Daily Answers

1-across – Tradition about it? Don’t ask a lady this : HERITAGE

5-across – Light meat packed with energy : BEACON

9-across – Livestock disease potentially shocking — man of God to return : LIVERROT

10-across – Slick passing move’s testing Mike : ONETWO

12-across – Custom banger lacks it up front : USAGE

13-across – Most difficult bird to draw on street : KNOTTIEST

14-across – Death claims bishop after drinks and crackers : ROUNDTHEBEND

18-across – Spinner of 78’s first prize held by most productive hen : RECORDPLAYER

21-across – Time to remake bed — ready to give him a cuddle? : TEDDYBEAR

23-across – Return shortly with ultimate picture hanger : NOOSE

24-across – Insight gleaned from newspaper cutting : APERCU

25-across – See 1 down : BALLOONS

26-across – What’s left of houses and car? : ESTATE

27-across – Fine light which signals spring : VERYWELL

1-down – He gets much bigger party decorations : HELIUM

2-down – Flick switch, one in show : REVEAL

3-down – Travel over hot rocks to get this signature : THREEFOUR

4-down – Forward information about pitch of instrument : GLOCKENSPIEL

6-down – He painted birds head to toe : ERNST

7-down – Provide entertainment outside the tube : CATHETER

8-down – Switch current after number 12 : NOONTIDE

11-down – Wordsmith thus honoured with epaulette or a buckle? : POETLAUREATE

15-down – Always outside, stealing a kiss : ETERNALLY

16-down – Target of peculiar rubbing : FROTTAGE

17-down – It determines the value of amended dictates : ACIDTEST

19-down – Bad tempered animal bites master’s foot : MOROSE

20-down – Plant on base of hatstand : TEASEL

22-down – It floats upriver, carrying children : YACHT

1-across – City thrice as loud : TRIPOLI

5-across – After break I have become agitated : RESTIVE

9-across – Contribution from Russian leader with part exchange : INPUT

10-across – Say Scotch on the rocks is sweet : LIQUORICE

11-across – Happy life, yet with a thorn in the side? : BEDOFROSES

12-across – Source of energy, as consumed by bad case of flu : FUEL

14-across – Animal boxes that many swear by : HIPPOCRATES

18-across – Citizens in a state by ingesting excess drugs — and most of the police accept it : BODYPOLITIC

21-across – She caused some mayhem, matchmaking : EMMA

22-across – Those who groom pedants : NITPICKERS

25-across – Perhaps lonely heart to spill the beans twice : SINGLETON

26-across – Leopard attack not begun : OUNCE

27-across – Pay no attention to bodies disintegrating — you may hear why : DISOBEY

28-across – Don’t the upper classes leave a mark? : ABSTAIN

1-down – Hear about one-pound hat : TRILBY

2-down – Retard Philistine is deep in trouble : IMPEDE

3-down – Unfit method for how to reach another phase : OUTOFSHAPE

4-down – Not the foremost spac­ious room in this house : IGLOO

5-down – Music degree abandoned for the first product of French caves : ROQUEFORT

6-down – Bullet snapped : SHOT

7-down – One city in which I resign due to unfairness : INIQUITY

8-down – Lens or prosthesis back to front : EYEGLASS

13-down – Rare to include firm that’s ahead of its time : PRECOCIOUS

15-down – Pathetic admission of young lady who doesn’t finish reading the lines : PALMISTRY

16-down – Single-minded alumni scattering seeds : OBSESSED

17-down – Bits and pieces from dodgy compiler, not too smart at first : ODDMENTS

19-down – The woman’s in a tizzy, causing rupture : HERNIA

20-down – Behind, as with rent outstanding : ASTERN

23-down – Father Bear : PANDA

24-down – Fat, lard and butter begin and end thus : FLAB

1-across – Four, minus our two points, equals the bottom number : FEWEST

4-across – See 17 : MONSTER

9-across – 29-land’s oath : DAMNATION

10-across – God, victorious leader in a branch of Islam : SHIVA

11-across – Old fool defaced cat : OUNCE

12-across – Where talk may be cheap, laugh out loud about the state of Hollywood, doubled up : LOCALCALL

13-across – Time locks securing home into which one might vanish : THINAIR

15-across – False sense of security disheartened rabbit protecting warren, ultimately, and the others outside trapped by frog … : BUNKER

17-across – … whose friend notices more new cages acceptable : COOKIE

19-across – Warped members, say, blocking game : BOWLEGS

22-across – Discover pickles in car seat : ASCERTAIN

24-across – Relative of the weasel even more outrageous? : OTTER

26-across – See 29 : INLAW

27-across – See 15 : MENTALITY

28-across – More than one holiday destination makes further arrangements? : RESORTS

29-across – 2 8 — funny sort of joke! : MOTHER

1-down – Dying sound causing clairvoyant scepticism, when heard : FADEOUT

2-down – Western country discovering Hamlet’s frailty? : WOMAN

3-down – Lick, in message from the lips, for an out-of-this-world experience : SPACEWALK

4-down – Caribbean island cancelling party, book taxi : MINICAB

5-down – Nosy people into rocket science, fifty : NASAL

6-down – Asian flag in East Indian capital, fluttering : TAIWANESE

7-down – Jolly ambience’s ending, entering meeting : REALLY

8-down – Mass murderer punched ballerina in the midriff : HITLER

14-down – Is shape close? Equilateral? Scalene? A little of each — or the other! : ISOSCELES

16-down – Lift a lid to poke something proverbially soused, round vegetable : NEWPOTATO

18-down – Totals are up for old scholar : ERASMUS

19-down – First of broken articles, might one be split? : BANANA

20-down – Its output fine speech initially, then supplication : SPRAYER

21-down – Grace, I suspect, is more careful : CAGIER

23-down – One shouting furiously for sportsman : ROWER

25-down – Finally, skirt hitched up, perhaps — so this revealed? : THIGH

1-across – See 5 : OCTOPUS

5-across – Unlikely World Cup celebrity chose to put balls past me : PAULTHE

9-across – G8 leader installed : PUTIN

10-across – Sofa, perhaps, where Torode’s first broadcast rejected by diner : TWOSEATER

11-across – Dinosaur and ferret — one’s one’s one : SQUAREROOT

12-across – Huge beast knocks shopping centre off island : ORCA

14-across – Acknowledgment, the result of lying face down behind cow? : PATONTHEBACK

18-across – Block of flats, perhaps? : KEYSIGNATURE

21-across – Wizard of Oz companion, little one close to Dorothy’s heart? : TOTO

22-across – Buff model is plastic, injecting last of polypropylene : SPECIALIST

25-across – Girl on musical instrument, not piano — another one? : HARMONICA

26-across – I’m a drinker, say, to become hard and cold : ICEUP

27-across – Mixture of okra and wee, stirred again : REAWOKE

28-across – Feminist dressing as long-haired biker? : GREASER

1-down – Struggle against work model : OPPOSE

2-down – Mummy, mummy, naughty naughty! : TUTTUT

3-down – Amid 17, shorten form of an organ : PANCREATIC

4-down – Time to plug utter rogue, primarily, as lustful type : SATYR

5-down – Fabrication of leader in Observer that’s top copy : PHOTOSTAT

6-down – Druggie’s democratic or republican monarch? : USER

7-down – Test carrying university over to class : TUTORIAL

8-down – English gun ships showing flags : EARMARKS

13-down – Shake up orange vigorously, carried by rocket : REORGANISE

15-down – Wine lover taking gallons from pigeonhole, sloshed : OENOPHILE

16-down – Vessel placed in middle of maidservant’s drawer : SKETCHER

17-down – Sound of snake crying more, in a frenzy : HYSTERIA

19-down – Natural growth’s cut twice, creating muscle : BICEPS

20-down – Unconscious state, way high otherwise : STUPOR

23-down – Family planning’s ultimate ring : CLANG

24-down – Modern composer’s rules of grammar: double negatives are a ___ ? : NONO

1-across – Artist is here, so sitter might be shaking : ROSSETTI

5-across – A left foot bleeding, king of overbaking : ALFRED

9-across – Clever and working in this place on sea : BRIGHTON

10-across – Short lip cuts into steak, from doubt that’s free : BELIEF

11-across – Tree, dead outside, could surely mean distress : LACERATE

12-across – To worry gets one rochet in a mess : HECTOR

14-across – Honesty? Solitude says the moderniser : SINGLENESS

18-across – Who learned to speak refined? Must be Eliza : FLOWERGIRL

22-across – Some GI, ill-disposed, will show self-praise : EGOISM

23-across – Dance with toe broken, so this story says : ANECDOTE

24-across – The endless fights, which blankets hide like this : THROWS

25-across – The wading bird turns hot to make a hiss : SIBILATE

26-across – Some rude man dabbling may well have this need! : DEMAND

27-across – To tear round always, he the prayers might lead : REVEREND

1-down – Bishops must break the law to find remains : RUBBLE

2-down – Small, small one of those shooting pains : STITCH

3-down – This larval jellyfish could stretch her pay : EPHYRA

4-down – Grown up, we could be meunière one day : TROUTLINGS

6-down – A Belgian place needs guys — a loyal force : LIEGEMEN

7-down – Whence comes cicada juice from river course : RAINTREE

8-down – Fed up with new store? Take away the wood! : DEFOREST

13-down – Piano’s found in time; call shabby good? : AGGRANDISE

15-down – I’m la-di-da but, healthwise, not benign : AFFECTED

16-down – My French girl must turn up and that’s a sign : MONOGRAM

17-down – His Funny Face gave whingers dislocation : GERSHWIN

19-down – Wild cat I have to view in operation : ACTIVE

20-down – Hair ointment made a writer keep unstable : POMADE

21-down – Finale on the stage could be a fable : LEGEND