The Hindu Cryptic on Sunday No 24, Sunday 05 Oct 2025, Arden

ACROSS

1   Morning meeting of influential people might stop quickly (5,9) POWER BREAKFAST {POWER}{BREAK FAST}

10 Liable to gather essential idea from expert (5) ADEPT {A{iDEa}PT}

11 Third bomb blast - also twice outside the famous test site (3,6) LOS ALAMOS {boMb} in {ALSO+ALSO}*

12 Spindle diameter providing fast movement inside (7) DISTAFF {DI{FAST*}F} Diameter/Dif? (Correction - {D}{I{FAST*}F} See comments

13 "Island in part" - a musical review (7) SUMATRA [T]

14 Bad smell? Chop head off fish (5) TENCH sTENCH

16 He was philosophical about 14 size (9) NIETZSCHE {TENCH+SIZE}*

19 Insult to church, shape to be altered (5,4) CHEAP SHOT {CH}{SHAPE+TO}*

20 Loves speed, get-up-and-go (5) OOMPH {OO}{MPH}

22 Blister means hearts go for spades (7) VESICLE VE(-h+s)SICLE

25 Greek Goddess's gift, giving out half (7) ARTEMIS Anno pending (Addendum {ART}{EMISsion} - See comments)

27 Bones broken - team on pitch is recalled (9) METATARSI {TEAM}*{TAR}{IS<=}

28 Perfect inside a laundry (5) IDEAL [T]

29 Follow direction, then play around with girls - it's a natural phenomenon (8,6) NORTHERN LIGHTS {NORTH}{THEN+GIRLS}*

DOWN

2   Be nice - so a criminal gets respect (9) OBEISANCE*

3   Old painting hung up additionally (5) EXTRA {EX}{ART<=}

4   Bird having a fill perhaps amid the flowers (9) BULLFINCH {BU{FILL*}NCH}

5   Chides for the lack of time, becomes moderate (5) EASES tEASES

6   Ex-president before a menagerie in US city (9) KALAMAZOO {KALAM}{A}{ZOO}

7   Student essentially comes in the morning, it becomes own (5) ADMIT {A{stuDent}M}{IT}

8   Having the will, say to support those disheartened... (7) TESTATE {STATE}<=>{ThosE}

9   ...and getting in touch with the criminal (6) BANDIT {B{AND{IT}

15 Hard work to score in a game (9) HOPSCOTCH {H}{OP}{SCOTCH}

17 Hormone details or composition (9) ESTRADIOL*

18 Cat hides hand, say, when it's used to catch mice (9) CAMEMBERT {CA{MEMBER}T}

19 Beginning with Charlie and Victor - name picked up by our ancestor (4,3) CAVE MAN {Ch...e}{And}{Vi...r}{NAME<=}

21 Bother with high sales output (6) HASSLE {H}{SALES*}

23 Instrument in transit, arriving shortly (5) SITAR [T]

24 Merry sort, no covers, one slip (5) ERROR {mERRy}{sORt}

26 Connecting it perhaps when height is unknown (5) TYING T(-h+y)YING

Reference List

Diameter = D, Church = CH, Hearts = H, Spades = S, Old = EX, Time = T, Hard = H, High = H, Height = H, Unknown = Y