Daily Answers

8-across – See 7 : REPUBLIC

9-across – Previously ending in disaster, a foreign market here? : AGORA

10-across – Party time, charge around : FETE

11-across – Little national insurance in advance, as ancient : BABYLONIAN

12-across – River filling drier gardening tool : TROWEL

14-across – Asian controlled borders for European : ROMANIAN

15-across – See 3 : ECONOMY

17-across – See 2 : STATION

20-across – Strain something to contend with, keeping solver’s end up : AIRBORNE

22-across – Bird’s fifty goals scored? : LINNET

23-across – A bird cutting dead duck’s head went this way, then that? : ALTERNATED

24-across – Queens here losing ground before gain : LONG

25-across – Hybrid and lakeside plant : NAKED

26-across – See 6 : CRESCENT

1-down – Spectacular ego, heart lost in the system : METEORIC

2-down – Bank, say, most efficient at breaking out in depravity : TUBE

3-down – Worryingly precarious thing to package — Cameron’s party pessimistic about it : GLOBAL

4-down – Leaves cold? : ICEBERG

5-down – Sweet singer turning up to plug rubbish — this is flat : TABLEMAT

6-down – Fixed terms not concerning this 2 17 : MORNINGTON

7-down – Unstable state in­capable, requiring urban development : BANANA

13-down – Those providing shelter from bats nipping unruly beard : WINDBREAKS

16-down – Steep incline, nearly always downhill for starters, horse on the outside : MARINADE

18-down – Oxygen and another gas, oxygen and another gas, energy individually matched : ONEONONE

19-down – See 4 : LETTUCE

21-down – See 24 across : ISLAND

22-down – See 25 : LADIES

24-down – Lap speed : LICK

9-across – Passionate fellow in back of Italian car? : ROMEO

10-across – Addition to letter that could come from one’s cruel pen : ENCLOSURE

11-across – See 13 : OFTHEROSE

12-across – For example, drug supplier for 7, or murder investigator in … : FRIAR

13-across – … 18’s work that’s irrelevant when it’s 17 : THENAME

15-across – Calms down — in past, passed a test : SEDATES

17-across – Moved cautiously to sign agreement, including opponents at table : NOSED

18-across – Author announced what precedes foxtrot : ECO

20-across – Fish from 6 to 7 : NURSE

22-across – Unusually apt clue for playhouse? : CAPULET

25-across – Scene of play in which fighting takes place : THEATRE

26-across – He won the heart of a beauty in romantic city : PARIS

27-across – Facing early light daters saw spread around : EASTWARDS

30-across – Sequences of film about upper-class family : MONTAGUES

31-across – Expedition from way down South, heading West : SPEED

1-down – Some learn of what divides houses in Italian city : ARNO

2-down – Suppresses son Mike et al : SMOTHERS

3-down – What causes global revolution? Nothing : LOVE

4-down – Like Valentine I put in poetic form : VERONESE

5-down – It enables entries with top cards, holding clubs and spades : ACCESS

6-down – Trusted friend’s name appearing in end of Act I, possibly : CONFIDANTE

7-down – Theatrical miss with little time — she was meant to go to 26 across : JULIET

8-down – Scoff at European cafe, finally, between 7 and 9 : JEER

13-down – One century after another — that’s invigorating : TONIC

14-down – Like some Spaniards having a change of land in USA : ANDALUSIAN

16-down – Part in play understood in audience : SCENE

19-down – Zero on bungled subtest? That’s extremely stupid : OBTUSEST

21-down – European left-winger held up by another came back : RETORTED

23-down – Annual payment for accommodating contents of 2, perhaps : PARENT

24-down – How 9 described 7 in morning paper : THESUN

26-down – Interrogate arrogant young man about maiden : PUMP

28-down – Sets composed in extra musical setting for tragic story : WEST

29-down – See 28 : SIDE

1-across – Get away from test centre with carbon copy : ESCAPE

4-across – I holler out loud for something to eat in parlour : ICECREAM

9-across – Turning without due care to capture American soldier : HUSSAR

10-across – Conversing quietly in a helicopter : SPEAKING

11-across – Prickliest ground with that side? : PARTICKTHISTLE

13-across – Toed line by yielding thus? : OBEDIENTLY

14-across – Expensive honey : DEAR

16-across – They serve older boys cigarettes : FAGS

18-across – Seeing how far one can go in fitting room? : TRYINGITON

21-across – Salt that may be extracted from china clay? : SODIUMCHLORIDE

23-across – A very English mass — with song and prayer : AVEMARIA

24-across – Pay no attention to rocky region : IGNORE

25-across – First signs of Eurasian nuthatch in evergreen : ENDURING

26-across – Silver paper finally swallowed by spy : ARGENT

1-down – Authentic quartet from Liechtenstein : ECHT

2-down – Newspaper boss sent up after conspirator falls : CASCADE

3-down – Insect burrowing into straight banana : PLANTAIN

5-down – Senator’s first to abandon a gun in cool part of Washington : CAPITOLHILL

6-down – Fur is for mammals : COATIS

7-down – Letter left in European skiing area : EPISTLE

8-down – Married woman accepts grand new short wave generator : MAGNETRON

12-down – Tory pamphlet — one about Labour movement : CONTRACTION

13-down – Obscure cafe — but so original : OBFUSCATE

15-down – Gelatinous substance from a fish that’s been cloned : AGARAGAR

17-down – Welcome event not expected in Götterdämmerung? : GODSEND

19-down – Young swimmer needing little support : TADPOLE

20-down – Home help for a posh couple? : AUPAIR

22-down – Introductions to major essayists: Addison, Thoreau, Bacon and Lamb? : MEAT

9-across – It’s upsetting me — clue now not wanted : UNWELCOME

10-across – Part of operation kept in proportion : RATIO

11-across – Appearance of V — between Guevara and Reagan? : CHEVRON

12-across – Fictional bear gets fish that’s eaten half dish : SHARDIK

13-across – Confide one’s inner feelings to surgery : OPEN

14-across – Mountain of stuff at the Cape : MATTERHORN

16-across – Extract from pool: if hurt, yell : FISHOUT

17-across – Something wrong about punishment being reversed in hotel : WALDORF

19-across – Suggestion sibling should follow river through town in Kent : HYPOTHESIS

22-across – Clinging stuff, breeding ground for 10 and source of pictures : FILM

24-across – Bindweed beatified sailors’ home among cat, horse : MORNING

25-across – One off reappearance of star writer named in 26 17 across : EMERSON

26-across – Name for Kubla Khan’s sacred one? : RALPH

27-across – Criminal loud in approaching bills : NEFARIOUS

1-down – Starting well? Start game without starter on the other side: cover with unobservable object : QUICKOFFTHEMARK

2-down – Pretty little finish to the queen’s little implement : TWEEZERS

3-down – See 24 : GLORY

4-down – Ulster actors depressed? : DOWNCAST

5-down – Estate agent with cups and saucers : TEASET

6-down – Wild bear has funny food : BREADROLL

7-down – See 22 : STUDIO

8-down – I’m all right, Jack, I’m using soft tissues : NOSKINOFFMYNOSE

15-down – Bedtime: that’s all ____ — no love this time : FORTNIGHT

17-down – Dead car: you must do it in 1 and 8 : WRITEOFF

18-down – Neglect brings to naught travellers’ task : OMISSION

20-down – Father’s part of word : PAROLE

21-down – Motor concluding greening process : ENGINE

23-down – See 13 : HEART

5-across – Stop and fire : LAYOFF

6-across – Concerning inside information going to Eastern writer : GREENE

9-across – Nation embraces popular foreign dramatist : RACINE

10-across – They examine the pupils : OCULISTS

11-across – Not the gardener’s favourite little number : WEED

12-across – Correction as part of learning : DISCIPLINE

13-across – Well organised part of the barracks : ORDERLYROOM

18-across – To borrow money then move away is risky : TOUCHANDGO

21-across – Metal press : IRON

22-across – Group of men in pursuit of a mate : CHESSSET

23-across – Organised raid in backstreet exposes Chinese criminals : TRIADS

24-across – Spanish gooseberry : DUENNA

25-across – Frenchwoman forced to take in a French man : MADAME

1-down – Solid block of cars : CYLINDER

2-down – A venue for a match away from home : AFIELD

3-down – One providing a deal for the better : CROUPIER

4-down – Account that is allowed to run on to attract interest? : SERIAL

5-down – Packed and ready to go off : LOADED

7-down – No more wine — that’s the limit : EXTENT

8-down – Sit and canoodle, form bond together : CONSOLIDATE

14-down – Passing of time in pleasing fashion : ELAPSING

15-down – The prototype of a girl in love, perhaps : ORIGINAL

16-down – Used a club building provided by the company : COSHED

17-down – A way to cook eggs — divine in cabbage : CODDLE

19-down – Baby lettuce gets planted : COSSET

20-down – What one spends won’t be in deposit : OUTLAY