Cryptic clues — 28 September 2026

Answers & explanations

1. WALL (4)

   Cottage porch when the birds return. Hidden in lifts WALL from swallow. Barrier is the rampart sense — a wall — and mud cups, a ladder and evening midges sell the short hide as country weather rather than a labelled fort.

2. EXPECT (6)

   Someone is hunting the one case that does not apply, and the surface sells that hunt. Battered pummels EXCEPT into EXPECT — to look for, to anticipate. Definition up front.

3. DISPOSE (7)

   Skip yard when the lids still slam. Rid is to dispose of unwanted stuff. Curtailed docks the final D of disposed, yielding DISPOSE. Soft grit and a lukewarm flask cloak the truncation as clearance chatter, not a temperament aside.

4. GLOW (4)

   Beachcomber pause: reading shell also view. Closing letters of reading shell also view, marked by 'finally', give GLOW. Gleaming is the definition — a soft glow — while the shore sketch sells the surface.

5. CONVERT (7)

   Vestry hush when the candles still gutter. Nitrogen yields N; secret is COVERT and holds it — CO(N)VERT. Change is the convert sense. Soft stone and a bent hymnal sell the container as quiet chapel aside.

6. BASIN (5)

   Trough is the definition. Taking the first letter of each word in the clue gives BASIN.

7. SAYING (6)

   Kitchen aside when the motto still hangs. Proverbial speech is saying; expression uttered is saying as to express. Straight double. Flour dust keeps maxim and utterance as one six-letter line.

8. HARM (4)

   Orchard path when the saw still bites. Hydrogen yields H and branch ARM, so H+ARM spells HARM. Impairment is the damage sense. Soft leaf and a bent ladder sell tree-work weather around a letter-plus-limb charade.

9. ALIGHT (6)

   Crop edge catching. Burning is alight; blight with a change of heart swaps B for A, giving ALIGHT.

10. DOABLE (6)

    DOABLE, the manageable, sits one letter away from double: only U has to become A. The clue makes double sound like part of the scene rather than the raw material.