No 14761, Tuesday 07 Apr 2026, Dr. X

Solution to 23A 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

1   Stretched slowly at first and exercised (8) STRAINED {Sl...y}{TRAINED}

5   Heavenly body of model, extremely elegant (6) PLANET {PLAN}{El...nT}

10 Cold drink with favourite yeast cake (7) CRUMPET {C}{RUM}{PET}

11 Old Greek soldier's drunk in party, tottering essentially (7) HOPLITE {LIT} in {HOP}{t..tEr..g}

12 Visit halfway houses around Finnish city (5) LAHTI [T<=]

13 Mother resents untidy mess (5,4) MARES NEST {MA}{RESENTS}*

14 British dramatist performed hard role after drinking beer (6,6) HAROLD PINTER {HARD+ROLE}* over {PINT}

18 Ugh! Womaniser ruined first party at home (12) HOUSEWARMING*

21 Slyly beginning to reveal offences in the real lives of film actors (3-6) OFF-SCREEN {Re...l+OFFENCES}*

23 Put down mask after end of pandemic (5) C?I?E (Addendum - CHIDE {HIDE}<=>{p...iC} - See comments)

24 American poet of note in independent American university (7) FRENEAU {FRE{N}E}{A}{U}

25 Lights in rear of building site malfunctioned (7) IGNITES {IN+b...nG+SITE}*

26 Reeds around a waterway (3,3) RED SEA {REEDS}*{A}

27 Devilish fellow knocking out model in home (8) INFERNAL IN(-t+f)FERNAL

DOWN

1   Small boy going close to nurse (6) SUCKLE {S}{bUCKLE}

2   Thugs in drains ultimately get away (6) ROUGHS tROUGHS

3   Incriminate rogue and Latin American model involved in murder (9) IMPLICATE {IMP}{L}{IC{A}{T}E}

4   Impromptu poem about needless curbs (14) EXTEMPORANEOUS {EXT{POEM*}RANEOUS}

6   England's opener charges, cuts and runs (5) LOPES {LOP{En...h}S}

7   Comment about deli's latest cake and chocolate made with hazelnuts (8) NOISETTE {NO{delI}{SET}TE}

8   See 16

9   Depth of modernist Hindi novel (5,9) THIRD DIMENSION*

15 Clean hands in hotel after eating cake on vacation (9) INNOCENCE {INN}{O{CakE}NCE}

16 & 8 What camera crew will do to dream big (5,3,3,5) SHOOT FOR THE STARS [DD]

17 Where ball lifted vigorously over umpire's head will be? (8) OUTFIELD {O}{Um...e}{LIFTED*} Semi&lit

19 Stung in Tibet, injured by scorpion's tail (6) BITTEN {TIBET}*{s...oN}

20 Treacherous person's wife left to have peace of mind (6) WEASEL {W}{L} over {EASE}

22 Diabetic repents eating pancake (5) CREPE [T]

Reference List

Cold = C, Note = N, American = A, University = U, Fellow = F, Model = T, Small = S, Boy = B, Latin = L, Murder = ICE, Wife = W, Left = L