Felt sorry about queen greeted rudely around start of tour (9)
I believe the answer is:
regretted
'felt sorry' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'queen greeted rudely around start of tour' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'queen' could be 'r' (abbreviation for regina, e.g. in ER ) and 'r' is found in the answer.
'around' could be 're' (regarding) and 're' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'about' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for regretted that I've seen before include "Felt contrite about" , "Lamented" , "Rued" , "Felt sorry" , "Felt remorse for" .)