Daily Answers

1-across – Legal principle requiring tree to be clipped : CYPRES

4-across – Make-believe incentive with promises of money to come : SPURIOUS

9-across – Frustrate the spirit : SCOTCH

10-across – Troopers will be troopers? Male duds : MENSWEAR

11-across – Garish tat’s awful on a female broadcaster, honest! : STRAIGHTASADIE

13-across – People making cuts, restricting the commun­ity? None of us can have everything : PARTOWNERS

14-across – Poet has put out superior port : ADEN

16-across – Vulgar female supporter turned back : NAFF

18-across – Work centre said to be suitable for voluntary organisation : PEACECORPS

21-across – As to Golden Calf — it’s wrong in a religious retreat! : CASTELGANDOLFO

23-across – Hidden part of the body revealed by Pearl : INNEREAR

24-across – Extremely drunk, all right, fools all falling over : STINKO

25-across – Get to spa, knackered — support needed at end of drive? : GATEPOST

26-across – Litre extracted from mixer for drinking session : BENDER

1-down – In the land of yodellers there’s huge hit : COSH

2-down – University officer reported? Gamble is associated with him : PROCTER

3-down – One chats about the end of the world : ESCHATON

5-down – Classical boy Amos on vessel coming from island : PUERTORICAN

6-down – Combat is interrupting inactivity : RESIST

7-down – Made too big a thing of old composer having died : OVERDID

8-down – Officers giving material to workers? : SERGEANTS

12-down – Writer presents piece, getting a bit of work having run into old news agency : GUNTERGRASS

13-down – Out of control, giving office assistant whipping : PANICKING

15-down – Cor! A cute flipping dress! : ACCOUTRE

17-down – Secure catch in sea area off Ireland : FASTNET

19-down – Punished a second time to be made pure? : REFINED

20-down – Destroy a game in perverse display of temper : TEARUP

22-down – Singers won’t want hard material : COIR

1-across – A basic idea is to find god : ANUBIS

5-across – Effluent blocking pipe a little bit : SCRAPING

9-across – Land taken over to strangle weed almost producing flowers : NARCISSI

10-across – Negligence evident, no clergy carrying the cross : LAXITY

11-across – Old politician drinking something up, a traditional wisdom for drinking tale : WHISKYGALORE

13-across – See 15 : BUTT

14-across – This regulates flow, given Spooner’s police funds? : STOPCOCK

17-across – If secret’s out, becoming most aggressive : FIERCEST

18-across – US exclamation about 25, which is clarified : GHEE

20-across – Half-cut pig recalling model with centre parting and her, one with a filthy mind : PORNOGRAPHER

23-across – Whatever it is to accomplish, nothing held back : DOODAH

24-across – One’s stable, though angriest when unstable : INERTGAS

25-across – One on the table? : HYDROGEN

26-across – Cutting round something to bend that’s grey : DREARY

2-down – Straight for the bull : NEAT

3-down – O₂H? : BACKWATER

4-down – Bird with runner sliding into iniquity : SISKIN

5-down – Jam? : STICKYSITUATION

6-down – Faith, that is, girl turned on : RELIGION

7-down – Choose unit, say, for unit on box : PIXEL

8-down – Ball-breaker sounding sweet? : NUTCRACKER

12-down – Study noted and barred? : MUSICOLOGY

15-down – Well, a soldier retiring through minor injury given little time, one consigned to the gutter? : CIGARETTE

16-down – Animal duck gets to corner : HEDGEHOG

19-down – Pass through the Strand : THREAD

21-down – Low point from adaptation of The King and I : NADIR

22-down – Lovely show : FAIR

1-across – Stick out to win battle : JUTLAND

5-across – Sweets unavailable in the heart of Brittany, reportedly : TOFFEES

9-across – Laughs loudly from film’s start to finish : HOOTS

10-across – Awfully bitter about one old man’s two-piece : BIPARTITE

11-across – Italian shuffling into a plane : NEAPOLITAN

12-across – See 6 : HEAD

14-across – Bossy Conservative volunteers to run one during setback : DICTATORIAL

18-across – Poor fish eaten by roughly 4.10 : UNFORTUNATE

21-across – Money not left in jar : CASH

22-across – Clear girl’s one to fancy a nosh-up : DIAPHANOUS

25-across – Fell very low in price : KNOCKDOWN

26-across – Run in next race : EXTRA

27-across – Bone in back? I’m not sure about that : STERNUM

28-across – First pair of knickers said to be hot stuff : CAYENNE

1-down – Rubber duck hidden by new cellmate? Yes, the upstart! : JOHNNY

2-down – What a pity Grahame’s character died inside : TOOBAD

3-down – Muscles badly scorned by bad runners? : ABSCONDERS

4-down – Knight on road for port : DUBAI

5-down – Supreme fool takes in airline boss : TOPBANANA

6-down – Warning in advance of gas bill feature : FORE

7-down – Record — the same one clubs widely distributed : EPIDEMIC

8-down – Knowing about a diet applied in resolute fashion : STEADILY

13-down – See 1 : COMELATELY

15-down – Like 50% of crosswords former cops provided to editor finally, in short measure : CRUCIFORM

16-down – Small, round things in case puck’s lost : CUPCAKES

17-down – Placing for one sailing past bay horse? : OFFSHORE

19-down – Off to rent afresh : ROTTEN

20-down – Get away from the drug scene? : ESCAPE

23-down – Funk band stripped in movie : PANIC

24-down – Drum almost broke : SKIN

9-across – Crooked dealer’s rough hard scrap : CARDSHARP

10-across – Female who’s particular about English : NIECE

11-across – Place to grow fruit or vegetable : ORCHARD

12-across – Gone to heaven instead, perhaps : SAINTED

13-across – Oversight! Right out of cultured pearls : LAPSE

14-across – A meeting of yes-men : AGREEMENT

16-across – They’re put on for a dry run : ANTIPERSPIRANTS

19-across – One in prison, for example, shows feeling : SENTIENCE

21-across – Supply shelter : PUTUP

22-across – Catholic leader of men : GENERAL

23-across – This cooking instruction could be bipolar : PARBOIL

24-across – Spot the first piece of music : MOTET

25-across – On course here for game : NEWMARKET

1-down – Adults have finished with these train times : SCHOOLDAYS

2-down – Two drugs make one silly : CRACKPOT

3-down – A car from East Germany, perhaps … : ESTATE

4-down – … made to sound domestic : MAID

5-down – Guardian’s printers use this, perhaps too loosely : APOSTROPHE

6-down – Operator means to connect with the Queen : ENGINEER

7-down – Clear land : SETTLE

8-down – A danger to traffic could be sinister : BEND

14-down – Hormone causing Diane renal upset : ADRENALINE

15-down – Each trial is a turn-up for them : TESTPILOTS

17-down – Something superior; it’s found in convent : PRIORITY

18-down – Computer systems show Labour in the toils : NETWORKS

20-down – Amount cunningly concealed in Exche­quer : NINETY

21-down – Left a line entry to the Web : PORTAL

22-down – An umbrella of character : GAMP

23-down – Piece to hand over to uncle : PAWN

1-across – One who’s out as a result of smoking? : KIPPER

4-across – American going to jail in Midwestern state is to hang : SUSPEND

9-across – Potty or ancient receptacle : CONTAINER

10-across – Stoker holding tail of coarse fish : BREAM

11-across – Singer in musical with car not starting : OUSEL

12-across – In a difficult situation there : ONTHESPOT

13-across – Agitation that’s oddly restful : FLUSTER

15-across – Taking on husband, one needs token of commitment, perhaps : HIRING

17-across – Head’s not empty — is that clear? : PATENT

19-across – What’s proper instrument to entertain Italian novelist? : DECORUM

22-across – Reports of intercourse : RELATIONS

24-across – A girl somewhat well-endowed : ELLEN

26-across – Conductor reportedly being sent up : GUYED

27-across – With entire correspondence in dialect, translation is required : IDENTICAL

28-across – Bears stop by river to get a bit of salmon : ENDURES

29-across – Quaker in China : FRIEND

1-down – Start to give up, feeling unwell : KICKOFF

2-down – Garb in garbage? : PANTS

3-down – Indicator of rank for European woman : EPAULETTE

4-down – The devil improvised : SCRATCH

5-down – Small island turning black : SABLE

6-down – Regard leading batsman as a revelation : EYEOPENER

7-down – Material apt to shrink, going north on back of lorry : DIMITY

8-down – Lines without limits appearing in various places : ONTOUR

14-down – Pure girl — sweetheart embraced by boy : UNALLOYED

16-down – Man with a mad wife somewhere in Kent : ROCHESTER

18-down – American ready to start with passing references : TWOBITS

19-down – Vagrant with collection of documents losing one : DOSSER

20-down – Socialised, as Lib Dems were before Clegg? : MINGLED

21-down – Capital that had spring fever after first signs of political reforms : PRAGUE

23-down – Staff extremely upset about royal house : TUDOR

25-down – Philosopher from Yale, perhaps, foremost in empiricism : LOCKE