| BEECHAM | Wood, a foremost example of musical conductor (7) |
| PROMETHEUS | America getting behind school event there with Edison's foremost example of innovation |
| ACADEME | A bounder having a foremost emergency for a place of higher learning |
| MAESTRO | Skilled musical conductor (7) |
| MAESTRI | Eminent musical conductors (7) |
| LATTICE | From an old word for a thin slat of wood, a decorative arrangement of criss-crossed strips forming an espalier, fretwork, grating, grille, mesh, piecrust or trellis; or, a window with diamond-shaped p |
| CARAVAN | An automobile on a foremost division used by circus folk |
| PANACHE | He's in the woods - a bit of a pain but has that sense of style (7) |
| TRAINEE | Cutting wood, a popular apprentice (7) |
| TREACLE | What's brown and sticky? Bit of wood a canine left inside |
| PINNACE | Can carve, in wood, a boat (7) |
| PEG | Word for a bolt of wood; a leg or a tooth; a key/screw for tuning a musical string; a cricket stump; a piton; a spillikin for scoring in cribbage; a coat hook; or, a turtle harpoon (3) |
| RAWDEAL | Untreated wood a poor bargain |
| BOX | A topiary shrub; a receptacle traditionally made of its wood; a loge; a country lodge; a pigeonhole; a square pew; or, a blow to a pugilist's ear (3) |
| RULE | Word for a graduated strip of metal or wood; a code of religious life; a principle of conduct or procedure; or, a standard of estimation (4) |
| SAVAGE | From "of the woods", a human being in a primitive, uncivilised or wild state; a barbarian or brute; a heraldic representation of a bearded seminaked man in a wreath of leaves; or, an enraged horse/vic |
| BANDLEADER | Musical conductor ... and, literally, what the start of each answer to a starred clue is |
| CRABSTICK | A cane or cudgel of wild apple tree wood; a bad-tempered or sour person; or, a coral-coloured baton of compressed surimi as a snack (4,5) |
| ACCORDION | Musical conductor (7) |
| SATIRIST | Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift is considered a foremost writer of this kind (8) |
