| NAILBITER | Catch champ close to despair in tense affair |
| CRADLE | Nurse, close to despair in scoundrel's grip, fled unclothed |
| GNAWS | Champs close to completing swan-upping? (5) |
| TISSUE | Web reveals tense affair (6) |
| TAMBOURS | Tense affairs involving bass drums (8) |
| SUNDOWNER | Australian tramp beginning to despair in grip of Rupert Murdoch? (9) |
| MOOD | Low, beginning to despair, in such a state |
| MADLING | I must be beginning to despair in sending old fruitcake |
| REDDING | Close to despair, wife gets out of marriage in American city (7) |
| SCRAG | Unhealthily thin person close to despair, overwhelmed by heroin (5) |
| SIR | Teacher, close to despair, is upset |
| COBBLER | One working with last stone close to despair (7) |
| PAWNBROKER | Uncle manipulated person with no money, close to despair (10) |
| DRIP | Ineffectual person close to despair amid depression (4) |
| APSE | In despair, in retreat, find space for altar (4) |
| OVERSIGHT | It may be a mistake to express despair in public (9) |
| IRINA | Russian girl in despair in Akmolinsk (5) |
| AARGH | Cry of despair, in the comics |
| SIGHS | Expressions of despair in sound volume (5) |
| EYESIGHT | Faculty express despair in English, still |
