Guardian 25796

[clanargyll]

9a french shiner coming round royal ulster constabulary scottish hard

[vakayu]

seen as furniture polish

[factor-fiction]

How many letters please and do you have any placed?

[clanargyll]

sorry its 9,6 ?U?L?T?R? P?L?? police?????at the end

[dannyk13]

Seen as Furniture polish

[clanargyll]

hmmmmm polis eh a tad vague methinks!

[clanargyll]

Araucaria one again removes my brain stem shakes it about whacks it off the floor a bit and then reinserts it backwards Why do I take this punishment to my mind??????????????

[technomonkey]

clanargyll - polis is scottish for police (see "scottish" in clue)

[Cryptomaniac]

I got the 'polis' (for constabulary ) + 'h' for hard, and that the definition part of the clue sort of fitted the solution (french polishing; furniture polish) but how the heck did 'Royal Ulster' fit in - apart from the fact that RU is contained twice in furniture, albeit reversed?

[Le_Premier_Cru]

Royal = R, Ulster = NI, in future, + polis + H.