Daily Answers

1-across – Clerks, chipper unless provoked : PENCILPUSHERS

8-across – Pasta accompaniment: some asparagus : RAGU

9-across – Conversion of temperature scale in employment file : PROCESSION

10-across – When startled, pets rejected unpleasant modified lettuce, perhaps : ANNUAL

11-across – Fashionable class, Old Norse, to sell out : INFORMON

12-across – Perhaps electrician winds item – a bobbin, ultimately : TRADESMAN

14-across – Vain movie star? Sounds like it : IDLE

15-across – Important part of your foot : ARCH

16-across – Partially downgrades car tested by mathematician : DESCARTES

20-across – Can love and hugs return? Quickly! : STEPONIT

21-across – Notice fissure at sea : ADRIFT

23-across – Not quite slim and small, having eaten more than three biscuits : PETITFOURS

24-across – Agreeable resort : NICE

25-across – Who’d make pale ale? Meanies : PENNYPINCHERS

1-down – Poet Laureate : PLANNER

2-down – Run around collecting gold somewhere near Hawaii : NAURU

3-down – Everyman’s ‘friends’ seen to include a group of antelopes : IMPALAS

4-down – Mix a Puerto Rican cocktail for nearby star : PROXIMACENTAURI

5-down – Take out fancy coffees, skipping college : SEEOFF

6-down – Ray, trembling with desire, producing rebel movie : EASYRIDER

7-down – Primarily, somewhere African, occupying the ocean, manifestly equatorial! : SAOTOME

13-down – Lying down, topless – welcome : DECEPTION

15-down – A nationalist idiot in Belgian city : ANTWERP

17-down – In Perth, girl almost admitted to cricket club? Excellent : CLASSIC

18-down – Carries out clobber : EFFECTS

19-down – Suffering cold, student leaves, being disdainful : SNIFFY

22-down – Frailnesses regularly hidden; hairdresser might suggest one : RINSE

1-across – Book, slim part of Bible, poetry without rhyme : BLANKVERSE

6-across – Man perhaps somewhat misleading : ISLE

9-across – Where you can bet sailors will give you a purgative : EPSOMSALTS

10-across – Tense? Regularly take garlic powder : TALC

12-across – Leg at start of exercise being given circular motion and elevation? : LIMBERINGUP

15-across – Everyman is taking speed in Elvis’ home : MEMPHIS

16-across – Translation of ‘Danger!’ before tip of epée is seen? : ENGARDE

17-across – Chemists use these witty comebacks : RETORTS

19-across – Prime Minister that is 7-10 year-old : BROWNIE

20-across – Trophy from a ceramics moulding held aloft : AMERICASCUP

23-across – Native Americans seeing bear-like characters every so often : ERIE

24-across – Amassed much water and industrial kit : PILEDRIVER

25-across – Empty kettle and glass vessels : KEGS

26-across – Wayward youth is behind fiery eruption somewhere in C Europe : BRATISLAVA

1-down – Auntie looking up and down : BEEB

2-down – In despair, looking up, seeing part of church : APSE

3-down – Imminent White House inhabitant treated shark malaria : KAMALAHARRIS

4-down – Theologian enthralled by opera’s musicality : ERASMUS

5-down – Primarily, something offered to herald ending : SOTHERE

7-down – Amazing seeing the Queen in second act of vandalism : STAGGERING

8-down – In disguise, he’d creep in sneakily : ENCIPHERED

11-down – Struggle in France to order foie gras pies : SIEGEOFPARIS

13-down – Jumped-up master, having absorbed a smattering of learning, extremely ‘clever Dick’! : SMARTALECK

14-down – Parenting where ‘son comes first’ is suffocating : SMOTHERING

18-down – Wound up about one that’s more fearsome : SCARIER

19-down – His most famous character is never performed in modern theatre : BECKETT

21-down – Whereby type of light starts to enter animals? : UVEA

22-down – Topic like ‘Bigger Moustaches in EastEnders‘ : AREA

1-across – Animated, showing nerve, effects reform : EFFERVESCENT

9-across – Dead end: Everyman’s old hat : IMPASSE

10-across – Most of the Third Form moving to that place : THITHER

11-across – Ingredient that can be hot or cold, reportedly : CHILI

12-across – Try and obtain leverage with a handle? : NAMEDROP

14-across – ‘Northern Ireland’ on agenda after ‘Welcome’; in charge you’ll find cynic : NIHILISTIC

15-across – Such noses? Upturned & blunt, primarily! : SNUB

17-across – Go round and round wasting time in underwear : EDDY

19-across – Those dining out make choice of something to wear, we’re told : PICNICKERS

21-across – Help old boy with computer that’s backfired in the country : CAMBODIA

23-across – Get rid of Teresa, toppling leader that’s lame : ERASE

25-across – What Duke of York claimed is easy : NOSWEAT

26-across – Liz eats chocolate biscuit; it’s ‘to be found within’ : BETWIXT

27-across – Nuns drinking beer, and drop of cognac that’s ‘reviving’ : CONVALESCENT

2-down – Opposed to wearing soles, perhaps affectedly dressy : FOPPISH

3-down – He’s lined pants to provide protection : ENSHIELD

4-down – We will be rising before four for the scenery : VIEW

5-down – Changing into suits, needing introduction in applying for jobs : SITUATIONS

6-down – Very best among pre-Raphaelites : ELITE

7-down – Earthen crocks in Persian city : TEHERAN

8-down – Immature pup intoxicated with beer aroma : PREPUBESCENT

9-down – Fiery, being of S American lineage : INCANDESCENT

13-down – Wasp: ‘I distractedly go around houseplant’ : ASPIDISTRA

16-down – Catholic Church upset seeing Celtic half back : ECLECTIC

18-down – Dying ‘bit’ from comedian’s a little dry : DEMISEC

20-down – Delight as family member runs away : ELATION

22-down – Louche fauns regularly seen in water : OCEAN

24-down – Clever Biblical character bringing up learner : ABLE

1-across – Director of a circus that’s starring … me, surprisingly : RINGMASTER

6-across – Rowers were triumphant : CREW

9-across – Brief attempt reversing boat in turbulent water : WHIRLPOOLS

10-across – Mineral derived from sago palm : OPAL

12-across – Shiner? Beef’s applied … with seasoning : FINESHERBES

15-across – Most of country gets measure that helps display identity : LANYARD

16-across – ‘Brisbane not capital?’: confused European : SERBIAN

17-across – Dog takes the German stew : CHOWDER

19-across – Skipping starter of seafood, getting in a little red aperitif : CAMPARI

20-across – 13 drunken bankers taking a nap : BAKERSDOZEN

23-across – An air base regularly getting bills : NIBS

24-across – Sandy, a dog, beheaded a bird : TAWNYEAGLE

25-across – ‘Staunch, good man’? Flipping Everyman!? : STEM

26-across – Updates incorporating new flags : REDENSIGNS

1-down – Loudly stir up arguments : ROWS

2-down – Every now and then en famille, that’s secure : NAIL

3-down – Fern, small and old, represented in novel : MOLLFLANDERS

4-down – Got cosy and had some soup? : SPOONED

5-down – Silent, antagonistic son joins army : ENLISTS

7-down – Queen depicted upside down? Landlord’s no monarchist : REPUBLICAN

8-down – Son-in-law rising, holding a wine cocktail, feels exhilarated : WALKSONAIR

11-down – Rearranges land in gardens with merry abandon : GERRYMANDERS

13-down – What’s found in hair? A group of nits with second group on top : ALICEBANDS

14-down – ‘New New Labour’; Keir’s leader; visionary? : UNWORKABLE

18-down – Raw seal? You’ll need to fill in a form : REDTAPE

19-down – French artist’s in the auditorium, according to Stuart monarch : CEZANNE

21-down – Anxious to be part of Gog and Magog, however things go : AGOG

22-down – Primarily, what are called : CEPS

1-across – Dire moments represented in Chaplin classic? : MODERNTIMES

9-across – Every now and then, organist has dairy dish : RAITA

10-across – ‘Listen: I get votes. Listen: masses’ … : HOIPOLLOI

11-across – … empower crazy nut as leader? Indefensible : UNTENABLE

12-across – Some Hindu calendar concerning a nobleman : DUCAL

13-across – Student, not so clean, loses money, gets more lean : LANKIER

15-across – Nowadays, character from Nato goes around boasting : BRAVADO

17-across – Fried horse contains a little taste of umami : SAUTEED

19-across – Book of little weight to cause injury : GRAMMAR

21-across – You Trekkies suppress too much : OUTRE

23-across – Campanologist feigned bad mood : QUASIMODO

25-across – Low-quality Spanish wine consumed by personnel : TENTHRATE

26-across – Resembling gold. Containing uranium. Shame : GUILT

27-across – Household appliance increasingly warped as animals found inside : WASHERDRYER

1-down – In France, Everyman gathers up water : MOISTEN

2-down – With end removed, India paper rolled into tube : DRAINPIPE

3-down – Expressions of frustration and uncertainty arising in health facility : REHAB

4-down – Something seen in bathroom; big tale to unfold : TOILETBAG

5-down – Pet noisily bellowed : MOOED

6-down – Sail cut off somewhere in the W Indies : STLUCIA

7-down – Looks for problems, finding Russian cash, heroin, cocaine’s all around : TROUBLESHOOTS

8-down – I‘ll buy soot for reunion; make the most of it : FILLYOURBOOTS

14-down – Where Lenin may be seen as bloody bourgeois : REDSQUARE

16-down – In the morning, a spirit loudly evacuated, causing astonishment : AMAZINGLY

18-down – Finally, John Woo put reboots all in the past : UPTONOW

20-down – Less decisive omnivore, not very prone to change : MOONIER

22-down – Primarily, essentially, that habitual organisational spirit? : ETHOS

24-down – In advance, or yet to come? : AHEAD