QUICK CLUES

ACROSS

1 Walled section of Beijing enclosing the Imperial Palace (9,4) 10 Lively musical passage (7) 11 Neapolitan mafia (7) 12 Speck of land in the sea (5) 13 Disregards or ignores deliberately (9) 14 Distantly, standoffishly (7) 16 Slight cold (7) 18 Hard to catch (7) 21 Low-paid worker struggling to make ends meet (7) 23 Equivalent given in retaliation (3,3,3) 24 Male rabbits (5) 25 Woman’s private sitting room (7) 26 Dipped in batter and deepfried (7) 27 One who informs on corruption or malpractice (7-6)

DOWN

2 Shakespearian play about the Moor of Venice (7) 3 Charred (5) 4 Market dominance by two companies (7) 5 Surpasses (7) 6 Sickness, ailment (9) 7 Junction with a side road (4-3) 8 Approximation (8) 9 Ingredient of porridge (4) 15 Silly, flippant (9) 17 Ancient inhabitant of central Italy (8) 19 Falsehood (7) 20 Captivate, hold spellbound (7) 21 Trough for washing the body (7) 22 Discourse, address (7) 23 Hollow conduit (4) 24 Brainless, but attractive, woman (5)

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

Across: - 1 Doppler effect. 8 Warren. 9 Lonesome. 10 Feng shui. 11 Enamel. 12 Baleen. 14 Horseman. 16 Everyman. 19 System. 21 Enosis. 23 Basilica. 25 Littoral. 26 Adagio. 27 Globetrotting.

Down: - 1 Drape. 2 Pirogue. 3 Lanthanum. 4 Raleigh. 5 Fence. 6 Ensnare. 7 Temperate. 13 Advancing. 15 Resistant. 17 Risotto. 18 Nebular. 20 Syllabi. 22 Serge. 24 Cling.