No 14720, Wednesday 18 Feb 2026, Gridzilla

Solution to 7D 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   Study starts to trace ancestral lineage of canines (6) DENTAL {DEN}{Tr..e}{An...l}{Li...e} 

4   Sun not seen in part of Russia and part of Europe (6) IBERIA sIBERIA

8   Someone on a terrace is having a baby! (7) NEONATE [T]

9   Avoid draw? (4,3) WARD OFF {DRAW}* [RA]

11 About to ask loners all over the place to stand together? (5,5) CLOSE RANKS {C}{ASK+LONERS}*

12 Cut some sweet cherries (4) ETCH [T]

13 Physicist originally from Europe researched muons intensively (5) FERMI Acrostic &lit

14 Quickly starts snapping its photo (4,2,2) HOPS TO IT* 

16 Plan is right from start to finish and logical to begin with (8) PROPOSAL {(-a)PROPOS(+a)A}{Lo...l}

18 Old Peruvian beer may be found here (5) INCAN {IN CAN} [DBE]

20 God of war essentially! (4) ARES [T] Semi&lit

21 Spooner's unreasonable standards - they could be frowned upon! (3,7) BAD MANNERS (~mad banners to bad manners)

23 Risk is great, but not absolute (7) IMPERIL IMPERIaL

24 These discriminators are on board? (7) SEXISTS {S{EXIST}S}

25 Had spent time, to take wife out (6) TASTED (+t-w)TASTED

26 Enter with extremely tipsy author around lunchtime (4,2) TYPE IN {TipsY}{PE{1}N}

DOWN

1   People get on when love is expressed (5) DWELL {Do WELL}

2   Abstainer's turned on by hot nurse (3-4) NON-USER {ON<=}{NURSE*}

3   Members of a rock band? (9) ASTEROIDS [CD/GK]

5   At last, scrub your butt cheek (5) BRASS {s..uB}{youR}{ASS}

6   Say, buffalo and bear finally teamed up (3,4) RED MEAT {beaR+TEAMED}*

7   A time to avoid pretentiousness, and care (9) A?F?C?I?N ()

10 Hotel in Iceland served a Mexican dish (9) ENCHILADA {H} in {ICELAND}*{A}

13 On the contrary, some monks might live like this? (3,4,2) FAR FROM IT [DD]

15 A pill they popped for pastime (9) PHILATELY* 

17 Have mixed up pesos with shillings (7) POSSESS {PESOS*}{SS}

19 Intimate clip from biopic on Fidel (7) CONFIDE [T]

21 In Bangalore on vacation, kid gets reward (5) BRIBE {Ba...rE} over {RIB}

22 I unloaded supplies in shop (3,2) RAT ON RATiON

Reference List

Sun = S, About = C, Absolute = A, Time = T, Wife = W, Hotel = H, Shilling = S

No 14719, Tuesday 17 Feb 2026, Vidwan

Solution to 1D 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

9   Give explanation that is about having luck mostly at a particular time (9) ELUCIDATE {IE<=} over {LUCk} at {DATE}

10 Please point out stupid mistake (5) LAPSE PLEASe*

11 Paying guest has managed to cause extensive damage (5) PRANG {P{RAN}G}

12 Tack of wind instrument section of orchestra/band (9) WOODSCREW {WOODS}{CREW}

13 Cases about volunteers (7) COFFERS {C}{OFFERS}

15 Spooner's listing disease for medicinal case (7) PILLBOX (~bill pox to pillbox)

17 Officials, not rude masters (5,8) CIVIL SERVANTS {CIVIL}{SERVANTS}

21 Carmaker seen regularly at Shell Centre for a petroleum product (7) BENZENE {BENZ}{{sEeN}{shEll}

22 Love to write diary regularly when school is accessible for all (4,3) OPEN DAY {O}{PEN}{DiArY}

23 It prevents one from being caught with pants down (9) SUSPENDER [CD]

25 Past unfolds before the end of title sequence (5) SPATE {PAST}*{t..lE}

27 A goodbye essentially is about love (5) ADIOS {A}{gooDbye}{I{O}S}

28 Girl without a teetotaller attitude or dullness (9) LASSITUDE {LASS}{attITUDE}

DOWN

1   Starting to value! Could be top-secret! (7) ?E?P?C? (Addendum - RESPECT {RESPECT+TO)*=TOP SECRET [CA] Semi&lit - See comments)

2   American soil over Russian body (4) DUMA {A}{MUD}<=

3   Bachelor life scribbled in one line (6,4) SINGLE FILE {SINGLE}{LIFE*}

4   Clergy orders lucrative wars right away (6) FATWAS {FAT}{WArS}

5   Spooner's cushion piece is substandard (5,3) BELOW PAR (~pillow bar to below par)

6   Rich mostly have advantage (4) PLUS PLUSh

7   Sanctioned a very quiet con at Enforcement Directorate (10) APPROBATED {A}{PP}{ROB}{AT}{ED}

8   In the middle of wager, with one to ten thousand at opening (7) BETWIXT {BET}{W}{1}{X}{Th...d}

14 Run into monsters in alliance (10) FRIENDSHIP {F{R}IENDS}{HIP}

16 Name dropping Indian tennis legend, second in command (10) LEADERSHIP {LEAnDER}{S}{HIP}

18 Harry eats idly little by little (8) STEADILY*

19 Awful bit, baby's malnourished (7) ABYSMAL [T]

20 Small and petty English cunningly prepared content for printing (7) TYPESET {S+PETTY+E}*

22 Surge at happy hours, around mid-morning! (6) ONRUSH {O{morNing}RUSH*}

24 Quarter of naked monsters (4) EAST bEASTs

26 Gang dudes occasionally give chills and fever (4) AGUE {gAnG+dUdEs}

Reference List

Point = E, About = C, Teetotaller = TT, American = A, Right = R, Very quiet = PP, With = W, Run = R, In = HIP, Name = N, Second = S, Small = S, English =E