No 13720, Friday 25 Nov 2022, Hypatia

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

Each commenter is requested to post only 5 answers thereby giving others also a chance to participate. Please provide all your answers in one comment.

Regular solvers/Veterans can post 1 answer each, but after 11 AM only.

Thanks for the response, here's the regular blog.

ACROSS

8   Hold a clumsy little kid's drum (6) DHOLAK {HOLD+A}*}{Kid}

9   A Frenchman pursuing alliance starts to improve condition of body's structure (8) ANATOMIC {A}{M}<=>{NATO} and {Im...e}{Co...n}

10 Avoided key bit lacking capacitance (8) ESCHEWED {ESC}{cHEWED}

11 Anticipating and jumping out of parachutes initially (6) HOPING HOPpING

12 Princess bursts out in troubles (8) DISTURBS {DI}{BURSTS*}

13 Chuck out buns, eating sandwiches (6) UNSEAT [T]

14 Opposed to a good man taking advantage (7) AGAINST {A}{GAIN}{ST}

17 Creatures wandering this place with us (7) TERRACE (terrace+us=creatures)

20 Gulf national in squad regularly backing international spy (6) QATARI {sQuAd} with {I}{RAT}<=

22 Partly explain for media expert (8) INFORMED [T]

25 In one university, mind's controlled (6) INDIUM {1+U+MIND}* 

26 Persistent entry in a procrastinator's schedule? (3,5) NOT TODAY [CD]

27 Lasting kiss inside and outside (8) EXTERNAL {E{X}TERNAL}

28 Go past electronic circuits in broadcast (6) ELAPSE {E}{(~laps)LAPSE}

DOWN

1   Social distancing? (8) GHOSTING [CD]

2   Heading out, brazen husband and American model dated (3-3) OLD-HAT {bOLD}{H}{A}{T}

3   Pin frock's bottom hemmed by tailor (6) SKEWER {S{f..cK}EWER}

4   Rest had become impossible (7) HARDEST*

5   Spooner kept small animal in crazy place (8) MADHOUSE (~had mouse to madhouse)

6   Poet's approach, say a conundrum (8) COMPOSER {(~come)COM}{POSER}

7   Frequently Azhar tours local Indian's first plant (6) ZINNIA {aZhAr} over {INN}{In...s}

15 New game is featuring hot pictures (8) IMAGINES {GAME+IS}* over {IN}

16 Cargo of fashionable people blocking road (8) SHIPMENT {S{HIP}{MEN}T}

18 Crack Spooner, perhaps behind in Church (8) CREVASSE {C{REV}{ASS}E}

19 Say, Madras bashai is picked up in gestures (7) SIGNALS {SLANG}{IS}<=

21 Sack holding up hair dye essentially for extension (6) ANNEXE {A{hENNa<=}XE}

23 Chain female dog without lead (6) FETTER {F}{sETTER}

24 Like port and juice basically above wines (6) RIOJAS {AS}<=>{RIO}{Ju..e}

Reference List

Frenchman = M, Key = ESC, Capacitance = C, Princess = DI, International = I, University = U, Kiss = X, Electronic = E, Husband = H, American = A, Model = T, Local = INN, Hot = IN, Church = CE, Female = F