No 14426, Friday 07 Mar 2025, Saral

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ACROSS

7   Very old article about nice source of topic (7) ANCIENT {AN}{NICE*}{To..c}

8   Coat label pulled by the Spanish (6) ENAMEL {E{NAME}L}

9   Frank files crown of teeth (6) HONEST {HONES}{Te..h}

10 Dampness of extra covering around suit (8) MOISTURE {MO{SUIT*}RE}

11 Removed and dropped old matinee idol perhaps (10) ELIMINATED {MATINEE+IDoL}*

13 Clean top of yellow stone (4) RUBY {RUB}{Ye...w}

14 Sharp American detectives (4) ACID {Am...n}{CID}

16 Primate left bird with caretaker at last (5) LEMUR {L}{EMU}{c...eR}

18 At first composer looked elsewhere for key (4) CLEF Acrostic

19 Different skin colours (4) INKS*

21 Indian lecturer with judge describing passion in show (10) ILLUSTRATE {I}{L}{RATE} over {LUST}

23 Preparation of empty passage lined with damaged marbles mostly (8) PREAMBLE {Pa...gE} over {MARBLEs}*

25 Fixed new deal accepting interest basically (6) NAILED {N+DEAL}* over {In...t} Fixed on Double duty?

26 Run away! Police is finally approaching headland (6) ESCAPE {p...cE}{iS}{CAPE}

27 Country chaps not bright says Spooner (7) DENMARK (~men dark to denmark)

DOWN

1   Cried in bizarre dreams chasing enemy primarily (8) SCREAMED {DREAMS+Ch...g+En..y}*

2   Posted the Spanish under home guard (8) SENTINEL  {SENT} and {EL}<=>{IN}

3   Check stock (4) STEM [DD]

4   Duration of each ODI is changed (6) PERIOD {PER}{ODI*}

5   Closing coffee bar in the end (6) LATTER {LATTE}{baR}

6   Nasty loose mud scrubbed from spinning tumble drier (8) TERRIBLE {TumBLE+dRIER}*

7   Associate on duty in island (5) ATOLL {A}{TOLL}

12 To begin with, the address maybe in local language (5) TAMIL Acrostic

15 Cabbage dressing on essentially pungent diet (8) CONGRESS {C{ON}{punGent}RESS}

17 Strong snore disturbed worker (8) RESONANT {SNORE*}{ANT}

18 Main channel filled with extremely red iodine (8) CARDINAL {CA{ReD}{I}NAL} Extremes of Red would have been better

20 Wound on a black beetle (6) SCARAB {SCAR}{A}{B}

21 Heard hotel food is natural (6) INBRED (~ inn bread)

22 Model followed by puny jerk (5) TWEAK {T}{WEAK}

24 Completes cycling shoot (4) ENDS (-s)END(+s)S

Reference List

The in Spanish = EL, Old = O, American = A, Left = L, Indian = I, Lecturer = L, New = N, Home = IN, Associate = A, Black = B, Model = T