No 14740, Friday 13 Mar 2026, Gussalufz

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.

SIX FOR DRAVID

ACROSS

9   Rouse a crowd, say, with: "Let ICE fry in hell!" (9) ELECTRIFY*

10 Fool's confession? Gather together (5) AMASS {AM ASS}

11 Delegates declined drinks (had food) in retreat (7) DETAILS {SLI{ATE}D}<=

12 Terribly despicable (not "possibly bad"!) alignment with dark consequences (7) ECLIPSE {dESPICabLE}*

13 Gathering in old city? No parking (5) EKING pEKING

14 Super sale blowout delights (9) PLEASURES*

16 A characteristic of a mole: rams above-ground building (9,6) AVOGADROS NUMBER*

19 Setter's sixth sense rejected eating noodles with Dr. X, perhaps (9) PSEUDONYM {MY}{ESP}<= over {UDON} 

22 Make a hash of blowing new horn (5) BUGLE BUnGLE

24 Slice of tasteless ham? Poor free offering in hotel (7) SHAMPOO [T]

26 Still harbouring a touch of resentment or done? (7) THROUGH {TH{Re...t}OUGH}

27 Short story about something deadly and gripping (5) TALON {TALe}{ON}

28 Advocate uncle's case follows "good lie" going awry (9) IDEOLOGUE {UnclE}<=>{GOOD+LIE}*

DOWN

1   Getting upset, some held demonstrations to interfere (6) MEDDLE [T<=]

2   Regularly seen once, Guntur lion now is a very fast and hard-to-find traveller (8) NEUTRINO {oNcE+gUnTuR+lIoN+nOw}

3   Performers bring cycles into rack (6,4) STRING BAND {ST{(-b)RING(+b)B}AND}

4   Raises price of second-rate, extremely insipid drink (4,2) BIDS UP {B}{In...iD}{SUP}

5   Prepares to print test (yes, after repairs), inserting page (8) TYPESETS {TEST+YES}* over {P}

6   Separation: wife gets everything (4) WALL {W}{ALL}

7   Hack: become thinner consuming minimally, essentially (6) TAMPER {TA{m..iMa..Y}PER}

8   Judge a rose, looking at sections repeatedly (8) ASSESSOR [Letterbank]

15 Unpleasant smell under butt, right? Only after scratching opening in a persistent manner (10) STUBBORNLY {BO}<=>{STUB} and {R}{oNLY}

16 A very quiet old place is suitable (8) APPOSITE {A}{PP}{O}{SITE}

17 Arup, inform Gita: "Exposed, try to escape!" (3,3,2) RUN FOR IT {aRUp}{iNFORm}{gITa}

18 Have hard feelings about buggy debugger (8) BEGRUDGE*

20 When a blessing carries sanction (6) ENABLE [T]

21 Parent of insect queen (6) MOTHER [DD]

23 Repeats start of exercise routines without resistance (6) ECHOES {Ex...e}{CHOrES}

25 Colour of Pandya's first tattoo (4) PINK {Pa...a}{INK}

Reference List

Parking = P, New = N, About = ON, Second-rate = B, Page = P, Wife = W, Unpleasant smell = BO(Body odour), Right = R, Very quiet = PP, Old = O, Resistance = R

No 14739, Thursday 12 Mar 2026, Avtaar

Solution to ??? has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered 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

1   Thinking about article on origin of Kazakh people (7) MANKIND {M{AN}{Ka...k}IND}

5   Scrap union's rule amidst return of Oriental pandemic disease (7) DIVORCE {E}C{R}OVID}<=

9   Building in college to preserve antique receptacle for clothing (7) HOLDALL {H{OLD}ALL}

10 Consumer of weekend US erotica (3-4) END-USER [T]

11 Tory who's in a soup bungling request for guest's preference (5,4,6) WHATS YOUR POISON*

12 Fish cake and light soups regularly kept out on the counter (5) SUSHI {lIgHt+SoUpS}<=

14 Bigwig with suit catching international flight (9) STAIRCASE {STA{I}R}{CASE}

16 Agave fibre from Lemhi Pass in a pickle (5,4) SISAL HEMP*

18 Country, say, Vespucci summarised incompletely in review (5) MUSIC [T<=]

21 Grand Ormolu that stands for path of integrity? (4,5,6) HIGH MORAL GROUND  {GRAND ORMOLU}* [RA]

24 Popular drug smuggled in fleece for Brit in South Africa (7) ROOINEK {ROO{IN}{E}K}

25 Flat surface at the end of empty abyss is rocking (7) ASTABLE {TABLE}<=>{AbysS}

26 Provided drink after unwrapping wine (7) OFFERED {cOFFEe}{RED}

27 Holding rings for miniature speakers, they play the horn (7) TOOTERS T(+oo-wee)OOTERS

DOWN

1   Old-time New Yorkers' way of working with birds (7) MOHAWKS {MO}{HAWKS}

2   One in the middle of Elgar cryptic "Face of Somalian antelopes" (7) NILGAIS {1+IN+eLGAr}*{So...n}

3   Yes, mam instinctively recalled entertaining religious scholars (5) IMAMS [T<=]

4   Boy climbing atop villa overlooking one Himalayan town (9) DALHOUSIE {LAD<=}{HOUS{1}E}

5   Love holding king down (5) DREAR {D{R}EAR}

6   Affair involving Earl featured in 6-G hit film (5-4) VIDEO-GRAM {D{E}O} in {VI}{G} and {RAM}

7   Ship arose eerily outside the Last Ocean (4,3) ROSS SEA {SS} in {AROSE}* Can a sea be called an ocean?

8   Order first item from rose new incense boxes (7) ENRANGE {ENRA{New}GE} - Confirmed by Avtaar. ROSE being changed to NEW in the online version.

13 Person lighting weak explosive drilling under hollow (9) ILLUMINER {ILL}{Und{MINE}eR}

15 One taking fight to the next round? (9) APPELLANT [CD]

16 Tips from Slavic star introducing piece of zippy, fast music (7) SCHERZO {Sl..iC}{HER{Zi..y}O}

17 Stop working of fins moving around cap in generator (4,3) SIGN OFF {OF+FINS}* over {Ge...r}

19 Fall way behind after cycling ends in awful failure (7) STUMBLE (+s)STUMBLE(-s) Not sure of Anno

20 Beggars start to dance in prison with discharged rangers (7) CADGERS {CA{Da..e}GE}{Ra..eS}

22 Searched thoroughly, runs with nude shedding top (5) RAKED {R}{nAKED}

23 Old brown liquor lacking pressure sent up (5) RETRO pORTER<=

Reference List

Rule = R, Oriental = E, International = I, Popular = IN, Drug = E, Way of working = MO(Modus Operandi), King = R, Affair = DO, Earl = E, Ship = SS, Runs = R, Pressure = P