| THEHATCHES | Regularly abreast, saving time for the news? Drink up and get ready for the worst (6,4,3,7) |
| BATTENDOWN | Regularly abreast, saving time for the news? Drink up and get ready for the worst (6,4,3,7) |
| PHONEPLUG | In the pub, Boatman? Drink up and make a connection for talking (5,4) |
| EMBRACE | Hold the setter up, and get ready! (7) |
| RORY | So, who's the Irishman to ask for the news? (4) |
| ELEVEN | Time for the news |
| ONREDALERT | Ready for the worst |
| REDALERT | Ready-for-the-worst status |
| CLEARTHEDECKS | Gain on the cards and get ready for action (5,3,5) |
| DORMS | School room excitement: When college students arrive on campus in the fall, they decorate their ___ and get ready for a great school year |
| BELTUP | Stop talking and get ready for car journey (4,2) |
| TROOP | Drink up and include a round for the band (5) |
| STANDDOWN | Get up, drink up and resign (5,4) |
| EDWOOD | Tim Burton's biopic of the B movie director who posthumously won the Golden Turkey for the worst director of all time (2,4) |
| HEADLINE | The fellow has the wrong lead-in for the news (8) |
| PRESS | William N Oatis was the Prague bureau chief for the news agency, Associated ..., when he was arrested as a spy by the communist authorities in 1951 |
| PUSHOVER | Drink up and hang around for a piece of cake |
| REGAL | 21? Drink up! (5) |
| SLIP | Young slender person? Drink up! (4) |
| APATHY | "Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the ___ of human beings": Helen Keller |
