| PENRYN | Cornish town in which a watchmaker, John Thomas, started rugby in 1872 (6) |
| STIVES | Cornish seaside town in which a branch of the Tate Gallery opened in 1993 (2,4) |
| LUTON | Bedfordshire town in which a major airport was opened in 1938 (5) |
| PENANCE | Last character leaves Cornish town in humiliation (7) |
| HOT | Feeling sweaty, Thomas started changing (3) |
| MOTH | Insect Thomas started to get ruffled by (4) |
| REDCAR | North Yorkshire seaside town at which a racecourse opened in 1872 (6) |
| GIRTON | Village north-west of Cambridge to which a women's college, established in 1869, moved in 1872 |
| DUFFIE | Auckland-born Storm winger who switched to rugby in 2016, Matt ... (6) |
| ARGYLL | Everybody accepting odd bits of rugby in part of Scotland (6) |
| SCOPES | High-school teacher John Thomas of the '20s |
| TAURUS | Sign first of three-quarters before rugby in Australia |
| SINBIN | Penalty introduced to rugby in the late 1990s (3,3) |
| ZURICH | Insurance company established in Switzerland in 1872 (6) |
| SISLEY | Impressionist who painted Footbridge at Argenteuil in 1872 (6) |
| NOLLEKENS | A famously parsimonious and eccentric sculptor of busts, whose idiosyncrasies were so well-known that they were recorded in a biography penned by his former assistant, John Thomas "Antiquity" Smith (9 |
| SPEARTACKLE | An illegal manoeuvre in rugby, in which a player lifts another into the air and drops them on their back, head or neck (5,6) |
| ATSIXESANDSEVENS | A bigot retired with game of rugby in a mess (2,5,3,6) |
| MANHANDLE | Knock about a possible nickname for John Thomas! (9) |
| PUBLICSCHOOL | The people train for rugby in England, for example (6,6) |
