No 14672, Tuesday 23 Dec 2025, Incognito

Solution to 12A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered 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 answer, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

8   Travel permit is possessed by Virginia (4) VISA {V{IS}A} 

9   Boy with disability of leg produced airship (5) BLIMP {B}{LIMP}

10 Club held by senorita on return (4) IRON [T<=]

11 Church primate and student in small place of prayer (6) CHAPEL {CH}{APE}{L}

12 Taking care of food fish (8) T?C?L?N?  

13 Start paying former European currency for stamp on mail (8) POSTMARK {Pa...g}{OST}{MARK}

15 Optical illusion arising from processing image around end of summer (6) MIRAGE {MI{s...eR}AGE*}

17 Sheds a son let by mistake (4-3) LEAN-TOS*

19 Liar not confused... is being prosecuted (2,5) ON TRIAL*

22 Problems from sons and daughters, for example (6) ISSUES [DD]

24 What a darner can do to improve relationships? (4,4) MEND TIES [DD]

26 Criminal lawman and magician (8) CONJUROR {CON}{JUROR}

28 Saint surrounded by snakes brags (6) BOASTS {BOA{ST}S}

30 Clues "Bonus payments" (4) TIPS [DD]

31 In absence of haste, sneak thief produces weapon (5) KNIFE {sNeaK+thIEF}*

32 Sailors and co-stars giving up cabbage (4) TARS cosTARS

DOWN

1   Desire wife's hot (4) WISH {W}{IS}{H}

2   President's following god and small Russian monk (8) RASPUTIN {PUTIN}<=>{RA}{S}

3   Lincoln takes some liability for flowering plant (6) ABELIA {ABE}{LIAb...y}

4   See 16 Down 

5   Astronaut's name is wrongly written... throw caps first (8) SPACEMAN {NAME}*<=>{CAPS}*

6   German leader may be lithe, right? (6) HITLER {LITHE+R}*

7   Girl with personal dress (4) GOWN {G}{OWN}

14 Follows orders from old Ottoman governor and head of state (5) OBEYS {O}{BEY}{St..e}

16 & 4 Serious error... like burying someone alive! (5,7) GRAVE MISTAKE [DD]

18 What the batsman was when he refused to bat? (2,6) ON STRIKE [DD] 

20 Takes back on pieces of land (8) RETRACTS {RE}{TRACTS}

21 Implicate male in boiler explosion (7) EMBROIL {E{M}BROIL*}

23 United Nations only? Not fair! (6) UNJUST {UN}{JUST}

25 Caught retired dean hugging a couple of boys (6) NABBED {DE{BB}AN<=}

27 Romanov ideally shelters poet (4) OVID [T]

29 Biting pastry (4) TART [DD]

Reference List

Boy = B, Church = CH, Student = L, Saint = ST, Cabbage = COS, Wife = W, Hot = H, Small = S, Right = R, Girl = G, Old = O, On = RE, Male = M, Boy = B