No 14613, Tuesday 14 Oct 2025, Arden

Solution to 10A 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   Act of doing something wrong in decline — managed the borders (2,9) IN FLAGRANTE {IN}{FLAG}{RAN}{ThE}

7   Tale centred on the hill (3)  TOR sTORy

9   Superb but not fast to reign supreme (5) EXCEL EXCELlent

10 Development gone askew — reduced charge to enter (9) G?S?A?I?N ()

11 Circulate online — say, it's cooked with onions (9) LYONNAISE* 

12 Agree to a relationship with an animal (5) OKAPI {OK}{A}{PI}

13 Sensible to get out — it's part of habit (7) SOUTANE {S{OUT}ANE}

15 Plant grown in hectares (4) TARE [T]

18 Starts increasing bank interest — suffering for one with a bill... (4) IBIS Acrostic

20 ...could be bad sign for corporation (7) ABDOMEN {BAD*}{OMEN}

23 Appeal to catch river fish (5) TROUT {T{R}OUT}

24 State nominates randomly (9) MINNESOTA*

26 Unruly mob in oil rig creating a mess (9) IMBROGLIO {MOB+OIL+RIG}*

27 Emulating a game abandoned half way (5) APING {A}{PINGpong}

28 Not mother tongue song (3) LAY maLAY

29 Harry Morgen's taking care of Cassandra, perhaps (11) SCAREMONGER {MORGENS}* over {CARE}

DOWN

1   Dreamer leaves fish on a table (8) IDEALIST {IDE}{A}{LIST}

2   Under French law, work out modalities initially with the servant (8) FACTOTUM {F}{ACT}{OUT*}{Mo...s}

3   Completely exhausted after exposing mission (3,2) ALL IN cALLINg

4   I'm immersed in great composition of such music genre (7) RAGTIME {RAGT{IM}E*}

5   One's upturned nose is growing (7) NASCENT {AN<=}{SCENT}

6   In love with a misleading demeanour (9) ENAMOURED*

7   After an inordinate wait, one supports a country (6) TAIWAN {WAIT}*{AN}

8   Can probably get inside free showing rank (6) RANCID {R{CAN*}ID}

14 A pound carried by a baggage train is a psychological burden (9) ALBATROSS {A}{LB}{A}TROSS Anno pending

16 Forcing self-admission from a model about work (8) IMPOSING {I'M}{POSING} 

17 Cease to provoke and imperil (8) ENDANGER {END}{ANGER}

19 Therefore, it's a country supported by a country (7) SOMALIA {SO}{MALI}{A}

20 Team on tour, taking interest in a group of reptiles, birds and mammals (7) AMNIOTE {TEAM+ON}* over {I}

21 A material any time you want (2,4) AT WILL {A}{TWILL}

22 Perhaps brood over an unknown character — what do you call it? (6) DOOBRY {BROOD}*{Y}

25 Time to support a bard (5) ERATO {ERA}{T}

Reference List

Relationship = PI, River = R, Pound = LB, Interest = I, Unknown = Y