Daily Answers

1-across – It’s below the belt and sounds a bit fishy! : CODPIECE

5-across – Spirits provided by good landlords : GHOSTS

9-across – Clashing with walk by conservationists : STRIDENT

10-across – Journey the Parisian made three times : TRIPLE

12-across – Once a stormy sea : OCEAN

13-across – Quiet meal here turned out to be short-lived : EPHEMERAL

14-across – Sweet goat from Scotland? : BUTTERSCOTCH

18-across – Boards trains, the way to travel at one time! : STAGECOACHES

21-across – Broken arm hid gap forming midriff : DIAPHRAGM

23-across – Overcharges to see castles? : ROOKS

24-across – Overlooking American hostility to Capone, the brute : ANIMAL

25-across – I ordered lady to meet sweetheart by swamp : INUNDATE

26-across – Ring for autograph before famous film : SIGNET

27-across – Daisy has nothing which identifies a heavenly body! : ASTEROID

1-down – Copper raised vehicle certificates and tax : CUSTOM

2-down – Mended by sailors coming in late, upset : DARNED

3-down – In study prepared true contract : INDENTURE

4-down – Traditional nunnery by holy island lake : CONVENTIONAL

6-down – Women’s quarters and hospital are by motorway : HAREM

7-down – Isolate a tree sap comes from : SEPARATE

8-down – Skulking by lift, they drop key : STEALTHY

11-down – Defects turning up in trousers : SHORTCOMINGS

15-down – Kind of sale which snooker players hope to make? : CLEARANCE

16-down – Sure cad’s rebuilt these second-hand vehicles : USEDCARS

17-down – Spoiling mother, getting old : DAMAGING

19-down – A lid’s raised and closed – it’s often chipped : POTATO

20-down – Rise obtained, dances round! : ASCEND

22-down – Greeting man on top of hoist : HEAVE

7-across – Sort of lamp used by radio operator is included, not as present : ARCHAISM

9-across – Movement of state in support : PINCER

10-across – Spots one round number initially : ACNE

11-across – A table leg of gold put in by Bunyan? : ALLEGORIST

12-across – Recorded what the lumberman did : LOGGED

14-across – Say what’s the matter – like to hold one’s nose? : DIAGNOSE

15-across – Arrest by secret police? : STASIS

17-across – Fool finds one way to help : ASSIST

20-across – Shaw leave in California? : SANDIEGO

22-across – Two sides of triangle raised at lamppost : DOGLEG

23-across – Gorilla set to become an MP? : LEGISLATOR

24-across – Sweet chastisement? : CANE

25-across – Way to vote in church for top person? : PRINCE

26-across – The impressive thing is that mother does her own housework : CHARISMA

1-down – Term of endearment 95 more than the foregoing : PRECIOUS

2-down – Pump, maybe, to disperse, say : SHOE

3-down – Large part of the red-shirt leader is lacking in respect : RIBALD

4-down – Telescope for a g-girl like Mata Hari? : SPYGLASS

5-down – Very attractive, putting out rather than bringing in? : ENTRANCING

6-down – Sign of opposition from those you would never suspect of it : VERSUS

8-down – Boy in the grip of spring fever? : MALADY

13-down – Impressive, also soft and not upright : GRANDPIANO

16-down – Report of water still moving when frozen? : ICEFLOES

18-down – The round refusal to setter’s being under divine law : THEONOMY

19-down – Egyptian policeman on top of unwanted movement : COPTIC

21-down – One that’s taken nourishment without a right, I’m afraid : AFEARD

22-down – It was Greek to Gray : DORIAN

24-down – Note for a girl? : CHIT

1-across – Maintain resistance, having sunk putt, we hear : HOLDOUT

5-across – Distressed about silver, I end in prison : CAGEDIN

9-across – Supply restricted in proportion : RATIO

10-across – Prison ships could contain a lot of rubbish : BINLINERS

11-across – After tea, workers gathered round The Lion; one’s not very steady! : CHAMELEON

12-across – Big stick used by police? I halt, if out of order : LATHI

13-across – Could be drunk neat : TIGHT

15-across – It gives elevation when season’s in change : ALTIMETER

18-across – Get rid of stuffiness: get second wind : DECONGEST

19-across – Compact part of Battersea : TERSE

21-across – When I bat No 1 in order, I’m padded up : TIBIA

23-across – Art’s unwavering biography : STILLLIFE

25-across – Letting oneself down? That’s somewhat ropy : ABSEILING

26-across – Good tip to pick up factsglean : GLEAN

27-across – Checked fibre not entirely in shreds : TATTERS

28-across – One broken oar’s in place to provide shade : PARASOL

1-down – Hard fruit : HARICOT

2-down – Mainly lithe grace in motion? No, lacking energy! : LETHARGIC

3-down – Individual’s underweight: seaside atmosphere needed : OZONE

4-down – Put forward a match – ping-pong, say : TABLEGAME

5-down – Law that’s practicable set up in prison : CANON

6-down – I dive for fish. If it’s mullet, I go crazy : GUILLEMOT

7-down – Dame initially with part of the shoe lived-in : DWELT

8-down – Aster in ground is not so nice : NASTIER

14-down – The temporary accommodation I have outside the army is not definite : TENTATIVE

16-down – What one’s doing in addition? : TOTTINGUP

17-down – Delay from news agency about diner upset : TARDINESS

18-down – Take away pamphlet after editor turned up : DETRACT

20-down – Log base with bird on a line is constant : ETERNAL

22-down – Get ready for attack : BESET

23-down – Kind of cheese plant – a European one : SWISS

24-down – It’s essential to sell a German beer : LAGER

1-across – Edwardian keeps his first trousers boxed, as it were : TELEVISED

6-across – Not a fat part : SPARE

9-across – It’s not just half cold, with winter ice – ease off, do you hear? – this makes it feel colder : WINDCHILLFACTOR

10-across – Sailor on ice, an outstanding musician : ROCK

11-across – Graze on a lot of South American capital first : ABRASION

14-across – Cook general? : KITCHENER

15-across – Test to form a legend : MOTTO

16-across – Tree, like bird, may be on the river : ASPEN

18-across – Small items charged by requests : PETITIONS

20-across – Little boy in oven starts yowling in place of cat : KILKENNY

21-across – See 23 : EDGE

25-across – Columnists’ classical beauty? : REGULARFEATURES

26-across – Car, or one sitting in it, needing more heart for food : DINER

27-across – Servant from Mayfair, North Dakota : MANFRIDAY

1-down – Drag queen in old prison : TOWER

2-down – Student in love removed from picture : LINOCUT

3-down – What’s wrong with upper part of church? God’s not died, he’s in higher education : VICE

4-down – Certainties, ones I’d put money on and not with hesitation – a childish game : SNIP

5-down – Classy food shop, which to criticise adversely is on purpose : DELIBERATE

6-down – Prison camp with arachnid – it rises from the ground : STALAGMITE

7-down – Reach the parting of the ways? Convict of treason : ATTAINT

8-down – Certain to come up about copier that’s wrong : ERRONEOUS

12-down – See 3 : CHANCELLOR

13-down – See 4 : SNAPSNORUM

14-down – Finished at the yard, exhausted : KNACKERED

17-down – Figure for audience in John Cleese sketch : POLYGON

19-down – Well dressed, gave instructions in 26 : ORDERED

22-down – Try writing : ESSAY

23-down – Lamented, say, back from sharpened blade : KEEN

24-down – See 10 : STAR

1-across – Response in case of extreme dysfunction : REMEDY

4-across – Figure no mature person prevaricates about : LITOTES

9-across – Poor Dave takes his mother round the city as a companion : VADEMECUM

10-across – Grumble about table service : BLEAT

11-across – Path of an endless plague : LOCUS

12-across – Henry’s grandfather left in bad odour : OWENTUDOR

13-across – Rifle designed with no initial recoil in the butt : ENFIELD

15-across – Manoeuvre of man on course swapping ends : TACTIC

17-across – Eager to add a little tree to the forest : ARDENT

19-across – Presumably one simply looks round for a room in the States? : OCELLUS

22-across – Off round the world, soaking everything up : ABSORBENT

24-across – Red Robin, a commercial broadcast : ADAIR

26-across – Excess profit and the seriousness of losing it : GRAVY

27-across – Blair swallows Times’ garbled evidence : TESTIMONY

28-across – Take the place of soldiers reportedly on furlough : RELIEVE

29-across – Is she where power is to be found? : INGRID

1-down – Turn of the vicar to make love : REVOLVE

2-down – Where I find a doctor in France? : MEDOC

3-down – A Syrian who could stop a quarrel : DAMASCENE

4-down – Sign of caution in an officer and gentleman, perhaps : LAMBERT

5-down – Apocryphal work – opening Bible gets into it : TOBIT

6-down – Starting to study a philosopher can be a drudge : TREADMILL

7-down – Scornful comment on the Day of Wrath : SATIRE

8-down – Agreement on current lead : ACCORD

14-down – Anticipate Ashdown, perhaps with everything : FORESTALL

16-down – In the beginning is my beginning and my end : CREMATION

18-down – Various letters of support : TRESTLE

19-down – To ring telephones for custom is insensitive : OBTUSE

20-down – Being unsteady, Roger went off course : STRAYED

21-down – Fritz goes head over heels into the trough : MANGER

23-down – Master of the Rolls : ROYCE

25-down – Love – a queer turn about nothing : AMOUR