No 14521, Thursday 26 Jun 2025, Pixie Dust

FOR ATTENTION OF ALL VISITORS TO THE BLOG

I have reopened the blog so that anyone can access it, however from 7 PM onwards today, I will again be restricting access to the blog permanently and only custom readers will be able to access the blog. 

Those who want access to the blog as custom readers may therefore send me an e-mail at deepakgita@gmail.com and I will approve the same. Those who have already done so need not do so again.

I have been forced to change the settings as one person refused to adhere to the rules of the blog despite being advised on many occasions. Once the blog is restricted to custom readers (as it was for few days last week), I will have the administrative power to remove anyone who does not follow the rules.

Solution to 1A 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   Look at prison, we hear it's breathtaking (6) ?C?N?C (Addendum SCENIC (~see nick - See comments)

5   Graduate's football position? (8) HALFBACK {BAck}

9   Girl grew excited! (one who can't stay still!) (8) WRIGGLER* 

10 A wild animal died on ship (6) ABOARD {A}{BOAR}{D}

11 Funny act is repeated several times to get numbers (10) STATISTICS {ACT+IS}* Letter Bank

12 Tramp takes rough expeditions keenly to begin with (4) TREK Acrostic

13 Filling gifts & fun all over the place (8) STUFFING {GIFTS+FUN}*

16 Segment of broken or malformed set (6) NORMAL [T]

17 Internally, send ideas - try please! (6) ENDEAR {sENd}{iDEAs}{tRy}

19 Notice crazy help tamper building without hesitation (8) PAMPHLET {HELP+TAMPer}

21 Struggle with vision (4) VIEW {VIE}{W}

22 Inactivity in country for men only! (10) STAGNATION {STAG}{NATION}

25 Cheeps affected conversation (6) SPEECH* 

26 Cross over unopened booth at first to reach two universities (8) OXBRIDGE {BRIDGE}<=>{bOX}

27 Spooner asked Peppa Pig Parrot to cut down candy? (8) LOLLIPOP (~polly lop to lollipop)

28 Show Mercy from where Len toppled (6) RELENT [T]

DOWN

2   Wagon carries a measure (5) CARAT {CAR{A}T}

3   Dark cavalryman in conversation (5) NIGHT (~knight)

4   Company mislaying island's larger than life statues (7) COLOSSI {CO}{LOSS}{I}

5   Henry offending fish (7) HERRING {H}{ERRING}

6   Upset about one boy's affair (7) LIAISON {AIL<=}{1}{SON}

7   Bishop depressed with rising decay in church burner (9) BLOWTORCH {B}{LOW}{ROT<=}{CH}

8   My God! Engineer delayed match (9) CORRELATE {COR}{RE}{LATE}

14 Not an amateur racketer, top sinner in disguise! (6,3) TENNIS PRO* 

15 Basically foreigners were dancing with scoundrel in coast (9) FREEWHEEL {Fo...r}{WERE*}{HEEL}

18 Sprung up with new seed pod (7) ROSEHIP {ROSE}{HIP}

19 Ape's comfort soup food? (3,4) PEA SOUP {APE}* [RA]

20 Tiny skirt and fancy bra in counter (4-3) MINI-BAR {MINI}{BRA*}

23 Hearing test (5) TRIAL [DD]

24 Member of Hindustan Agrochemicals from the south (5) ORGAN [T<=]

Reference List

Graduate = BA, Died = D, With = W, Company = CO, Henry = H, Bishop = B, My God! = COR, Engineer = RE(Royal Engineers), New = HIP