No 14177, Friday 17 May 2024, Vidwan

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS FOR FRIDAY 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

7   Black chimers playing "Sully" (8) BESMIRCH {B}{CHIMERS}*

9   Love's victim, a high flyer (6) OSPREY {O'S}{PREY}

10 John King's face (4) LOOK {LOO}{K}

11 Kill by a nail in the bust (10) ANNIHILATE*

12 In between, a day in haze (6) AMIDST {A}{MI{D}ST}

14 It prevents balls leaving playing area and supports head (8) BACKSTOP {BACKS}{TOP}

15 Reportedly handling a girl and failing badly! (13) MISMANAGEMENT (~miss management)

17 Hit and run is messy (8) SLAPDASH {SLAP}{DASH}

19 Measure of 10 + 10 in Egypt (6) EXTENT {E{X}{TEN}T}

21 Rambling's not nice! Her rambling! (10) INCOHERENT*

22 One consumed by the base emotion (4) HATE {H{A}TE*}

23 X-Men ultimately is a sport (6) TENNIS {TEN}{meN}{IS}

24 A soft hit on tennis ball, plummets close! (4,4) DROP SHOT {DROPS}{HOT}

DOWN

1   Mends former criminal (6) REFORM* POS error?

2   A lama's not new to state of frenzy (4) AMOK {A}{MOnK}

3   A mere cat, struggling for meal (5,3) CREAM TEA*

4   Try most luxuriant architectural style (6) GOTHIC {GO}{THICk}

5   Pearly love and light fragrance (10) OPALESCENT {O}{PALE}{SCENT}

6   Vegetable from black tree! Too exotic! (8) BEETROOT {B}{TREE+TOO}*

8   Likely to fail soon, they grab a hand desperately (4,2,1,6) HANG BY A THREAD*

13 Let down, Princess is finally at a quiet place (10) DISAPPOINT {DI}{iS}{A}{P}{POINT}

15 Truant, male American writer's no saint! (8) MALINGER {M}{sALINGER}

16 Elite con, organised periodically for voting public? (8) ELECTION*

18 Dislike state direction (6) AVERSE {AVER}{SE}

20 Turns into working idea (6) NOTION {INTO}*{ON}

22 Silence at odd hours and short hours (4) HUSH {HoUrS}{H}

Reference List

Black = B, King = K, Day = D, New = N, Princess = DI, Quiet = P, Saint = S, Hours = H