No 13169, Friday 12 Feb 2021, Dr. X

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

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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   Desire to break intimate ties finally — perhaps this will prevent problems later (1,6,2,4)  A STITCH IN TIME {ITCH} in {INTIMATE+tieS}*

8   Case of beer and dope for military officers (5) BRASS {BeeR}{ASS}

9   Graphic representation of a grim cop angrily grabbing shirt (9) P ICTOGRAM {A+GRIM+COP} over {T}

11 Foreign country controlled by uncouth leader excluded (10) OUTLANDISH {lOUT{LAND}ISH}

12 Cast in Ben-Hur, legendary (4) HURL [T]

14 Stay with mother and be quiet (4,3) KEEP MUM {KEEP}{MUM}

16 Done any illicit narcotic? (7) ANODYNE*

17 Breeze in blazing sun relaxes (7) UNWINDS {UN{WIND}S*}

19 Sleuth ultimately enthralled by footprints and fibres (7) THREADS {T{s...tH}READS}

21 Store lacks small nail (4) TACK sTACK

22 Corrosion on one tin containing shrimp, say (10) CRUSTACEAN {C{RUST}{ACE}AN}

25 Miserable retiree drinking a spot of tequila in stress (9) REITERATE {REITER{A}{Te...a}E*}

26 Lyric poem in chapter is excluded (5) EPODE EPisODE

27 Lost enthusiasm when sauna stopped working? (3,3,2,5) RAN OUT OF STEAM [DD]

DOWN

2   Upset celebrity discounting a rumour (7) STARTLE {STAR}{TaLE}

3   Prompt about cutting a poor episode (10) INSTALMENT {INSTA{LaME}NT}

4   Swimmer grabbing both sides of paddle survived (5) COPED {CO{Pa..lE}D}

5   Endless tax in most ridiculous time (9) INCESSANT {IN{CESS}ANe}{T} 

6   Very large device (4) TOOL {TOO}{L}

7   An element of compassion embodies maturity essentially (7) MERCURY {MERC{matURity}Y}

8   Book on burglar perhaps is bestseller (11) BLOCKBUSTER {B}{LOCKBUSTER}

10 Man cracking safe, can get arrested for wrongdoing (11) MALFEASANCE {MAL{SAFE+CAN}*E}

13 Match fixing meant to secure Ashes trophy (10) TOURNAMENT {MEANT+TO}* over {URN}

15 Villain operating crane in film (9) MISCREANT {MIS{CRANE*}T}

18 I note associate chasing women in American city (7) WICHITA {I}{CHIT}{A} after{W}

20 Tumour grade — no malignancy discovered (7) ADENOMA [T]

23 Couple of females carrying a bundle (5) SHEAF {SHE}{A}{F}

24 Understanding old game of chance (4) KENO {KEN}{O}

Reference List

Shirt = T, Small - S, Time = T, Large = L, Book = B, Associate = A, Women = W, Female = F, Old = O