No 14237, Friday 26 Jul 2024, Avtaar

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   Fancy vehicle studded with diamonds to welcome prince (7) CAPRICE {CA{P}R}{ICE}

5   Conference of banks in Seattle Tower (7) SEMINAR {Se...lE}{MINAR}

10 Worry about featuring in British daily (4) FRET {F{RE}T}

11 Pirate spoils pauper, according to Spooner (10) BOOTLEGGER (loot beggar to bootlegger)

12 Vegetables in skimmed curd fed to deities (6) GOURDS {GO{cURd}DS}

13 Perhaps, Avtaar can mean 'Reincarnated'? (8) NICKNAME {NICK}{MEAN*} 

14 Doctor is late - heard you are heading out, having nothing to do (2,7) AT LEISURE {IS+LATE}*{(~you)U}{aRE}

16 Bar acquired by chief in expanding East Tamil Nadu town (5) ERODE {Ex...g}{ROD}{E}

17 Completely pointless, insincere greeting (5) HALLO sHALLOw

19 Couple rents jewellery (9) BRACELETS {BRACE}{LETS}

23 Case of lieutenant avoiding casual relaxation leading to lack of appetite (8) ANOREXIA RElAXAtION*

24 A sign describing Presidential couple, pointing to Middle Eastern City (6) ALEPPO {A}{LE{PP}O}

26 4th of April - soldiers taking part in professional test (10) EXPERIMENT {EXPER{aprIl}{MEN}T}

27 They are charged by current applied to terminal in series (4) IONS {I}{ON}{s...eS}

28 Poem about climax of journey by ship, ending in victory (7) ODYSSEY {OD{j...eY}E}{SS}{v...rY} &lit

29 Intricate paperwork? (7) ORIGAMI [CD]

DOWN

2   Where one lands in state carriage (7) AIRPORT {AIR}{PORT}

3   It goes round and round, to and fro, from Cairo to Rabat (5) ROTOR [T]

4   Group of artists start to sculpt, slicing copper fragments (7) CUBISTS {CU}{BI{Sc...t}TS}

6   Base of fine, clean, scrubbed cover with a mesh (6) ENLACE* {finE+CLEAN}*

7   Cool blue-green aluminium, basically (2,7) IN GENERAL {IN}{GREEN*}{AL}

8   Won over by a journalist, judge cancelled a bequest (7) ADEEMED {A}{DEEM}{ED}

9   The Reverend released pressure on crooked realtor, eventually (6,2,5) SOONER OR LATER {SpOONER}{REALTOR*}

15 Suppliers of big shots? (9) ENLARGERS [CD]

18 A note with demand covering location of treasure is seized (7) ANNEXED {A}{N}{NE{X}ED}

20 Piano removed from stage, replaced by nationalist who recites in a singing manner (7) CHANTER CHA(-p+n)NTER

21 Maybe Egyptian mummy, no potentate holds up ? (7) TOPONYM [T<=] Definition by example

22 Old cloak inset with unknown animal's skin (6) OXHIDE {O}{HIDE} over {X}

25 Drug lord is managing with difficulty (5) EKING {E}{KING}

Reference List

Diamonds = ICE, Prince = P, About = RE, British daily = FT(Financial Times), President = P, Ship = SS, Journalist = ED, Pressure = P, Note = N, Location of treasure = X, Piano = P, Nationalist = N, Old = O, Unknown = X, Drug = E

No 14236, Thursday 25 Jul 2024, Bruno

Solution to 3D 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

1   Snoring in the middle of stripped down popular English crossword, perhaps? (6) PUZZLE {poPU{ZZ}Lar}{E}

4   Computer from American city functions essentially when dropped in soda (6) LAPTOP {LA}{P{f..cTi..s}OP}

9   Harvest of farmer ultimately stolen by policeman (4) CROP {C{f...eR}OP}

10 Queen in USA too surprised with last president's references (10) QUOTATIONS {Q}{IN+USA+TOO+p...nT}*

11 Make another effort to communicate with Harry, finally getting involved in Peter's problem (6) RETYPE {RET{h...rY}PE*}

12 Lost time in part of book on escort (8) CHAPERON {CHAPtER}{ON} 

13 Dead Queen on last parade with King, perhaps? (6,3) NUMBER ONE {NUMB}{ER}{ON}{p...dE}

15 Change - remove last letter and last word (4) AMEN AMENd

16 No flattery repulsed King (4) LION {N}{OIL}<=

17 Classless society and music with no beats? Married man's into it! (9) COMMUNISM {MUSIC+NO}* over {M}{M}

21 Electronic system's temporary - company needs to replace one (8) INTERCOM INTER(-1+co)COM

22 It might keep one warm - a frog perhaps? (6) JUMPER [DD]

24 Avoided collisions close to girls (4,6) NEAR MISSES {NEAR}{MISSES}

25 Black finger's tip chopped off (4) INKY pINKY

26 Toe's wounded at one end - work extremely likely to be held back (6) DACTYL {w...eD}{ACT}{Li..lY<=}

27 Some boys terrorise animal (6) OYSTER [T]

DOWN

1   One recently became rich - built unapproved pod outside (7) PARVENU UNAPpRoVEd*

2   Lively and fast - gets last batsman out for zero (5) ZIPPY (-n+z)ZIPPY

3   One in Barcelona that visits Louvre often for a drink (7) L?Q?E?R (Addendum - LIQUEUR - {1}{QUE} in {LoUvRe} - See comments)

5   One form of a tax - a revenue, mainly (6) AVATAR {A}{VAT}{A}{Re...e}

6   Family of bears in Montana migrating (9) TRIBESMAN {BEARS+IN+MT}*

7   Water transport leaving river quickly - reaching edges of ocean (7) PONTOON {PrONTO}{OceaN}

8   Iconoclast fits norm? Mainly conservative? No, no! Eccentric! (13) NONCONFORMIST {FITS+NORM+Co...e+NO+NO}*

14 Refer to mob uprising around Iran's and Russia's capitals at different points to get facial recognition measurement? (9) BIOMETRIC {CI{Ru...n}TE}{MO{Iran}B}<=

16 Oil producer's products leach ecstasy on river when going upstream (7) LINSEED {LINeS}{DEE<=}

18 King may suppress joke (7) MAJESTY {MA{JEST}Y}

19 Orator's point gets limitless press coverage, when brought up (7) SPEAKER {PEAK} in {pRESs<=}

20 Keenness of upper classes to live in London, for example (6) ACUITY {U} in {A CITY}

23 Wet duck seen in fog (5) MOIST {M{O}IST}

Reference List

English = E, Soda = POP, Queen = Q, Time = T, Queen = ER, No = N, Married = M, Man = M, Company = CO, Zero = Z, That in Spanish = QUE, River = R, Ecstasy = E, Upper classes = U