No 14896, Friday 11 Sep 2026, Crossant

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS FOR FRIDAY ONLY

All those who are not regular commenters but who are rookie commenters or silent followers of the blog are requested to post answers with annotations in the comments section. In your own interest please avoid looking up the answers from the interactive version. Don't hesitate to post your annotations, in case you make a mistake in the annotation someone will correct it with the right annotation.

PLEASE NOTE, SOLUTIONS WITHOUT ATTEMPTING THE ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED

Each commenter is requested to post only 5 answers thereby giving others also a chance to participate. Please provide all your answers in one comment.

Regular solvers/Veterans can post 1 answer each, but after 11 AM only.

Thanks for the response, here's the regular blog.

ACROSS

1   Begin with a bit of Turkish coffee (hot, not cold) (3,3) TEE OFF {Tu...h}{cOFFEE}*

4   Short stories about love - new collection withdrawn (6) CONTES {C}{O}{N}{SET<=}

9   SRH's opening attack is superior (4) SMUG {Srh}{MUG}

10 Felt sceptical initially about anything learnt without formal training (4-6) SELF-TAUGHT {FELT+Sc...l}*{AUGHT}

11 Office in Middle East country? Trouble all around (6) BUREAU {UAE}{RUB}<=

12 Hardik and Krunal maybe in trouble without runs at the start of season (8) BROTHERS {B{R}OTHER}{Se...n}

13 Fundamentally a programming language everyone gets easily in the end (9) BASICALLY {BASIC}{ALL}{e...lY}

15 Criminals not professionals (4) CONS [CD]

16 The Spanish sailor going around Italian island (4) ELBA {EL}{AB<=}

17 Awfully pleased about a walk along the seaside (9) ESPLANADE {ESPL{AN}ADE*}

21 "Tidy" - a praise Dhoni got often, perhaps (4-4) WELL-KEPT [DD]

22 Thinking about it in advance (6) MOTIVE {MO{IT<=}VE}

24 What NY's not perhaps?! (10) SHANTYTOWN* &lit

25 Occasionally feel sorry about part played in event (4) ROLE {fEeL+sOrRy}<=

26 She believes that person is among the earliest of telecom technicians (6) THEIST {HE}{IS} in {Te...m}{Te...s}

27 Mature party welcoming women (4,2) GROW UP {GRO{W}UP}

DOWN

1   It seems Paul Ryan regularly makes Japanese dish (7) TEMPURA {iT+sEeMs+PaUl+RyAn}

2   Dog with head covered is bald perhaps (5) EAGLE bEAGLE

3   Narrow passage in new flat is unusable to begin with (7) FISTULA {FLAT+IS+Un...e}*

5   Work to get money, having ultimately no alternative (6) OPTION {OP}{TI{nO}N}

6   Landing in Spooner's urban community in Netherlands (5,4) TOUCH DOWN (~dutch town to touch down)

7   Power now controlled by extremely sententious figures (7) SPHERES {P}{HERE} in {Se...uS}

8   Obligations about accepting American laws primarily for international expansion of trade (13) GLOBALISATION {OBLIGATIONS}* over {A}{Laws|

14 Bias of Indian doctor getting a cut? (9) IMBALANCE {I}{MB}{A}{LANCE}

16 View of European - definitely powerful (7) EYESHOT {E}{YES}{HOT}

18 Kind of flow seen in rising wild river (7) LAMINAR {ANIMAL<=}{R}

19 What photographer may do to film progress? (7) DEVELOP [DD] No longer done in this digital age!

20 Love "Emotional Rescue" sung originally by Rolling Stones (6) BERYLS {Love+Em...l+Re...e+Sung+BY+}*

23 Worth fighting for project (5) THROW*

Reference List

Cold = C, About = C, New = N, Runs = R, The in Spanish = EL, Sailor = AB, Women = W, Money = TIN, Power = P, American = A, Indian = I, European = E, River = R

No 14895, Thursday 10 Sep 2026, Gridzilla

Solution to 7D has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

8   By noon, man having bit of dehydration collapsed (4,4) FELL DOWN {N}<=>{FELL{De...n}OW}

9   Old American chap drinking away on vacation (5) MAYAN {M{AwaY}AN}

10 Senior periodically dropped wife's winter coat (4) SNOW {SeNiOr}{W}

11 One using cutting edge technology? (10) GUILLOTINE [CD]

12 'Twas unsettling, around nightfall (6) SUNSET [T]

14 They say entire verse heartily (8) UTTERERS {UTTER}{vERSe}

15 Associate orders awfully huge fans (7) ADORERS {A}{ORDERS*}

17 Articles on entertainment from one end to the other (7) REPORTS {RE}{(-s)PORT(+s)S}

20 Rose died in a place close to Ireland (8) ASCENDED {A}{SCEN{D}E}{i...nD}

22 Bullied boy, becoming tense, didn't sleep well (6) TOSSED (-b+t)TOSSED

23 Site for putting links? (4,6) GOLF COURSE [CD] [C&DD] - See comments

24 Lure one to get into club (4) BAIT {BA{1}T}

25 Regularly wish couple with wishful words? (1,4) I HOPE {wIsH+cOuPlE}

26 For starters, scanty hair causes worries (8) STRESSES {Sc...y}{TRESSES}

DOWN

1   Spooner's eager...swift, perhaps, to get something to eat (4,4) BEAN CURD (~keen bird to bean curd)

2   Sounded sad on the phone (4) BLEW (~blue)

3   Fail to make it ultimately? (6) FORGET {FORGE}{iT}

4   Old equation's tweaked. Nothing's left out (7) ANTIQUE EQUATIoN*

5   Motel has everything needed to make item for breakfast (8) OMELETTE {MOTEL}* [Letter Bank]

6   Enigmatic author's grave, visited by tourists primarily (10) MYSTERIOUS {MY}{S{To...s}ERIOUS}

7   Where a doctor might be making less sense? (6) ?N?N?R (Addendum - INANER {IN AN ER} - See comments))

13 Shops essentially tested for contaminated bhel puri perhaps (6,4) STREET FOOD {shOps+TESTED+FOR}*

16 Signal-receiving device or aid? (5,3) RADIO SET {OR+AID}* [RA]

18 Topics about sex rising daily? (3,5) THE TIMES {THE{IT<=}MES}

19 Daughter wears a frock for a sermon (7) ADDRESS {A}{D{D}RESS}

21 & 22D Lift more than this, possibly (4,2,3,3) SHOT IN THE ARM*

22 See 21 

24 Low key? (4) BASE [DD]

Reference List

Noon = N, Wife = W, Associate = A, On = RE, Died = D, Boy = B, Tense = T, Daughter = D