No 13566, Thursday 26 May 2022, Vidwan

Solution to 16A 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   ‘Sexy’ Bond is mad about fitness rating (4,4,5) BODY MASS INDEX*

10 ‘Unofficial advisers’— back in ‘the nicest careers’! (7,8) KITCHEN CABINETS*

11 Untruth, for example, about lord (5) LIEGE {LIE}{EG<=}

12 Cut down fat, say for a few months of pregnancy (9) TRIMESTER {TRIM}{ESTER}

14 Conservative people quietly sneaking out to have sex (8) COPULATE {C}{pOPULATE}

16 Patchwork, like retired top bureaucrats in corporate firm (6) ?O?A?C (Addendum - MOSAIC {CO{IAS}M}<= - See comments)

21 Woods uses it for power, say (6) PUTTER {P}{UTTER}

23 Seeking success, a special one raced ahead of time (8) ASPIRANT {A}{SP}{1}{RAN}{T}

25 Short working memory comprises substantiation essentially (9) MOMENTARY {MEMORY}* over {s...aNTi....n} There's an A short in the cluing if essentially is to be taken as the exact centre.

28 Popular ‘Dog and Bear’ (5) INCUR {IN}{CUR}

29 Removing old love letters? (15) EXCOMMUNICATION {EX COMMUNICATION}

30 Saigon’s liquor lacks essence, I mean sounds hard and occasionally chintzy (2,3,4,4) HO CHI MINH CITY  {HOoCH}{I}{(~mean)MIN}{H}{ChInTzY}

DOWN

2   Honesty mostly gives best returns straight away (2,3,4) ON THE SPOT {HONESTy}*{TOP<=}

3   Sort of heavy god (5) YAHVE*

4   Often than not, a teacher has to add small explanation (8) ANNOTATE [T]

5   Still it’s retrospectively rejected numerical fact (6) STATIC STATIstiC

6   Sound cool after losing power following final election (5) NOISE {pOISE}<=>{e...oN}

7   Get back! Run away! She’s a tennis legend (5) EVERT rEVERT

8   Plucks a large wild flower (8) SKULLCAP {PLUCKS+A+L}*

9   Russia was 66% of this and 66% of Russia could be this! (4) USSR {RUSSia}*

13 Communication is part of journalism syllabus (3) SMS [T]

15 Rest inside shelter (3) LIE [DD] (Addendum - LEE sLEEp See comments)

17 Naked superhero’s charm (3) OBI rOBIn

18 A drug detective assassinated dons! Small revolutionary! (9) ANARCHIST {A}{NARC}{HI{S}T}

19 Party food? Warm sandwiches, extremely topline! (8) CATERING {CA{To...nE}RING}

20 Iran says “Barbaric one was from earlier Iraq” (8) ASSYRIAN*

22 An article from North East (3) THE [T]

24 Gap? No matter! (6) VACUUM [DD]

25 Inverted start of week, kind of subdued (4) MEEK (-w+m)MEEK

26 City where Chairman framed borders of China (5) MACAO {MA{ChinA}O}

27 Some acronym, phrase meaning spirit (5)  NYMPH [T]

28 One’s dad crossed limits and a bit callously offered him as sacrifice (5) ISAAC {1'S}{dAd}{A}{Ca...y} Semi&lit

Reference List

Conservative = C, Quietly = P, Power = P, Special = SP, Time = T, Popular = IN, Hard = H, Run = R, Large = L, Drug detective = NARC, Small = S