No 14280, Saturday 14 Sep 2024, Vidwan

ACROSS

1   Ran into Chinese people, ushering in most ancient spirit (8) METHANOL {MET}{HAN}{OLd}

5   Local spirit from soldiers quarters, unopened (6) ARRACK bARRACK

10 Locally prevalent medicine, one consumed indiscriminately (7) ENDEMIC MEDiCINE*

11 Arrogant royal, ignored by most rich, avoids socialising (7) BASHFUL {BrASH}{FULl}

12 Noble queen, very sick, setting off (14) COUNTERVAILING {COUNT}{ER}{V}{AILING}

14 Working lunch with a new item, individually (3,2,1,4) ONE AT A TIME {ON}{EAT}{A}{ITEM*}

15 It is vast, endless, starting from Istanbul and ending in Siberia! (4) ASIA {vASt}{Is...l}{s...iA} Semi&lit

17 Jail mark (4) NICK [DD]

19 Conventional sea tide (10) MAINSTREAM {MAIN}{STREAM}

21 Prudish English titles for men having style, ones like Blair or Sunak (5,9) PRIME MINISTERS {PRIM}{E}{M{IN}ISTERS}

24 Love small number and a Greek alphabet (7) OMICRON {O}{MICRO}{N}

25 Obscure LA haunt for native American (7) NAHUATL*

26 Flimsy charge biller deducted regularly (6) FEEBLE {FEE}{BiLlEr}

27 Fatness of a duck, very large, one with bit of swagger (8) ADIPOSIS {A}{DIP}{OS}{1}{Sw...r}

DOWN

1   Soldiers embodying unity and dignified manner (4) MIEN {M{1}EN}

2   Old ape working beyond time or younger, offensive version of a French fellow (7) TADPOLE {OLD+APE}*<=>{T}

3   An explosive food for the plants (8) AMMONITE [DD]

4   Gold coffer supplies and logistics (14) ORCHESTRATIONS {OR}{CHEST}{RATIONS}

6   CV Sir returns greeting (5) RISHI {SIR<=}{HI} This will be known only to solvers of The Hindu Crossword through this blog

7   Leader of America with very loud unnatural manner and transactions (7) AFFAIRS {Am...a}{FF}{AIRS}

8   Make girl move halfway around to measure (10) KILOGRAMME {MAKE+GIRL+MOve}*

9  Naive men bend to conform as referred to earlier (5-9) ABOVE-MENTIONED* One 'O' short and one extra 'N' in the fodder

13 Spooner beats top cover for something any good detective wants (10) SOUNDPROOF (~pounds roof to soundproof)  A detective will want SOUND PROOF and not SOUNDPROOF

16 Unfair situation, puts away, suppresses desire! (6-2) STITCH-UP {ST{ITCH}UP*}

18 One most insecure, forgets about cooking food! (7) CUISINE {1+INSECUre}*

20 Noble part of church, mainly used for gathering sounds (7) EARLAPS {EARL}{APSe}

22 Recruit looney loner (5) ENROL*

23 Most luxurious sign (4) PLUS PLUSh

Reference List

Royal = R, Queen = ER, Very = V, English = E, Style = IN, Number = N, very large = OS, Time = T, Loud = F