Daily Answers

1-across – Pain initially going, massage heavenly figure : CHERUB

5-across – Couple in Costa repeatedly like hot drinks : COCOAS

8-across – One with needles or fine tip for cotton reels : CONIFER

9-across – Caught a cheat having a fling? : CASTING

11-across – Point of view that’s raised in comment put online : OBSERVATIONPOST

12-across – Make love then get married – terrible fate : DOOM

13-across – Noted movie complex for capital : MONTEVIDEO

17-across – Frank with musician’s backing playing twice with feeling : NONONSENSE

18-across – Despondent: tending to vote Democrat : BLUE

20-across – Doctor then signs letter that deals with stress : TENSILESTRENGTH

23-across – Withdraw soldiers to front territory : RETRACT

24-across – One preparing table, perhaps after opening of Bollinger: it’s bubbly : BLISTER

25-across – Musician in film on piano : PLAYER

26-across – Most in pain, group swallowing tablets : SOREST

2-down – Workers not working easily : HANDSDOWN

3-down – Change what’s taught in school before class : REFORM

4-down – Pub to sing over Christmas karaoke’s final song : BARCAROLE

5-down – A part for erotic acting? Naturally they have fleshy bits in hot scene : CACTI

6-down – Lover with sex appeal turned on cracking open the bubbly? : CASANOVA

7-down – In the morning I pass friend : AMIGO

8-down – See 16 : COORDINATOR

10-down – Become a couple for party : GETTOGETHER

14-down – Bowled in cricket match over one day: they might hold solution : TESTTUBES

15-down – See date go large, initially getting order for seconds : DELEGATES

16-down – Do I monitor racy act in shot? : INTIMACY

19-down – Former partner that is into sister that’s hotter : SEXIER

21-down – Alan confused about time of delivery : NATAL

22-down – Go on stage and record : ENTER

1-across – Grasshopper fouled D-Day kit : KATYDID

5-across – Look likely to make an honest offer : BIDFAIR

9-across – Riddle of the Jumblies’ craft : SIEVE

10-across – Let walrus swim in lake : ULLSWATER

11-across – Car may tour a couple of lochs at the very least : MINIMALLY

12-across – Two novices go to ski here : TYROL

13-across – Invariable outfit I had : RIGID

15-across – Irritably, William accepts deferred payments : BILIOUSLY

18-across – She may offer sick camper aid : PARAMEDIC

19-across – Shout out, giving this direction : SOUTH

21-across – 1-0 for United : INONE

23-across – Reproached at length and clipped round side of head : EARBASHED

25-across – Husband, unpack the vegetables : MANGETOUT

26-across – What may arrive with biscuits some mutt’s about to eat for all to see : GOUDA

27-across – Leaving space for astronauts : REENTRY

28-across – Recklessly determined, but fail after entrance : DOORDIE

1-down – Coins and notes only, they say, in disputed region : KASHMIR

2-down – Sweetly pretty princess growing up: she’s 11 or 12 perhaps : TWEENAGER

3-down – Hope engineers can plug reservoir : DREAM

4-down – It’s needed for the rest of the partners : DOUBLEBED

5-down – Lead off folk and blues singer that shows guts : BELLY

6-down – Some Irish devices stop working : DOWNTOOLS

7-down – Announced change for place of wedding : ALTAR

8-down – Sport convention in the country : RURALLY

14-down – One’s utmost effort in French is condemned upfront : DAMNEDEST

16-down – Part of shoe considered torn : LACERATED

17-down – Undeclared reserves that melt away when the heat is on? : SLUSHFUND

18-down – More disapproving of Mike opening elementary book : PRIMMER

20-down – Need to do this, suffering dry heat? : HYDRATE

22-down – Cat’s very light weight : OUNCE

23-down – At rear of pasture, thin tree : EBONY

24-down – Problems a good grocer halved : AGGRO

9-across – Looking to the future, no boundaries for isolated farmstead : LONGRANGE

10-across – Sounding surprised to be in Big Issue, initially showing faith : BAHAI

11-across – Subscribe here to view wild depravity? Dire letters sent out : PAYTV

12-across – Boatman bargains in magazine : IDEALHOME

13-across – Hollow pine eggcup to end of balustrade where nails are visible : PEEPTOE

14-across – Queries resolved in magazine : ESQUIRE

17-across – Good Housekeeping’s first to be incorporated: it’s a limited market : NICHE

19-across – This magazine made millions before our time : MAD

20-across – In West Indies, USAid in disarray? : IANDI

21-across – Magazine for more keen cycling : HARPERS

22-across – Clue for item in magazine : TIMEOUT

24-across – Association of spoof rapper with magazine and books : ALIGNMENT

26-across – Clue for this magazine : SMASH

28-across – Nothing to replace article dropped from unspecified magazine : VOGUE

29-across – Fever: any beds? Job cuts; trimmed on all sides and levelled : EVENEDOUT

1-down – More than £1.50 for magazine : CLIP

2-down – Easy for text to include name fully, finally on magazine’s cover: this could get a gut reaction : ENZYME

3-down – Magazine report to look into tax, on teletype even : PRIVATEEYE

4-down – Covered by magazine soon enough : INTIME

5-down – Araucaria: say a dream that is gone, on dying : REVEREND

6-down – Early victim of a brother’s envious loathing from the start : ABEL

7-down – Misrepresented no-one with hit news magazine : THEONION

8-down – Magazine is virtual, if excelling in visuals : LIFE

13-down – Joke by foremost of cartoonists, second place in this magazine : PUNCH

15-down – Inquirer Magazine: ‘Viz at last matures!’ I fall about : QUIZMASTER

16-down – Live as misogynist? Principally pointless : EXIST

18-down – Surrey perhaps cold for Frenchman in union : CARRIAGE

19-down – Boatman’s post allegedly went astray when picked up : MASTERED

22-down – Magazine: ‘Rattle needs new arrangement’ : TATLER

23-down – One seen on a rostrum or a rock : ORATOR

24-down – A daily occurrence in Australia, witnessed in popular vote : ARVO

25-down – Perhaps wedge lifted root : NEEP

27-down – See 26 Across : HITS

1-across – Grand ball – test for sexism? : BIGOTRY

5-across – Dire son following Norm Reed? : PARLOUS

9-across – Religious adherent back at university : HINDU

10-across – Electrical store vehicle carrying CIA top bananas : CAPACITOR

11-across – Determined to correct bad article : CALIBRATED

12-across – Peak seats quite near to the stage? : BROW

14-across – He’s reached out to embrace the first and last storyteller : SCHEHERAZADE

18-across – Boring thing, Nat, fatuously pursuing Sabrina? : CARPENTERANT

21-across – Bomb container : TANK

22-across – Indulgent dip supplied by unreliable enterprise hit hospital : BUBBLEBATH

25-across – Bar put under former Princess Court : INTERDICT

26-across – Cast get outside in shade : TINGE

27-across – Element of greeting left out by commander : HALOGEN

28-across – Husband under-performing – start of deep division! : HUNDRED

1-down – I’m surprised youth hostel’s in stream : BYHECK

2-down – Loosely-built band, unprofessional, no heart : GANGLY

3-down – Painful digital device from Tom’s gang? : THUMBSCREW

4-down – Plant that tastes awful? Not quite with calcium : YUCCA

5-down – Manipulative type – ‘elevated darling protected by aristocrat’ : PUPPETEER

6-down – See 24 : ROCK

7-down – Flare-up when away on holiday : OUTBREAK

8-down – Society creep, one with a bad hand : SCRAWLER

13-down – Foreign consulate at new city of Australia : LAUNCESTON

15-down – Tubular operation is our next resort : EXTRUSION

16-down – ‘RI’s out’ – wayward, historic St Lewis’s people? : SCOTTISH

17-down – Before the birth of China, right, Etna erupted internally? : PRENATAL

19-down – Collect a jazz pianist : GARNER

20-down – Scold Democrat Sharp : SHREWD

23-down – Macho bar chain : BUTCH

24-down – Music genre expert finally achieving pitch : PROG

1-across – Cursed setter has been sacked? : DOGGONE

5-across – See 2 Down : COLLEGE

9-across – Line of text, one penned by hand : SERIF

10-across – Orange etc, coloured ornament : GRACENOTE

11-across – Love with sentimental parts melts away in amorous glance : GOOGOOEYES

12-across – Developing bug, a youngster recovered : PUPA

14-across – Awful noise, rear of car in bump, say? : DISCORDANCE

18-across – Workers choose time to stick on wings of honey bees, say : HYMENOPTERA

21-across – Old European capital’s forgotten in Russian city : OMSK

22-across – Trumped-up ideas he fed to right-wingers behind the very same crime : CONSPIRACY

25-across – Therein I associate first : INITIALLY

26-across – I stand on capital in Rome, passing Tuscany originally? : TIBER

27-across – Clues where vernacular is reversed : SIGNALS

28-across – Field where ring found by English king having lost one : ORCHARD

1-down – Fix something herbal – how much of that? : DOSAGE

2-down – Cambridge institution let girl go, once trained : GIRTON

3-down – Removing cargo, and I stumbled in where it’s easy to fall? : OFFLOADING

4-down – Odds slashed in bet as golfer, result of chipping in, perhaps? : EAGLE

5-down – Someone offering accompaniment – with soloist’s ‘Tea for Two’? : CHAPERONE

6-down – Vegetable shiny, top rubbed off : LEEK

7-down – Articulate what requires translation in note left out : ELOQUENT

8-down – High up, European victory secured : ELEVATED

13-down – Panglossian contract is sealed by it, I see : IDEALISTIC

15-down – Tragedian chooses half of play for adaptation : SOPHOCLES

16-down – See 22 Across : THEORIES

17-down – Make notes about crush, divine : SMASHING

19-down – Foreign character, meat certainly for Putin : LAMBDA

20-down – Cross near top of hill erected, clear below : HYBRID

23-down – For instance, very green light : SAYSO

24-down – Princess, vain, in storming off? : DIVA