No 13031, Thursday 03 Sep 2020, Vulcan

Solution to 8D 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   A nice fable — an exotic book (1,4,7) A FINE BALANCE*
10 Least terrible Russian automobile (7) MINIVAN {MIN}{IVAN}
11 A murder suspect hiding body part (7) EARDRUM*
12 American city without a park (6) SETTLE SEaTTLE
13 Under pressure, sweets sent back (8) STRESSED<=
15 Athletic contest surprisingly not held outside Central America (9) DECATHLON {NOT+HELD}* over {CA}
16 Remain a saint or a monster! (5) BEAST {BE}{A}{ST}
17 Walk around large venue (5) PLACE {P{L}ACE}
19 Nice wishes for a journey! (3,6) BON VOYAGE [CD]
22 Understood vase to be reserved (8) TACITURN {TACIT}{URN}
24 Admirer of a party with rightwing extremist radical leaders (6) ADORER {A}{DO}{Ri...g}{Ex...t}{Ra...l}
26 Divorced after setter got caught in an affair — it’s conspicuous (7) EVIDENT {D}<=>{I} in {EVENT}
27 Unyielding one crazy about getting fake tan (7) ADAMANT {A}{MAD<=}{TAN*}
28 Old relatives settled in North-Eastern heartlands (12) NEANDERTHALS* {NE+HEARTLANDS}*

DOWN
2   A North American daily covering one cold militant (7) FANATIC {F{A}{NA}T}{1}{C}
3   Little story with new and better content (9) NOVELETTE {NOVEL}{bETTEr}
4   Awful new boring group (4) BAND {BA{N}D}
5   Officer in a unit, leanest, not as corrupt (10) LIEUTENANT {A+UNIT+LEaNEsT}*
6   Bottle-neck (5) NERVE [DD]
7   From US area, I travelled to another land mass (7) EURASIA*
8   Pleased with day after morning exercise (6) ?M?S?D (Addendum - AMUSED - {AM}{USE}{D} - See comments)
9   In the middle of a film starting to dig in (6) AMIDST {A}{MI{Dig}ST}
14 True, extremely adorable — it’s designed as detailed (10) ELABORATED {TruE+ADORABLE}*
16 Massacre after family got to English city (9) BLOODBATH {BLOOD}{BATH}
17 Footwear’s design not right (6) PATTEN PATTErN

18 Union movement to stop sale (7) AUCTION {A{U}CTION}
20 Postal service in trouble after excellent run — the end of them (7) AIRMAIL {AIL}<=>{A1}{R}{theM}
21 Time to admit informer's mistakes (6) ERRATA {ER{RAT}A}
23 Articles about the leader’s letter (5) THETA {THE}{The}{A}
25 Impartial show (4) FAIR [DD]

Reference List

Saint = ST, Large = L, Divorced = D, Daily = FT(Financial Times), Cold = C, New = N, Day = D, Right = R, Union = U, Excellent = A1, Run = R

Dr RKEs TalePiece

Kishan Virk was overjoyed when he received the invitation by AIRMAIL from the organizers of the EURASIA athletic championships, informing him of being selected. He was one of the few Indian athletes to take to DECATHLON, a gruelling sport. His thoughts were immediately on his late father LIEUTENANT Colonel Shyam Virk, who had been his inspiration to take to sports. AMIDST Indian parents who want their children to study well and SETTLE down in a secure job, the senior Virk had been an exception. The army man, an ADORER of sports, had been ADAMANT about his son attending the training camps in Bhiwani, even if it came in the way of his studies. It was a pity that the illustrious father was not alive to see his son’s moment of glory. The senior Virk had been killed in the BLOODBATH committed by a BAND of FANATIC terrorists in Kupwara just a few months back. It was EVIDENT that young Kishan would follow the footsteps of his father and opt for a career in the armed forces.  Kishan’s mother had the NERVE to support the boy in his decision, as only a Haryanvi woman could do. She had to AUCTION her jewels to provide for the young man’s training in Delhi. She was overcome with emotion and so was TACITURN when they rode a MINIVAN to the Delhi airport where she bid him BON VOYAGE for his first trip abroad.

At Belarus, Kishan’s performance on the first day events was just average. He came a distant fifth in the 100 metre dash, managed only 6.2 metres in the long jump but made up in that typical Haryana sport, the shot put. He did a FAIR job at high jump as he knew that there was little chance for him to do well in the 400 metre run that would follow. He retired to the camp for the night and fell asleep exhausted. There he had a dream in which he saw his late father, cheering him from the sidelines. Maybe it was that dream or maybe it was the voice of his mother ringing in his EARDRUMs- the words she had told him as he left Delhi “Beta, you have to come back with a medal not for me, not even for your father but for this country”. This awakened the BEAST in him and he ran like a man possessed in the 110 metre hurdles on the second day. In discus and javelin throws he won the first and second PLACEs rather easily. He vaulted away to glory on the pole by the afternoon. He struck A FINE BALANCE between stride and pace in the final event of 1500 metre run, reserving his stamina for the last 10 metres. He breasted the tape in a photo-finish managing his best timing, that was just 0.02 seconds behind the Iranian who came first. Kishan scored 7624 points in all and won the silver medal. The TV reporters were AMUSED to see the muscular youth declaring as he landed at the airport “Maa, is desh ke liye mein jeet gaya”.