No 14075, Friday 19 Jan 2024, 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

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

1   Threw out fool over obscenity in retreat (3,3,2) GOT RID OF {GO{DIRT<=}OF}

5   Boat containing each aquatic mammal (3,3) SEA COW {S{EA}COW}

10 Simpleton taking small whip for wild horse (7) MUSTANG {MU{S}{TAN}G}

11 Withdraws from California, crushed by payments (7) RECANTS {RE{CA}NTS}

12 Dance in Sunburn Goa endlessly (5) TANGO {TAN}{GOa}

13 New nurse putting away covers, tidying up (9) NEATENING {N}{EAT{EN}ING}

14 Poet lay in compound, inhaling dope eagerly (12) PASSIONATELY {POET+LAY+IN}* over {ASS}

18 Sick lad fainted - he's critical! (4-3-5) LIFE-AND-DEATH {LAD+FAINTED+HE}*

21 What electrician might do to hide? (2,2,5) GO TO EARTH [DD]

23 Cries of alarm after river stinks (5) REEKS {EEKS}<=>{R}

24 Bishop is man conducting appropriate religious ceremony (7) BAPTISM {B}{APT}{IS}{M} Semi&lit

25 Dropping off a container filled with money (7) ABATING {A}{BA{TIN}G}

26 Kiss in corner, removing top - that's too much (6) EXCESS {rE{X}CESS}

27 Sceptics start to analyse robbery in back street (8) ATHEISTS {An...e}{T{HEIST}S<=}

DOWN

1   Reproductive cell is round, having covering of epiblast (6) GAMETE {GAM{Ep...sT}E}

2   Tea is fantastic, containing new infusion of herbs (6) TISANE {TEA+IS}* over {N}

3   What a Roman is concealing about female lover (9) INAMORATA [T<=]

4   Men getting dirt about crooked director in case revealing Mafia's activities (9,5) ORGANISED CRIME {OR}{G{D+IN+CASE}*RIME}

6   Host starts to enthral massive crowd expecting entertainment (5) EMCEE Acrostic 

7   Deliberate deception, rule broken by team (8) CONSIDER {CON}{SIDE}{R}

8   Smart alecs use wigs perhaps to retain a little youthfulness (4,4) WISE GUYS {USE+WIGS}* over {Yo...s}

9   Floating bank rate rose, he's upset (5,4,5) BREAK ONES HEART*

15 Argue heatedly to amend abominable act on essence of citizenship (9) ALTERCATE {ALTER}{ACT*}{c...zEn...p}

16 Exotic belle hugging one soldier is desirable (8) ELIGIBLE {EL{1|}{GI}BLE*}

17 Chief in workplace ignoring point - it's not relevant to the current discussion (3-5) OFF-TOPIC {OFF{TOP}ICe}

19 Brilliance shown by one in class (6) GENIUS {GEN{1}US}

20 Members of Native American people thus returned to welcome oracle (6) OSAGES {O{SAGE}S<=}

22 Rewrites in most ideal retreat (5) EDITS [T<=]

Reference List

Each = EA, Small = S, New = N, Nurse = EN, Riverv = R, Bishop = B, Kiss = X, Street = ST, Men = OR, Director = D, Rule = R