DAILY MAIL CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Irritable lord keeps very quiet at end of play (7) 5 High-pitched cry coming from Basque, alarmed (6) 9 Mostly manage to retain British monarch’s head here (7) 10 Campaign to get oil drilled by South America (7) 11 Mix of gases coming from caviar oddly (3) 12 Did some baking, inserting sort of 11 to create this? (7,4) 13 Conservative party broadcast one avoided in vault (5) 14 Stone me! He flies everywhere! (3-6) 16 Retiring doctor comes in sporting beard (9) 17 Fasten components in reverse order (5) 19 Groom hires office for drink (5,6) 22 Evergreen company loses millions (3) 23 Sanction a run in fast cars, small ones (2-5) 24 Free China gets confused following United Nations (7) 26 Very taxing, like inferior wood? (6) 27 Meal eight cooked in Hawaii (4,3)
DOWN 1 Dull incoherent comic operas come off (7) 2 Owning nothing, very skint, crept off in penury (7-8) 3 Royal couple make blunder (3) 4 Give in earnings from investment (5) 5 He runs church sanctuaries ruined when EU pulled out (9) 6 Flap of limited value wobbling round centre of mouth (5) 7 In reality, after Mao, fat cats went wild (2,1,6,2,4) 8 Measuring device orbits old fragment of asteroid? (6) 12 Muffled version of Te Deum lacking energy (5) 14 With envy, judge each incompetent student entering (9) 15 Proceed to make certain ringleader leaves (5) 16 Beef with or without green starter (6) 18 Setter dashed into public house to get a fish (7) 20 Modern artist’s success enthrals Royal Society (5) 21 Loud drunkard with plenty of cash (5) 25 Big wheel in army turns over smaller one (3)