Daily Answers

5-across – Live with inspiring woman in muddle : BEMUSE

6-across – Liberty, for example, is not just a figure of speech : STATUE

9-across – Opening vocal vari­ation to Elgar’s first : ALCOVE

10-across – Injure outside left, fouled, resulting in a break : HALFTERM

11-across – Exploit a twist of fate : FEAT

12-across – Redeeming feature of a loan, perhaps : PAWNTICKET

13-across – Lose one’s grip and take no further action : DROPTHECASE

18-across – Clear arguments may help them with their cases : PLAINTIFFS

21-across – Pin of a revolver? : AXIS

22-across – It may be served when bean soup is off : SUBPOENA

23-across – Noise inside gear when travelling : RIDING

24-across – Does it secure tile to shingle? : HATPIN

25-across – Pound is good in France — capital! : LISBON

1-down – Phoney claim of poverty took in a holy man : IMPOSTOR

2-down – Hibernating snake wrapped around shelter : ASLEEP

3-down – Wild cat, lithe and muscular : ATHLETIC

4-down – Radio reception problem which never goes away : STATIC

5-down – More adventurous Rock sound : BOLDER

7-down – Head left student to get a good job : EARNER

8-down – Let Jack be seen to supply a military presence : SHOWTHEFLAG

14-down – Way call-up is put together is lamentable : PATHETIC

15-down – Is supportive but fails to intervene : STANDSBY

16-down – Fail to prepare the ground : PLOUGH

17-down – Nordic person catches an extra fish : FINNAN

19-down – I am given place at Cambridge finally, gaining credit : IMPUTE

20-down – Make an effort in race : STRAIN

1-across – This tease contrived to produce delays : HESITATES

6-across – Metal in cable carries live power : CUBE

8-across – Slay damn evil wolf : LADYSMAN

9-across – Sharp taste spread round middle of mouth : ASTUTE

10-across – Off-the-cuff remarks in Asian capital should end party excess at last : ADLIBS

11-across – Rests on Boatman to get stuck into problem with resolve : OVERLIES

12-across – Held in home for animals: a ram : PENTUP

15-across – Act before or after getting support for entry into home : DOORPOST

16-across – Home for party animals : DOMICILE

19-across – Disturbance in the area? Navy surrounds Asian capital : TEHRAN

21-across – Casual home for some animals : INFORMAL

22-across – Watch worn on top of knitted cuff : THWACK

24-across – Animal escaped into gorge? : PIGOUT

25-across – Alternative Gothic writer returns an invitation one can’t refuse : SUBPOENA

26-across – One at home in a bog : OGRE

27-across – Fish listen to one dance tune, then another : CONGEREEL

1-down – Some animals reported and caught : HEARD

2-down – Home for animals on the agenda for cutter : STYLIST

3-down – Instant home for animals created from array of children’s products : TIMES

4-down – Catch fish rising over home for animals less than a dozen times : TENFOLD

5-down – One takes fall on head after this last animal : SCAPEGOAT

6-down – Spooner’s traditional cover for tradesman’s entry into home for animals : CATFLAP

7-down – Home for animals of the ocean under cover : BATTERSEA

13-down – Proclaiming something in City bank : ENOUNCING

14-down – Casual racism: it follows coppers split by colour : PRISMATIC

17-down – Fool’s gold perhaps gets one right on the heart, losing head : IRONORE

18-down – To counter racism, he wrote novel Noise about liberal left : ELLISON

20-down – Why did the naughty cow enter the house? : HOWCOME

22-down – See 3 : TABLE

23-down – Boatman’s cut of film Tin Man, criminally bad : CANAL

1-across – Everything payable is legitimate : ALLOWED

5-across – Addict vetoed dodgy ecstasy : DEVOTEE

9-across – Keen to get a point for vault : CRYPT

10-across – Preparing a regiment to shoot : GERMINATE

11-across – The way an attorney’s team give way : STANDASIDE

12-across – Opening to make a small fortune : SLOT

14-across – Girl in a mood shows uncertainty : AMBIVALENCE

18-across – Dodgy dealers land in strait : DARDANELLES

21-across – Spoil a schedule : ROTA

22-across – Body of troops in reserve : DETACHMENT

25-across – Advocate having street confined by blockade : BARRISTER

26-across – In fog duck gets damp : MOIST

27-across – One forcing payment from performer : EXACTOR

28-across – Rodents in sleeping quarters freeze : DORMICE

1-down – A conservative asking price for buttonhole : ACCOST

2-down – Parishioner put down fiancé : LAYMAN

3-down – In spite of having lifted trophy Labour leader makes retraction : WITHDRAWAL

4-down – Painter departs and wise man turns up : DEGAS

5-down – Stunt man died? That’s a ruddy disaster! : DAREDEVIL

6-down – Mood is part of aggressive instinct : VEIN

7-down – Turkey’s sick and hanging back : TRAILING

8-down – Despite that has affair with bird : EVENTHEN

13-down – Amber helps reform one uttering profan­ities : BLASPHEMER

15-down – Royal guard initially executes exploit when in drink : BEEFEATER

16-down – Sweet girl introduced to expert : ADORABLE

17-down – I report a disturbance in the capital : PRETORIA

19-down – A sign, for example, mounted on a car : GEMINI

20-down – Girl holds shoddy item to be work of art : STATUE

23-down – Bill’s free to be bitter : ACRID

24-down – Investigate fellow found stowing away in hold : SIFT

1-across – Prison walls aren’t of the same dimensions : BUILTTO

5-across – Marking on baize, plenty of casual designs : DOODLES

9-across – See 1 : SCALE

10-across – Hear the hotel ghost — one checking out? : INSPECTOR

11-across – Conflict right — let me explain: wife interfering with estate, possibly? : CRIMEANWAR

12-across – See 27 : BALL

14-across – Black bovine with vertigo, say — what’s so exciting? : APHRODISIAC

18-across – Function at night filling nappy, jam apart, yukky! : PYJAMAPARTY

21-across – Island one’s promoting to a higher power, might you say? : CUBA

22-across – Bruises too appalling, as unruly : BOISTEROUS

25-across – Female muse suspicious about artist in class-conscious system : FEUDALISM

26-across – Once screened this brave clip of Luton Town : TONTO

27-across – Six-footer attending dance, hard bouncer : CRICKET

28-across – Expert paintings here in compound : ACETATE

1-down – Not sweet to cut segment — divide in two : BISECT

2-down – Type listed, one I smothered in powder : ITALIC

3-down – Soviet forces: they’re mad, revolutionary, about Russian leader : THEREDARMY

4-down – Orbiting around Jupiter, perhaps, new vegetable : ONION

5-down – Volts run through Saudi for wrongfully showing hostility : DISFAVOUR

6-down – See 24 : OVER

7-down – Romeo’s fate that’s boundless where Christ stands tall : LOTHARIO

8-down – Religious vestment certain to maintain line in image : SURPLICE

13-down – Heart of the metropolis, is it? : CITYCENTRE

15-down – One’s clients are unaware this particular leader Tony can’t be trusted : HYPNOTIST

16-down – Small ocean, second to change, to be precise : SPECIFIC

17-down – African country having boom, blossoming in endless decline : DJIBOUTI

19-down – Bit of a looker — worse puns are so pronounced : CORNEA

20-down – A mule, say, carrying king on the beach : ASHORE

23-down – Kingsley’s written up about book, The Lion King : SIMBA

24-down – Hesitate claiming Lennox’s first boxing victory as an easy win : WALK

1-across – Fish on wet ground to be thrown back, schmuck! : DUMBASS

5-across – Zero food required, provided plugs hole : ORIFICE

10-across – So tail of halibut meets tailless fish : THUS

11-across – Hurry off to hide piano behind back — it’s rubbish! : SCRAPMETAL

12-across – Fish from Algiers decapitated, then cooked : GRILSE

13-across – Fish register into only vacant school of thought : IDEOLOGY

14-across – Is envious of request, that of a Dickensian? : BEGRUDGES

16-across – An expression of joy, perhaps, which can be positive : ANODE

17-across – Small fishes’ home smelt : STANK

19-across – See 3 : DOLIVEIRA

23-across – Trout was his — insert fish? : SCHUBERT

24-across – Some borders having identical plant : SESAME

26-across – Cheese with parent’s fish — sole : MASCARPONE

27-across – In syrup I keep fish : PIKE

28-across – Fish ate weed : HADDOCK

29-across – Devoted, presenting a complete token of love : ADORING

2-down – Throw shoe and run off : UNHORSE

3-down – Cups carrying a fish, shade of green, one for old cricketer : BASIL

4-down – After conclusions from barristers, you use delay : SUSPEND

6-down – Blade good, cutting rump up : RAPIER

7-down – Working independently, suggests slippery poisson? : FREELANCE

8-down – See 25 : CHARGED

9-down – Speed management system cut corners, given oil spillage : CRUISECONTROL

15-down – Lightweight in split, rejected : RENOUNCED

18-down – Change of heart in opera, grasping at musical work : TOCCATA

20-down – Net said to be fishy, however : INSTEAD

21-down – Paul Kruger’s first to enter requirement for a garden pot : RAMEKIN

22-down – About to go wrong, cleaner lifted iron : FERRIC

25-down – Fish among gar used in a stew with powerful associations : SUPER