embrace woman : RODIN

17-across – See 21 down : WILL

18-across – Wilder fashion — something that gets under the skin, initially? : THORNTON

20-across – See 12 : RANKS

21-across – Deceitful types watch grandfather, maybe : TWOTIMERS

22-across – Southeast European first to last has little 21 down or place for romance : LOVE

24-across – Italian in the Lake District, maybe, when it’s less cold : UMBRIAN

25-across – Fool wearing something with feathers as long garment : CASSOCK

1-down – One glorious retreat between five and six on islands — it implies I gave the enemy no chance! : VENI

2-down – Ringing of bells around Ireland gets one in an erogenous zone : PERINEAL

3-down – Gunfire has journalist heading off repeatedly : ACKACK

4-down – Audibly show contempt for an offence — one’s more than a heel! : MOCCASIN

5-down – Popular panel may be wounding : INJURY

6-down – See 22 : NEST

11-down – Measure of opposition that is restricting politician on trip : IMPEDANCE

12-down – Yesteryear’s maestro’s lost in the morning in the wood : BEECH

14-down – Lies in legal writ : TALES

16-down – See 7 : RATTIGAN

17-down – Mechanical device to give girl breathing difficulties : WINDLASS

19-down – Unruly behaviour brings strain to port : RIOTRY

20-down – Change needed for Easter — put in new pews? : RESEAT

21-down – The enemy archer we can’t expect to know immediately : TIME

23-down – See 1 : VICI

1-across – Put money on stock unit, a very good little earner : CASHCOW

5-across – Criticise long dash : PANACHE

9-across – Alternative article in gold : OTHER

10-across – Offer fantastic reduct­ion : INTRODUCE

11-across – Enthronement of firm king’s naught to the country : CORONATION

12-across – An imbibing of French port : ADEN

14-across – Material allowances in cuts : LACERATIONS

18-across – Request for position in industry : APPLICATION

21-across – Food on the turn? : TACK

22-across – Old man from Maine so well in retirement : METHUSELAH

25-across – Female relative in liaison, showing off : FLAUNTING

26-across – Soldier in ebbing sea gets support : AEGIS

27-across – High point of religious architecture : STEEPLE

28-across – Like hell cats in a melee : SATANIC

1-down – Selection of superior quality : CHOICE

2-down – First signs of spring have arrived, let’s have a ball : SPHERE

3-down – Sing a carol, playing an instrument : CORANGLAIS

4-down – It enables one to turn one’s hand to many things : WRIST

5-down – It’s up to Prior to provide an assortment : POTPOURRI

6-down – Absence of agreement regarding recess : NOOK

7-down – A potboiler? : CAULDRON

8-down – All the same, the head makes a regular appearance : EVENNESS

13-down – Either rises quickly or doesn’t budge : STANDSFAST

15-down – Unusually fierce sea battle ends with it : CEASEFIRE

16-down – Art master’s pets are dogs : MASTIFFS

17-down – Wise step in the present era : SPACEAGE

19-down – Vessel — showing its nationality? : FLAGON

20-down – In radiography sickness has a cure : PHYSIC

23-down – Do they give feelings of elation to meteorologists? : HIGHS

24-down – Cut price bargain : SNIP

1-across – Acrimony between bloggers : POSTWAR

5-across – Place kept in identical taste : SAMPLE

9-across – Mark down dramatist to speak : CHECKOFF

10-across – Playing for time, Henry is hurt : ACHING

12-across – In drink : PLASTERSAINT

15-across – Poison working at this point? It’s up in the air : IONOSPHERE

17-across – Draw level shortly : TIE

19-across – Constable for one needs good cloth : RAG

20-across – Divided into groups to suppress resistance, not 28 : FRACTIONAL

22-across – Plain scientist, not one that Shelley imagined : FRANKENSTEIN

26-across – Perhaps boxer’s vulnerable point finally hit at the end — it could be curtains : CHINTZ

27-across – In front of a parent, shake chain : WAGAMAMA

28-across – Not 20 conservationists in the country : ENTIRE

29-across – Girl is stupid to return to pub : PHYLLIS

1-down – Mischievous type caught in UKIP’s toils — I would leave : PUCK

2-down – Woman would go to pot here : SHED

3-down – Not having a wash? So a good night : WAKELESS

4-down – King upset American element, having no Latin : RUFUS

6-down – Charge according to amount employed : ACCUSE

7-down – No artist makes high table in softwood : PHILISTINE

8-down – Watch over so many finalists in beauty contest, say : EIGHTBELLS

11-down – Endless deception covered by Imogen in this system : METRIC

13-down – Strange choice firm made for archive medium : MICROFICHE

14-down – His aim, setting crackers? : ENIGMATIST

16-down – Birds, sound asleep, hard to rouse : HERONS

18-down – Forces new trial in my case and one is held : MILITARY

21-down – Girl cuts sister — she uses sharp blades : SKATER

23-down – Vehicle parking for walk : TRAMP

24-down – Rich cloak announced for 1 of 6 church leaders : PAUL

25-down – Socratic method so revolutionary for 1 of 8 here : QAOS