| CAMPFIRES | Investment company sacks many at the top in the rural sector: we can gather around them for comfort (9) |
| UNIVERSAL | Worldwide Anglo-Dutch company sacks the French on half pay (9) |
| LOOTS | Sacks many taking nothing in (5) |
| ROARERS | Cult leaving rural sector represented Lions, for example? (7) |
| VELUM | The soft area at the top in the mouth (5) |
| SALUTE | Bow? Instrument only has small arc at the top in the front (6) |
| SHADE | Sinister chief rises to the top in the underworld - it's a dark place |
| RAMBLER | Description of a person who participates in the rural pursuit of walking in the countryside; or, of a rose, such as the white-blossomed "Rector" (7) |
| OBESE | Over the top in the middle |
| PRYORCONVICTION | What carried Mark over the top in the Arkansas Senate race? |
| OBSERVER | Third christening notice up the top in the paper (8) |
| ATTIC | There's room on the top in the ferryboat ticket office (5) |
| MANCHESTERCITY | Football club, northern champions at the top in richest team formed ultimate in plutocracy? (10,4) |
| MINGLE | Be in company with many at the fireplace |
| CORNER | In a tight spot, can gather in grain with little hesitation (6) |
| HEDDLING | Process of cutting, lopping, pruning etc in the rural skill of hedge-laying (8) |
| OVERTHREW | Got rid of person at the top in charge of article embracing right to work (9) |
| ITALIAN | - garden; symmetrical style of alfresco space traditionally "green" with few flowers, such as any one of the many at the Medici Villas near Florence (7) |
| EXTRAVERTS | People more interested in the people around them than in their own thoughts (10) |
| REAM | Lots of pieces of paper to peruse, twice as many at the end (4) |
