Daily Answers

1-across – Queen, involved in lousy oil transaction, makes a speech : SOLILOQUY

6-across – See 26 : DUCT

8-across – One stands to the right of East Ender’s impoverished plant : BRASSICA

9-across – See 10 : THEORY

10-across – Street band, Troy, casually accepting His Eminence’s explanation of everything? : STRING

11-across – Old-fashioned you, having S&M! : THOUSAND

12-across – Restless type of fellow one would become : FIDGET

15-across – Space mission souvenir display behind tip : MOONROCK

16-across – Company actor’s top covered by plain item of clothing : OVERCOAT

19-across – Spotted drugs of different colours : ESPIED

21-across – Sentimentality effected with each brainwave : GOODIDEA

22-across – Chatter about Dicky’s outcome : PAYOFF

24-across – End the French tax levied by French king! : TAILLE

25-across – Accordingly, protecting against a grand capital city : SANTIAGO

26-across – Cut Channel’s source for blubber? : TEAR

27-across – Old player determined to get a ham regional accent : MUMMERSET

1-down – Parade prop : STRUT

2-down – Not so acceptable, being next to good novelist : LESSING

3-down – Not standing as a politician, many would assume? : LYING

4-down – Scientific attempt to formulate fundamental rules of squash — mutiny, PC involved! : QUANTUM

5-down – Appearing later: coyote, initially tamed, crossed with setter : YETTOCOME

6-down – One getting ready item of furniture : DRESSER

7-down – Record large number used chlorine : CHRONICLE

13-down – Popular musical instrument, extremely tactile, but untouched? : INVIOLATE

14-down – Organised hen do in smart European port : TRONDHEIM

17-down – Two daughters interrupting irritating type, who poses a problem : RIDDLER

18-down – Window art over northern entrances to Science and Oceanography Museum : TRANSOM

20-down – See 4 : PHYSICS

22-down – Is out of low value coins for pasta : PENNE

23-down – Fall out! Engage in battle! : FIGHT

1-across – Transport to hotel with infant, one with large eyes : BUSHBABY

5-across – Kitten group in a sort of pile : ATOMIC

9-across – Sleuth of inferior quality concealing hesitation : SHERLOCK

10-across – Hard mineral in estuary : HUMBER

12-across – Feeble daughter about to languish : DROOP

13-across – Conspiring old American sounds a warning : INCAHOOTS

14-across – Terrified by a concoction for roughage : DIETARYFIBRE

18-across – Railway showing marvellous film : GREATWESTERN

21-across – Where one could select a banana without thinking about it : OUTOFHAND

23-across – Musician to do a bit better than Queen : PIPER

24-across – Woman fighting retail giant : AMAZON

25-across – Blair on a trip to a hall that’s this grand? : BARONIAL

26-across – Assuming label covers family : TAKING

27-across – Alter vital access to capitals : SHIFTKEY

1-down – Live on edge nearby : BESIDE

2-down – Farewell poker call? : SEEYOU

3-down – Social event with meaning for writer : BALLPOINT

4-down – Once upon a time yacht and bike needed to travel : BACKINTHEDAY

6-down – A very small amount of sense : TOUCH

7-down – Spotted puffed-up character on TV : MRBLOBBY

8-down – Chin rest’s alternative name : CHRISTEN

11-down – Cause extreme panic as throat ceased moving : SCARETODEATH

15-down – Female I rebuke is impervious to a tongue : FIREPROOF

16-down – No rating could be so uneducated : IGNORANT

17-down – Resigned cashier’s job in bohemian area of Paris : LEFTBANK

19-down – Raise credit in America, a small increase : UPTICK

20-down – Complete unknown covering front of robe with flounces : FRILLY

22-down – Having escaped, move smoothly north : FLOWN

1-across – In hospital with curtain round after a bad fall : AVALANCHE

6-across – Turn computers into a dishonest business : SCAM

10-across – Poet mislaying his third watch : VIGIL

11-across – Type of company stock : REPERTORY

12-across – Let cash fall out of bag : SATCHEL

13-across – Anyone at first, latest in long sequence sick in crowded tenement : ANTHILL

14-across – Left TV programme, missing the forecast of good weather : REDSKYATNIGHT

17-across – Following plant surveys, ordered this one? : VENUSSFLYTRAP

21-across – Agreed to return after short dip : CURTSEY

22-across – One in flight of birds finally falling to rook : AVIATOR

24-across – Examiner buttons lip for a term : TRIMESTER

25-across – Skewer doll on back of truck for return : KEBAB

26-across – Superior-sounding greeting : HIYA

27-across – Sees great possibility in Roman exploits : RESGESTAE

1-down – Warning notice: face cover finally mandatory : ADVISORY

2-down – Goes to the gallows, not the first time, in dread : ANGST

3-down – The body of male college mem­bers useless with scrambled egg : ALLTHEKINGSMEN

4-down – Circular band nearly full of golden petals : COROLLA

5-down – Resolve to be complicated now? : EXPLAIN

7-down – Boy in church worried his rector : CHORISTER

8-down – Prime minister’s surreptitious bug : MAYFLY

9-down – Pop wants gradually to remove Thatcher at the beginning, that prickly character : MRSTIGGYWINKLE

15-down – To extend my range as Duke, I write poetry : DIVERSIFY

16-down – Falstaff, say, with bulge not even ready for surgery : OPERABLE

18-down – Unscrupulous type locked in cells, hysterical : SHYSTER

19-down – Old cabs provided reversed over a wide area : FIACRES

20-down – Taps closed, gas turned up for warming drink : SCOTCH

23-down – Apocryphal story very much shortened : TOBIT

1-across – Keener criminal further up the scale : SHARPER

5-across – Flower in front of garden recalled fairy rings : KINGCUP

9-across – Suffer side-effects from touching performance : REACT

10-across – Get together and manage to admit nothing to judge : COOPERATE

11-across – Come round with boring requests for regional holidays : WAKESWEEKS

12-across – Those beginning to scheme against reigning monarch : TSAR

14-across – Broadcast Queens’ vital matches : EQUIVALENTS

18-across – Essex town providing staff for plane, maybe : MANNINGTREE

21-across – Test confidence without restraining me : ORAL

22-across – Taxonomist in mid-life gets posher housing : CLASSIFIER

25-across – Limpet and rocks firmly fixed : IMPLANTED

26-across – Return of one pound two shillings for ecstasy : BLISS

27-across – Absolute value is recurrent problem, with board game involved : MODULUS

28-across – Eg Romeo dismissing Juliet’s second film sequence : MONTAGE

1-down – Clutch them when all looks lost, but avoid the short one! : STRAWS

2-down – State question, enclosing note with answer : ALASKA

3-down – Confectioner’s pastries ruined diet, essentially : PATISSERIE

4-down – Investigate cardinal in Roman Catholic church : RECCE

5-down – Batsman’s innings ended — accidentally fell : KNOCKOVER

6-down – Be obliged to work with hands when caught : NEED

7-down – Ditties of French boys after one quits series : CHANSONS

8-down – Cuts ripe bananas for dessert topping : PIECRUST

13-down – Bubblier fans running for top prize : BLUERIBBON

15-down – Bogeyman in book heading off to trap tardy deer, perhaps : UNGULATES

16-down – Euro MP worried about current mass market : EMPORIUM

17-down – Yet to participate in test without cover : UNCAPPED

19-down – Mineral found in first two of six limestone caves : SILICA

20-down – Oblique tip of elaborate stick for game : CROSSE

23-down – Clearing large borders, exposed umbelliferous plant : SEDUM

24-down – Ultimately search each large building : HALL

1-across – Having packed, finally decides to get married : STOWED

5-across – Old diary found in one busy Yankee vintner’s study : OENOLOGY

9-across – Scot isn’t able to cover first two of Ullapool drains : CANNULAE

10-across – Information on tax swells : GENTRY

11-across – Driving test on one tank on island with learner : MOTIVATIONAL

13-across – Pet swallow : NECK

14-across – Sibyl’s about to down a litre twice — of these? : REALALES

17-across – Our mum’s spiking another mum’s whiskey : SOURMASH

18-across – Disclose what boozer often needs? : LEAK

20-across – One fights egg producer with rowing team : BANTAMWEIGHT

23-across – Caught one using tongue to taste spirit : LIQUOR

24-across – Cocktail Indian spilt in fast car : GINANDIT

25-across – Train hooted, skirting theatre punctually : ONTHEDOT

26-across – Ravenous guy, empty, wolfs venison that’s turned : GREEDY

2-down – My first drink supplier leaves on time : TEAT

3-down – Sack producer Marie knew to be dissipated : WINEMAKER

4-down – Thin cover lifted on truck : DILUTE

5-down – Nine under the table : ONEOVERTHEEIGHT

6-down – Last snifter near Deal, heading north : NIGHTCAP

7-down – Fast over played slowly : LENTO

8-down – Barrel seen in depot about new place for empties : GARBAGECAN

12-down – Estonia’s perplexed with old barren state : DESOLATION

15-down – Not everyone stands up in a church together : ALLATONCE

16-down – Plastered husband before noon has me blushing : HAMMERED

19-down – Mixed drink, say, going off without one : EGGNOG

21-down – Taste too much? That’s out of order : TOUCH

22-down – The Italian’s stopping doctor’s tipple : MILD