No 14165, Friday 03 May 2024, Saral

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   The best among the literates (5) ELITE [T]

9   Auditor's private staff (9) PERSONNEL (~personal)

10 View over wing (7) OPINION {O}{PINION}

11 Sly mobs defiled logos (7) SYMBOLS*

12 Scattered and chased by daughter, spiders wandering near base (9) DISPERSED {SPIDERS}*{E}<=> {D} 

14 Husband checking attractive vocation (5) NICHE {NIC{H}E} 

15 Grab bits of guava (ripe) fruit (7) GRAPPLE {Gu..a}{Ripe}{APPLE}

18 Partners returning incentives including benefit (7) SPOUSES {SOPS<=} over {USE}

19 Second tenor with often best composition (5) MOTET {MO}{T}{bEsT}

20 Used my parents' names once at first, created Saral, for example (9) PSEUDONYM {USED+MY+Pa...s+Names+Once}*

24 Troop falsely arresting journalist for explosive (7) TORPEDO {TORP{ED}O*}

25 They cover, perhaps home with certain risk initially (7) INSURER {IN}{SURE}{Risk} They ?

27 Careless chap beside blazing ingle (9) NEGLIGENT {GENT}<=>{INGLE*}

28 Man driving out large untied animal (5) MOOSE {M}{lOOSE}

DOWN

1   Dossier about company director on vacation is returned (6) RECORD {RE}{CO}{Di...oR<=}

2   Restricts drunk son outside empty IIM (6) LIMITS {L{IiM}IT}{S}

3   Snowman still followed by Indian? (4) YETI {YET}{I}

4   Chairs before teams (8) PRESIDES {PRE}{SIDES}

5   Complaint of general (army officer) diagnosed at last (6,4) COMMON COLD {COMMON}{COL}{d...eD}

6   Harry, I've coins for bills (8) INVOICES*

7   Problems in note by assessors (8) BLISTERS {B}{LISTERS}

9   Yearns for trees (5) PINES [DD]

13 Feeling it induces vomit while circling passage (10) EMPATHETIC {EM{PATH}ETIC}

15 German maiden decked by fantastic set, one in diamond, say (8) GEMSTONE {G}{E{M}ST}{ONE}

16 Adjust, say ring of intimate friend (5,3) ALTER EGO {ALTER}{EG}{O}

17 Blows up old cartel finally with dopes in shambles (8) EXPLODES {EX}{c...eL+DOPES}*

21 Expel European champion missing gold (5) EVICT {E}{VICTor}

22 New marker is thin (6) NARROW {N}{ARROW}

23 Eliminate the German behind drink counter (6) MURDER {DER}<=>{RUM<=}

26 Score? Zero for wrestler (4) SUMO {SUM}{O}

Reference List

Over = O, Daughter = D, Base = E, Husband = H, Tenor = T, Journalist = ED, Home = IN, Man = M, About = RE, Company = CO, Indian = I, Army officer = COL, Note = B, German = G, Maiden = M, European = E, New = N, The in German = DER