No 14423, Tuesday 04 Mar 2025, Avtaar

Solution to 28A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance. 

Open for anyone to solve, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

1   Nick trimmed perfect cut of meat (7) PURLOIN {PURe}{LOIN}

5   A dog taking out heroin in the old African capital (7) YAOUNDE {A}{hOUND} in {YE}

9   Skipping prayer with priest in club? (7) ROMPING {R{OM}{P}ING}

10 Bits of emerald and ruby on Miss Luxembourg's scarf (7) MUFFLER {Em...d}{Ruby}<=>{MUFF}{L}

11 Lone wolf Carol gave the game away (9) SINGLETON {SING}{LET ON}

12 Hear college contest lost money (5) CATCH {C}{mATCH}

13 Mark briefly bet 1000 (5) SPECK {SPEC}{K}

15 Powerful caucus controlling state of crude oil - cunning, extremely greedy groups (9) OLIGARCHY {OIL}* with {ARCH} in {Gr..dY}*

17 Preposterous cess on stocking individual parts of rockets (9) NOSECONES {CESS+ON}* over {ONE}

19 Fires rifles (5) SACKS [DD]

22 Wrong answer by young girl (5) AMISS {A}{MISS}

23 Epic tale about drowning island's extremity (9) TAILPIECE {EPIC+TALE}* over {I}

25 Blind dog removing top from soil (7) CURTAIN {CUR}{sTAIN}

26 Appears hotel's fencing the field in which I get audience (7) EARSHOT [T]

27 Women's shawl from India showed up at Tanzanian borders (7) DUPATTA [T]

28 Procession of fighters in New York? (7) F?Y?V?R ()

DOWN

1   Numbness starts to exhaust some getting entertained in French city (7) PARESIS {PAR{Ex...t}{Some}IS}

2   Rector and church groups land in court (7) ROMANCE {R}{CE} over {OMAN}

3   Recess in waffle iron fixed up (5) ORIEL [T<=]

4   Girl wearing fancy thing with private item of attire (9) NIGHTGOWN {G}<=>{THING*} and {OWN}

5   State of Avtaar overwhelmed by desire (5) YEMEN {YE{ME}N}

6   Executives reworked discounted cash flow mostly with future interest increases, to start with (9) OFFICIALS {CASh+FLOw+Fu...e+In...t+In...s}*

7   Essence of article on unusual lion from an African river basin (7) NILOTIC {arTICle}<=>{LION}*

8   Lathery, plastic material (7) EARTHLY*

14 Boot in bond vehicle described by Spooner (9) KICKSTART (stick cart to kickstart)

16 Enemy hints about following through, nevertheless (2,5,2) IN SPITE OF {FOE}{TIPS}<= after {IN}

17 Greek character moved to music topless with distinct changes in expression (7) NUANCED {NU}{dANCED}

18 Waken, pinching top of right ear's bone (7) STIRRUP {STIR{Ri..t}UP}

20 Russian who produced dramatic outcomes announced king is threatened and finished queen off (7) CHEKHOV (~check off)

21 Light outside officer's lodge (7) SHELTER {SHE{LT}ER}

23 Pacific island's Indian coach (5) TONGA [DD]

24 Do section 25/26 (5) PARTY {PART}{a...xYz}

Reference List

The old = YE, Prayer = OM, Priest = P, Luxembourg = L, College = C, Money = M, 1000 = K, Answer = A, Island = I, Rector = R, Church = CE, Girl = G