| DORMICE | Boarding school bedroom is considered excellent to begin with for sleepy little creatures (7) |
| DORMOUSE | Place to rest by river for sleepy little creature |
| FABRIC | Stuff in food, mostly excellent to begin with (6) |
| WELLREGARDED | Spring watch on borders of England is considered excellent |
| NIGHTLIGHTS | Slight thing, could be for sleepy little ones (11) |
| FREEDOM | Escape attempt by Fred if bedroom is untidy. (3,3,7) |
| DORMANT | Worker below bedroom is sleeping (7) |
| CAPITAL | Excellent to have a large amount of money (7) |
| ALBANIA | Excellent to be back after awfully banal country (7) |
| TOPPING | It's excellent to be finishing without starting! |
| APRIORI | Deduced it's excellent to accommodate monk (1,6) |
| DORM | From the Latin meaning "to sleep", informal word for a boarding school bedroom with several bunks (4) |
| ODDBALL | It's not even bright to begin with for everyone eccentric (7) |
| HELSINKI | Sounds like perdition to begin with for the capital I end with! Finish, you hear! (8) |
| BISTRO | Open bar to begin with for most of the staff in small restaurant (6) |
| BOATRACE | Pair accepts ongoing army training to begin with for Thames battle (4,4) |
| RABBIT | Jewish teacher, 31 to begin with, for poor player (6) |
| HEADSTART | An advantage to begin with for the principal's fancy woman? (4,5) |
| DORMITORY | Boarding-school bedroom (9) |
| BIDFOR | Escape attempt by Fred if bedroom is untidy. (3,3,7) |
