Special, Sunday 31 Mar 13, Aldhelm (through Raju Umamaheswar)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Three answers per commenter
2. Annotations to be compulsorily provided with the answer.
3. Answers for clues marked A, B, C, D & E (In red) are NOT repeat NOT to be given till all the other answers are in. These answers will automatically get revealed when all the answers come in.

Five eights

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

The eight-letter answers to the five clues (A to E) — which are given in no particular order — fit into the five bold squares. They read in a clockwise direction, starting from the top left-hand corner in each case. Any other answer with three letters forming part of these five words is clued with a definition element and an indication of the answer minus those three letters. Letter-counts refer to the full answer in each case.(A to E are not shown in Acroslite version).

A   Repeats... repeats it, not softly, perhaps

B   Horribly plastered without right support

C   Song needs ear that’s finely tuned

D   Better to get sport in for a complaining type

E   It’s instrumental in organising 28 with MBE

ACROSS
1   Politician gets, to start with, your cross (6)

4   Second Conservative on the margin was far from liberal (8)

10 Scope for wriggling worm swallowing ducks? Quite the opposite (5- 4)

11 Scientists’ iron deeds (5)
12 With shellfish to eat, falls silent (5,2)
13 Lay into team at Eurovision (7)
14 One issuing E. Lear’s nonsense (8)
17 Climber grabbing gold — valuable stuff (5)
19 It’s foul dropping one relative (5)

21 Ancient tax, say — English pound for Danish leader (8)

24 Stuck double gin in and drank noisily (7)

26 Melted about zero after wild fun (7)

28 Boundaries of Open golf course in Scotland (5)
29 Solitary type’s to stop, in the main (9)
30 French race doesn’t finish off aristocrat (8)

31 Dance trio at the conclusion of festival (6)

DOWN

1   Country of the European Community to the east (6)

2   Offence of violence (7)

3   Uses 19 men on board (5)

5   Butterfly’s seen here, symbolically (5)
6   Ballooning in Florida with receptacle overcoming gravity (9)
7   Churchman’s deceptive treatment? (7)

8   Completely razes besieged city of legend — years, ultimately (8)

9   Speak fondly about member’s calm (8)
15 1 down men organised for a rise (9)

16 Give up little weight (8)
18 Metal nuts twisted round top of girder (8)

20 Could penny off be the unit of charge? (7)
22 Worship leaders of Leninism in one’s naivety (7)

23 Low-down biology classes (6)

25 Draw seems an utterly pointless piece of suspense (5)

27 All the plants she’s embracing (5) 

To attempt the crossword on a separate page follow the link FIVE EIGHTS.

Enjoy.

LINK TO SOLUTION