No 13173, Wednesday 17 Feb 2021, Avtaar

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   Indian and Nepalese leaders hold brief amongst themselves (5,2) INTER SE {In...n}{Ne...e}{TERSE}

5   Dollar advanced and collapsed (7) BUCKLED {BUCK}{LED}

9   Headgear in unusual shade of peach and gold (7) CHAPEAU {PEACH*}{AU}

10 UCLA questions admitting persons who are hired to say “Yes, Sir” (7) CLAQUES [T]

11 8 Down is X (6,3) NUMBER TEN [CD] [DD] See comments

12 Avtaar’s boy rallied to get gold, perhaps? (5) MEDAL {ME}{LAD<=}

13 Oriental king beheaded mathematician (5) EULER {E}{rULER}

15 One story exceptional about special display vessel kept in a church (9) OSTENSORY {ONE+STORY}* over {S}

17 Salesmen get allowance for rent, conveyance and food, finally corrected (9) REPHRASED {REP{HRA}S}{c...cE}{fooD} 

19 Every other group gets joke about bowler’s stride (3-2) RUN-UP {gRoUp}{PUN<=}

22 Crows start to bite kids (5) BRAGS {Bite}{RAGS}

23 Hell’s let loose — cutting order to liquidate stock (4,5) SELL SHORT {S{HELLS*}ORT}

25 Satires in press videos, regularly getting censored (7) IRONIES {IRON}{vIdEoS}

26 The Spanish couple, seated back-to-back, behind old European capital for a bowl of soup (7) ECUELLE {EL}{LE<=}<=>{ECU}

27 Viscous substance, say, is flipped with tongue (7) GELATIN {EG<=}{LATIN}

28 Most of the taxmen... they leave the man dry (7) THIRSTY {THe}{IRS}{TheY}

DOWN

1   Get under someone’s skin during noisy hearing, say (7) INCENSE (~in sense)

2   Bond’s assumption about supporting the Russian leaders (7) TRAMMEL {LEMMA<=}<=>{The}{Ru...n}

3   Thread your way through where everybody’s crossing (5) REEVE [T]

4   Frame a question for “Problems in Algebra” (9) EQUATIONS*

5   Philosopher cured meat (5) BACON [DD]

6   Queen’s holding up entrance to famous landmark (9) CHARMINAR {RANI<=}<=>{CHARM}

7   Sign across 1$ — “Praise be to God” (4,3) LAUS DEO {L{A}{USD}EO}

8   Show ID (cryptically) (7) D?S?L?Y (Addendum DISPLAY {ID}* [RA] - See comments))

14 Part of teenage attire — a couple of hem-less bras — burlesque with red inlay (2-2,5) RA-RA-SKIRT {bRAs}{bRAs}{SKI{R}T}

16 Most inebriated heads of the interns’ dorms, dance lewdly irritating every single teacher (9) TIDDLIEST Acrostic

17 Well-known thief catches boy and girl stealing (7) ROBBING {ROB{B}IN}{G}

18 Ape cavorting with female bird, one that belongs to the pheasant family (7) PEAFOWL {APE*}{F}{OWL}

20 New bags for pasta (7) NOODLES {N}{OODLES}

21 Unknown boy hero on top in China (7) POTTERY {Y}<=>{POTTER}

23 Name of “Miss America” featured in every other song (5) SUSAN {USA} in {SoNg}

24 An Arab sheikh’s first vehicle from Ingolstadt (5) SAUDI {Sh...h}{AUDI}

Reference List

Oriental = E, Special = S, The in Spanish = EL, Red = R, Female = F, New = N