The Hindu Cryptic on Sunday No 27, Sunday 26 Oct 2025, Incognito

ACROSS

8 & 1 Gobble creature with feather (4,4) WOLF DOWN {WOLF}{DOWN}

9   Bird gives shelter to one Sesame Street character (5) ERNIE {ERN{1}E}

10 Aluminium probably sourced initially in mountain range (4) ALPS {AL}{Po...y}{So...d}

11 Ms Merkel's bro left Bangalore building (6) ANGELA bANGALorE*

12 Old hotel accepts garlic preparation for big businessman controlling politics (8) OLIGARCH {O}{GARLIC*}{H}

13 Choke stern gal erroneously (8) STRANGLE*

15 False nature wrongly shown around university, in absence of academician (6) UNTRUE {NaTURE}* over {U}

17 Clarify: "Previous girlfriend unattractive" (7) EXPLAIN {EX}{PLAIN}

19 Doctor, he later treated skin (7) LEATHER* Doctor is superfluous See comments

22 Except one, entire entourage initially gets main course (6) ENTREE {ENTiRE}En...e}

24 Moneylender's income from Bury estate (8) INTEREST {INTER}{EST}

26 Test case may be stored in this? (8) CASSETTE* Semi&lit

28 Get away from Spanish headland (6) ESCAPE {ES}{CAPE}

30 Indian tribal from Srinagar (4) NAGA [T]

31 Sinatra's candid (5) FRANK [DD]

32 Bedouin, for example, found in Vikarabad (4) ARAB [T]

DOWN

1 See 8 Across

2   When everything is taken into account, fall rate may be adjusted (5,3) AFTER ALL* 

3   Margaret hugs grandmother in Malaysian island (6) PENANG {PE{NAN}G} 

4   Wildly run around chap and remove lid (7) UNCOVER {UN{COVE}R*}

5   Partly dressed? Used mine wrongly... (4-4) SEMI-NUDE*

6   Person with exceptional aptitude sat around vehicle (6) SAVANT {SA{VAN}T}

7   Magnificent record followed by one hundred (4) EPIC {EP}{1}{C}

14 Container carrying animal poison (5) TOXIN {T{OX}IN}

16 Addicts sure to be confused before starting to sniff (5) USERS {SURE}*{Sn..f}

18 Find yeti roaming and recognise (8) IDENTIFY*

20 Traitor's taco (8) TURNCOAT {TACO}* [RA]

21 Date for payment of penalty? Can be a nice period of 24 hours! (4,3) FINE DAY [DD]

23 Cars damaged by a large rogue (6) RASCAL {CARS}*{A}{L}

25 Fine tunes and adjusts waste around end of week (6) TWEAKS {TWEA{weeK}S*}

27 Advanced method? Not at home! (4) AWAY {A}{WAY}

29 Fuel from vegetable on a bit of toast (4) PEAT {PEA}{To..t}

Reference List

Old = O, Hotel = H, University = U, Academician = A, Previous girlfriend = EX, Estate = EST, Spanish = ES, Grandmother = NAN, Record = EP(Extended Play), Hundred = C, Large = L