No 12960, Friday 12 Jun 2020, Neyartha

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS 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

The regular blog will replace the clues at 4 PM.

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

ACROSS
1   Purchase made by WHO in France to participate in the battle to get hold of silicon (11) ACQUISITION {AC{QUI}{SI}TION}
9   Contacted over the Internet? (1-6) E-MAILED [CD]
10 Mixed in with the letters from Mizoram I’d stenographed (6) AMIDST [T]
11 Removal of the first stage results in disapproval (5) ODIUM pODIUM
12 Horse’s vehicle for hire (7) HACKNEY [DD]
15 Charts returned with unwelcome messages (4) SPAM<=
16 A lone cow gets camouflaged after the Frenchmen’s entry for public welfare (10) COMMONWEAL {A+LONE+COW}* over {MM}
18 Italian taken in by the revolutionary bites into crumbling talc inside a cave structure (10) STALACTITE {STA{TALC*}{IT}E<=}
20 Think in old style after the Spanish disappear with a garden tool (4) TROW TROWel
23 Auction bid resulting from Penny’s uncontrolled temper (7) PREEMPT {P}{TEMPER*}
24 Leaders of the orchestra copyright the exquisite tune of a musical composition (5) OCTET Acrostic
26 Ointment from the accountant following the Indian queen’s initial turmoil (6) ARNICA {(r<=>a)ARNI}{CA}

27 Defective box for a computer attached to a note on a cave structure (7) POPCORN {PO{PC}OR}{N}

28 Pet, homeless, wandering near some cave structures (11) SPELEOTHEMS*

DOWN
2   Carefully study covering of the Scottish chimney depicting a cave structure (6) COLUMN {CO{LUM}N}
3   Menu option in the German’s party below (4) UNDO {UN}{DO} Un/in the German?
4   Street party upset by a small bug on a cave structure (10) STALAGMITE {ST}{GALA<=}{MITE}
5   Assessment of the body’s absorption of a fluid from a well (8) THINKING {TH{INK}ING}
6   Disgraceful to have broken bones strewn around the church (7) OBSCENE {OBS{CE}NE*}
7   Steep rising interrupts Pole invited by the seers in trouble to take back property (9) REPOSSESS {RE{PO{S}S}ESS*}
8   Steep ask to make Lawrence leave the fancy dock (6)  MARINA MARINAte
13 Paint roof afresh after harnessing energy with a musical instrument (10) FORTEPIANO {PAINT+ROOF}* over{E}

14 Mass of ice at sea reportedly seen with a building material for a cave structure (9) FLOWSTONE (~floe){FLOW}{STONE}
17 With time, it may contribute to a project’s cost (8) WAGEBILL {W}{AGE}{BILL}
19 Auditor’s next in line with an empty flag to get a parachute delivery (3-4) AIR-DROP (~heir){AIR}{DRoOP}
21 Budget for the king taking over a new country (6) RATION (-n+r)RATION
22 British artillery gun’s part of the cheerleader’s accessories (3-3) POM-POM [DD]

25 Stop a hoodlum from smuggling moonfish (4) OPAH [T]

Reference List
Frenchmen = MM, Italian = IT, The in Spanish = EL, Penny = P, Note = N, Study = CON, The in German = UN, Party = DO, Street = ST, Church = CE, Pole = S, Lawrence = TE, Energy = E, With = W, King = R, New = N

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The Mountain of the Sleeping Lady is a splendorous sight set AMIDST the high ranges between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. The Tham Luang caves frequented by adventurous spelunkers are famed for their picturesque SPELEOTHEMS, made of multi-hued calcite MATERIAL. The labyrinthine passages are so narrowed in places by the STALAGMITES and STALACTITES that there is just enough room for one to squeeze through. The FLOWSTONE on the floor is slippery with the water dripping through the cracks in the roof. It is into this enticing but treacherous cave that an assistant football coach led his team of 12 boys on a clear June afternoon 2 summers ago. THINKING they would return by the evening, they had taken no RATIONs and only carried some POPCORN and biscuits. When they did not return by night, the chief coach tried calling the assistant coach but the phone could not be reached. He then found that his assistant had EMAILED to him earlier in the day about going to explore the caves but that message had somehow gone to the SPAM folder and so the chief coach had missed it.  He was immediately alarmed as a very unseasonal rain had started and this meant that the caves would be flooded. Thus started a saga of courage, fortitude and heroism.

The rescue story of the 12 boys and coach is as much a tale of derring-do as it is of meticulous planning and international cooperation, working towards a COMMONWEAL. Engineers from Kirloskar India were called into install giant pumps to pump out the water and PREEMPT a further dangerous rise of water level. An OCTET of British divers and an Australian physician (and diver) joined the Thai Navy seals. Rescue material had to be AIRDROPped  by the American Airforce choppers. News of the rescue spread worldwide through the social media and it occupied the COLUMNs of the frontpages of newspapers for days. There was the inevitable OBSCENE rush by media persons to get a juicy story, so much so that the Thai Government forcefully removed them from the base camp. From then on, the press had to only rely on the HACKNEYed  press releases by the Government.

Apart from all the rescue efforts, it was the never-say-die spirit of the boys that kept them going in good cheer for two weeks. They lived on weeds and moss and the occasional OPAH that swam up the waters. Their coach, barely 25, had been at a Buddhist monastery earlier and he helped them in the ACQUISITION of mental fortitude through Thai Meditation. Time was running out for the trapped boys and the rescue team, as a second spell of monsoon rain was soon to start and that would UNDO all the efforts of the past week. In the end, all was well, they were all rescued and welcomed as heroes by the whole world. The picture of cheer girls waving their POM POMs wildly on the road from the caves that led out to the city remains etched in memory.