Mail 15202

[cracker222]

Three I don't understand:

5a Countries fought to acquire these tasty items - unions lost out (6) ?P?C?S Must be SPICES (or perhaps SPACES?), but why?

1d Cover bread with Times - it'll keep the rain off (6) B?O?L? Must be BROLLY, but why?

20d Dull side second to bottom (4) T?M? TAME? If so, why?

[dannyk13]

Spices -splices(unions) _l(ost)
Brolly - roll(bread) inside by(times)
Tame- team with e moved to last

[roslyn251254]

id by = x / times , roll = bread

[Neveracrossword]

1 By = Times (6 x 4, 6 by 4, 6 times 4) and Roll, bread is put inside.

[cracker222]

Thanks all - it still took me a while to get times = BY!
That's a lot of red herrings at the start of 5a.