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Across
9. Head + piece = BIT OF HELMET - where 'bit' is doing double duty as part of both clue and solution
10. A (an article) + lice = ALICE Liddell - the Alice who was in Wonderland
11. Far + Del (abbreviation for the state) + S = FARDELS - the burdens that Hamlet (with a capital) mentions in his most famous soliloquy
12. Belie (misrepresent) + V(ictory) + E(urope) = TRUST
13. E(uropean) + ach! (expression of disgust) = EACH (for all)
14. Willow (cricket bat) + grass = WILLOW GRASS (or willowherb: epilobium, as everyone knows :)
15. Dodgy attempt at a cryptic definition, referring to All Souls College in Oxford University - bad clue
17. Symbol for the element lutetium is lu + s (possessive) + tier (rank) = LUSTIER (more desirous)
19. Cryptic definition referring to the moment in pregnancy when foetal movement is detected; issue = child
22. Inclusive (aka hidden word) mor[tal c]oil = TALC
23. Anagram of 'needing': ENGINED
24. Gram Parsons was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers (band). A BURRITO is a little donkey, and also a type of tortilla
26. If your NIECE was in Nice, she'd be one (I) in Nece ... oh whoops! Dyslexic error - another bad clue
27. Double definition. Old reed or lower part of new one CHALUMEAU. I quote from Chambers Dictionary: 'an early rustic reed instrument that developed into the clarinet; now applied to the lowest register of the clarinet' (only clarinet players know this)
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Down
1. 'Fairy' and 'queen' are two terms which have been applied in the politically incorrect past to men who are 'camp'. Edmund Spenser's endless poem THE FAERIE QUEENE is about Elizabeth I (inter alia) who is also known to literati as 'Gloriana'.
2. A crossword grid may also be called a matrix, which is another word for 'uterus', giving MATRICES
3. Inclusive (hidden word) orang[e pee]l - EPEE
4. In the cowboy movies I grew up with, the first American people were often referred to as 'pesky redskins': reds (communists) + kins (families - it doesn't really need the S) - poor, politically incorrect clue for REDSKINS
5. Prisoners are said to be 'verballed' when an untrue confession is contrived, from VERBAL = in words
6. Cecil Day-Lewis (father of actor Daniel) was poet laureate. Samuel Dodgson was the real name of Lewis Carroll: DAY LEWIS (not always hyphenated)
7. Mi (note) + sere (dry - as in the 'sere and yellow leaf') - gives a MISERE hand in cards, one that holds no tricks - as in 'a lay down misere' - from the French word for 'misery'
8. Edmund Spenser also wrote The Shepheardes Calender, in twelve eclogues (pastoral poems), of which the last is the DECEMBER ECLOGUE
16. UNKENNEL. The jokey reference is not to the Scottish poet but to Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons. May be a good joke, but not a good clue.
17. Long + boat (a boat = a sail) gives LONGBOAT
18. Anagram of 'aged mini' - IMAGINED
20. Anagram of 'single' (an ingle nook is a seat near or in the fireplace) - INGLES
21. Attempt at a cryptic definition: NO DICE, so no craps (a dice game)
25. Anagram of 'tour' with another 'tour' as the anagram indicator gives ROUT |
