No 12965, Thursday 18 Jun 2020, Lightning

Solution to 5A 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.

ACROSS

1   About to burn bridges, one new engineer goes to industrial plant (8) REFINERY {RE}{F{1}{N}{E}RY}

5   Appreciate flier with difficulty (6) ?D?I?E (Addendum - ADMIRE {AD}{MIRE} - See comments)

9   Almost certain oral exam at length has continued existence (8) SURVIVAL {SURe}{VIVA}{L}

10 State Democrat had to modify (6) UPDATE {UP}{D}{ATE}

12 Avoid the Spanish fellow after commencement (5) ELUDE {EL}{dUDE}

13 Shy individual, in public, overwhelms trustee (9) INTROVERT {IN}{TR}{OVERT}

14 Go after friend to get something meagre (6) PALTRY {TRY}<=>{PAL}

16 Put bishop on ordinary medicine that is innocuous (7) PLACEBO {PLACE}{B}{O}

19 Introduction before meet (7) PREFACE {PRE}{FACE}

21 Grey jets regularly spewed material for spring (6) GEYSER {GREY+jEtS}*

23 Restrain buddy when king can’t move (9) CHECKMATE {CHECK}{MATE}

25 Translator left to walk over with plenty (5) AMPLE trAMPLE

26 Purpose of religious education connected with a child (6) REASON {RE}{A}{SON}

27 Master joined to be vilified (8) MALIGNED {M}{ALIGNED} 

28 Rising Greek character, extremely small (6) MUTINY {MU}{TINY}

29 Secure or free supply? (8) RECOURSE* (Correction - RESOURCE* - See comments)

DOWN

1   List I missed out in riot (6) ROSTER ROiSTER

2   Lucky to change a rut often (9) FORTUNATE*

3   Simple one entering middle part of church (5) NAIVE {NA{1}VE}

4   Genuine appeal, extremely noisy in fact (7) REALITY {REAL}{IT}{n..sY}

6   Carry empty certificate, going up with tact (9) DIPLOMACY {CarrY}<=>{DIPLOMA}

7   Slim agent withheld picture (5) IMAGE [T]

8   Referendum notice, liberal European destroyed (8) ELECTION {NOTICE+L+E}*

11 Refrain from turning vessels (4) STOP<=

15 With great difficulty find railway line at lower level (5,4) TRACK DOWN {TRACK}{DOWN}

17 Key insight? (3-6) EYE-OPENER [CD]

18 Inspect rummage concealing variety of colours (8) SPECTRUM [T]

20 Style of electronic network (4) ELAN {E}{LAN}

21 Measure breaking point used to score explosive (7) GRENADE {GR{EN}ADE}

22 Unnecessary to get rid of ship with bait (6) NEEDLE NEEDLEss

24 Correct demand (5) EXACT [DD]

25 Initially agitated, man is giving orders to comrade (5) AMIGO Acrostic

Reference List

About = RE, Flier = AD, New = N, Engineer = E, Length = L, State = UP, Democrat = D, The in Spanish = EL, Trustee and Translator = TR, Bishop = B, Ordinary = O, Religious Education = RE, Master = M, Appeal = IT, Liberal = L, European = E, Electronic = E, Network = LAN, Measure = EN, Ship =SS

Dr RKE's TalePiece

No tale, Dr RKE's busy with an emergency surgery in the OT.