| REFORMIST | Authority figure or obscure challenger to establishment |
| LONGRANGE | Forward-looking elderly relative put in pine entrance to establishment (4-5) |
| OBFUSCATE | To darken or obscure (9) |
| LLEWELLYN | Put boot in guts of challenger to one of the Welsh princes (9) |
| CLOUDNINE | Idiomatic place with hazy, misty or obscure origins but popularly attributed to the highest classification of cumulonimbus nubes, where one is at the peak of happiness, elated, in seventh heaven or wa |
| CONTAINER | Ancient or obscure form of transportation (9) |
| RECONDITE | Something that is hidden or obscure (9) |
| RECHERCHE | Rare, exotic or obscure (9) |
| POLICEMAN | Authority figure cut short complainer wrongly (9) |
| PERIMETER | A ring or space surrounding a figure or site (9) |
| ATTRIBUTE | In art, a conventional symbol associated with a mythical figure or saint, such as the bow/arrows of Diana, the dove of Aphrodite, the lyre of Apollo or the peacock of Juno (9) |
| SUBSCRIPT | Letter, figure or symbol printed below the line (9) |
| FRANCE | Frank first hurried to establishment in the country |
| VEIL | Old word for a covering or curtain; the headdress of a nun or a bride; or, anything that conceals, disguises or obscures, such as a facade, mask, pretence or a shroud of mist (4) |
| AES | Challenger to D.D.E. |
| GARY | Possible Democratic challenger to John and Joe |
| FOETAL | Embryonic challenger to chess champion (6) |
| ARRIVAL | Emergence of a challenger to dictator |
| FOE | Challenger, to a champion |
| CRUZ | Challenger to Trump in 2016 |
