Daily Answers

1-across – Provide updated description for insurgent outside US city : RELABEL

5-across – Made nasty statements in second piece : BACKBIT

9-across – Part of tomahawk found somewhere on the Missouri : OMAHA

10-across – Coats I see being altered? China uses them to keep warm : TEACOSIES

11-across – Very fast way to cope with lack of corkscrew? : BREAKNECK

12-across – Compare Liberal former president with new : LIKEN

13-across – Noise made by chains in prison : CLINK

15-across – How scholar gains recognition, gradually : BYDEGREES

18-across – Reduce burden at university to become more relaxed : LIGHTENUP

19-across – Check writer’s material for gap : CHINK

21-across – European seen in London club, a place that attracts many : MECCA

23-across – Restricted middle section used to be soft, then it was revised : WASPWAIST

25-across – Musician has material for strings, including one form of sitar : GUITARIST

26-across – Epic poem in which one macho man eclipses another one : ILIAD

27-across – Listener stirred with no end of emotion — that’s how theatre should be : STERILE

28-across – Doctor moved carefully and cleared out bed : DREDGED

1-down – Like diamonds making corrupt mob rich : RHOMBIC

2-down – Raising dough, pound area in later part of day : LEAVENING

3-down – Jet — to get hence to 24 via 5 down, 7 etc, 18 across, 15? : BLACK

4-down – Garbage collector’s brood born at home : LITTERBIN

5-down – Empty space left in row : BLANK

6-down – Use an axe, I note, to argue contentiously : CHOPLOGIC

7-down – React with surprise as bachelor’s put on tie : BLINK

8-down – Tansies stewed, making medicinal drinks : TISANES

14-down – I talk nonsensically about Maori dance, Indian dance : KATHAKALI

16-down – Unfinished lair located south of river, placed in bank : DEPOSITED

17-down – Drawing out, for example, about legal measure, briefly : ELICITING

18-down – Alkaline substances holding up attempt to make porcelain : LIMOGES

20-down – Insect, at very end, finally caught by child : KATYDID

22-down – Cut of meat in lunch in eatery : CHINE

23-down – Plaintive cry from husband entering port, perhaps : WHINE

24-down – Why is tea endlessly combined with milk? : WHITE

5-across – Mandarin may thus appear in power, holding office around international city : PINYIN

6-across – Card game is tense after sour grapes : PIQUET

9-across – Passenger initially spared as plane crashed in flight from East London : APPLES

10-across – See 9 : ANDPEARS

11-across – Some Christmas gifts returned? They aren’t given indifferently : FIGS

12-across – Trying to find date, getting complaint following relations : SEEKINGOUT

13-across – It involves married guys embracing cute girl — something a sleazy politician may experience : IMPEACHMENT

18-across – Useless person declines sweets : LEMONDROPS

21-across – Letter capturing heart of Harry Lime, perhaps : TREE

22-across – Want to go after a fifty-pound kiwi : ALLBLACK

23-across – One keeping cherry liquor accompanies very disheartened innkeeper : VIRGIN

24-across – One’s bananas coming from Norway, say : NUTTER

25-across – Sport, by choice, ancient Greek attire : PEPLUM

1-down – Topless muscle man prancing in American Idol : UNCLESAM

2-down – Dutch or American expat may do this : MISSUS

3-down – Female with hesitation embracing one’s belief : HINDUISM

4-down – Guardianistas turning up for each grand skiing event : SUPERG

5-down – Spasm follows on from ginger digestive : PEPTIC

7-down – Something black sheep is to decorate : TARTUP

8-down – John, maintaining remarkable rate, fixes timepieces : WATERCLOCKS

14-down – Almost finished, a ruby is made precious : ENDEARED

15-down – Musical notes showing range after beat is raised : NATURALS

16-down – Philosopher in abandon­ing bin liner gets messy : BERLIN

17-down – Big strikes over mass discrimination : SEXISM

19-down – Alternative components for sockets : ORBITS

20-down – Old red drunkard admitting struggle : SOVIET

1-across – Flurry of penetrating rain washed away camping equipment : TENTPEG

5-across – Seedy artist bores Sarah : SEMINAL

9-across – Tokyo lunchbox contains cup of tea and doughnut : BENTO

10-across – Trees transform urban slum : LABURNUMS

11-across – Hot pants, more or less clean : THOROUGHLY

12-across – Star student lost tongue : IDO

14-across – It’s central to eminent art of brewing : FERMENTATION

18-across – It may surprise youngster to give up the set : JACKINTHEBOX

21-across – Everyone ignored immature bully : COW

22-across – See long film about end of rebellious Roundhead : EPISCOPATE

25-across – Won’t he do less consuming, receiving benefit? : ONTHEDOLE

26-across – English film star gets rid of wrinkles : IRONS

27-across – Sour, loveless and redundant : SURPLUS

28-across – Child seat designed the way you like it : TOTASTE

1-down – Finally, just before death, notices so much : TOBITS

2-down – National banks eschew London male who’s not legally resident : NONDOM

3-down – Pretty as a picture : PHOTOGENIC

4-down – Silence elite liberal in labour camp : GULAG

5-down – Hissing bird upset pike : SIBILANCE

6-down – Think highly of Bill down in Slough : MIRE

7-down – Inure invalid to spasm of nervous pain : NEURITIC

8-down – Catching girl going topless : LASSOING

13-down – She classifies toxin atoms idiosyncratically : TAXONOMIST

15-down – Tom Sharpe employed them : METAPHORS

16-down – They dispossess voters after judge replaces lawful leader : EJECTORS

17-down – We hear Arachne pledged to drink : ICEWATER

19-down – Prohibits cheers and jeers : TABOOS

20-down – On vacation, notice species that is a rare sighting : NESSIE

23-down – Read out letters from son on speed : SPELT

24-down – Reportedly flog in cubicle : CELL

1-across – Bob is brusque and heartlessly cunning : CURTSY

4-across – A bobby is put in dock for drink : ALCOPOP

9-across – Doctor ran to cure storyteller : RACONTEUR

10-across – Regular time for fixture : EVENT

11-across – Staunch Labour leader has sovereign beheaded : LOYAL

12-across – Hear about gym that’s accessible : RECEPTIVE

13-across – Energy breaks items up : IMPETUS

15-across – Word of advice for each benefactor : TIPPER

17-across – Jazz fan shot — found in the garden : CATNIP

19-across – Doubter is poisoned having consumed cocaine : SCEPTIC

22-across – Ten items scattered round a bistro : ESTAMINET

24-across – Waif to settle outside Reading : STRAY

26-across – Wait! That’s soiled! : TARRY

27-across – People after motor that’s pink : CARNATION

28-across – See about the German student aging : ELDERLY

29-across – Pass over ravaged region : IGNORE

1-down – Composer’s heart’s bad when climbing : CORELLI

2-down – Boulder-strewn and unstable : ROCKY

3-down – Carol spilled the beans, all alone : SINGLETON

4-down – Pair prepared bed for fruit tree : APRICOT

5-down – Budget for lots and lots : CHEAP

6-down – Quiet citizen becomes chief executive : PRESIDENT

7-down – Snooker player to mess about : POTTER

8-down – Girl coming out upset teacher? Rubbish! : DEBRIS

14-down – Penny survived, holding soldier tight : PLASTERED

16-down – Reporters joke about new enlistment programme : PRESSGANG

18-down – Frightened to make amends, when out of jail : PANICKY

19-down – Space traveller posed on vessel : SATURN

20-down – Sugar producer keeps longing for spice : CAYENNE

21-down – Grub for fellow the Parisian supports : GENTLE

23-down – Public official can overlook alternative : MAYOR

25-down – Money for a little myrrh in Oman : RHINO

1-across – Weaver has to drink a toast : BOTTOMSUP

6-across – Relative from around Dagenham area originally, leaving Spanish city : GRAN

8-across – Orlando’s coriander left in 17, sadly : CILANTRO

9-across – Horn used in street after heading for Euston : ESCORT

10-across – Half of Wolfie Smith’s Tooting army, initially : FIESTA

11-across – Head of state avoids thick fogs, for starters : PEASOUPS

12-across – Quiet jail : SHUTUP

15-across – Lines inside coast suffering bilateral erosion abroad : OVERSEAS

16-across – Amusing story one acted out : ANECDOTE

19-across – Valved pipe — favourite part of 13 part 2, perhaps : TAPPET

21-across – Sporty car’s first one produced for islanders : CYPRIOTS

22-across – Material in partly empt­ied train about to leave a car plant, I suspect : ALPACA

24-across – 12 briefly returning before 1 across : ZODIAC

25-across – Part of motorway that’s Irish for street : FAIRLANE

26-across – Perfect short clue : IDEA

27-across – Playing in red, Oslo keep plugging away : SOLDIERON

1-down – Pancake made by old car manufacturer in Italy : BLINI

2-down – Train’s running on time! : TRANSIT

3-down – Huge islet over in old Roman port : OSTIA

4-down – Heads from St Pancras, carrying my 10 : SCORPIO

5-down – Clergyman in China has 10 that’s replaced 20 : PREVALENT

6-down – Bearing clubs, go and seek out reptiles : GECKOES

7-down – Means of transporting a mineral over to Nepal, perhaps : AEROPLANE

13-down – King’s Cross, as subject of anniversary : HENRYFORD

14-down – Caught setter going in for stud for nose : PROBOSCIS

17-down – Irish county’s detailed model of 13 part 2 in centre of Ballinascarty : CORTINA

18-down – Tranquil fellow in rough sea, not initially blue : EASEFUL

20-down – University in London area : POPULAR

22-down – Pieces of fruit served up in minicab : ACINI

23-down – Clergyman back working in prison : CANON