| TRAILHEAD | The beginning of a trail |
| TRIAL | The ordeal of a trail of destruction (5) |
| SLUGS | Slowpokes at the head of a trail |
| HANSEL | Creator of a trail of breadcrumbs |
| BREADCRUMB | Part of a trail that leads to a baker (10) |
| CRUMB | Part of a trail left by Hansel and Gretel |
| APEX | End of a trail, perhaps |
| OXLEY | Which surveyor and explorer created the myth of the inland sea by reporting that the Macquarie and the Lachlan Rivers both ended in swamps and that this might mark the beginning of a sea? (5) |
| TOES | Parts of the feet whose reference in a common phrase describing conformity derives from competitors placing said digits just touching the line at the beginning of a race (4) |
| CLEF | Sign placed at the beginning of a musical staff to determine the pitch of the notes |
| DEAR | You use this word at the beginning of a letter before the name of the person you are writing to (4) |
| FLOAT | Sum of money used to provide change at the beginning of a period of trading in a shop, stall etc. (5) |
| PROSTHESIS | Experts' treatise on the addition of a sound or syllable at the beginning of a word (10) |
| HANDSEL | A gift as a token of luck, often at the beginning of a new year (7) |
| OPENER | Kind of question that's posed at the beginning of a seminar session, or the batsman who's up first |
| DETERMINERS | Words such as 'a', 'the', 'some', 'this' and 'each', used at the beginning of a noun group to indicate which thing(s) one is referring to (11) |
| EPIGRAPH | Inscription on a building; or, a literary quotation or motto at the beginning of a book (8) |
| ROOK | Any one of four chess pieces occupying the corner squares at the beginning of a game (4) |
| ENGLISH | "I can talk ___, I can walk ___, I can laugh ___...": fill in the blanks to get the beginning of a famous line from the movie Namak Halal |
| STARTINGGATE | A movable barrier placed on the line at the beginning of a horse race (8,4) |
