No 14901, Friday 18 Sep 2026, Arden

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS FOR FRIDAY ONLY

All those who are not regular commenters but who are rookie commenters or silent followers of the blog are requested to post answers with annotations in the comments section. In your own interest please avoid looking up the answers from the interactive version. Don't hesitate to post your annotations, in case you make a mistake in the annotation someone will correct it with the right annotation.

PLEASE NOTE, SOLUTIONS WITHOUT ATTEMPTING THE ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED

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Regular solvers/Veterans can post 1 answer each, but after 11 AM only.

Thanks for the response, here's the regular blog.

ACROSS

1   Fancy cloth as a focus to show a bit of sophistication (1,5,2,5)  A TOUCH OF CLASS*

10 Big land owner is fat, clutching his heart (5) LAIRD {LA{hIs}RD}

11 Dead simple to pack an Indian carpet (9) INANIMATE {INAN{I}{MAT}E}

12 Agree, no one returned the instrument (9) ACCORDION {ACCORD} and {NO}{1}<= 

13 The dictator's internal rule (5) EDICT [T]

14 Always there is a tiny mistake by the setter (7) ANYTIME {A}{TINY*}{ME}

16 I've a new design to entwine (7) INWEAVE*

18 Two drinks socially acceptable at the mansion (7) CHATEAU {CHA}{TEA}{U}

20 The language of money in South America (7) GUARANI [DD]

22 Music starts after main band arrives (5) SAMBA Acrostic Semi&lit

24 After change of hands, augmentation becomes bleak (9) INCLEMENT INC(-r+l)LEMENT

26 Keen to expose plan for ancient building (9) LANCINATE {pLAn}{ANCIENT*}

27 Suffer from strike — part of Mumbai spared (5) INCUR INCURsion

28 Coal shortage — I go all over the place for an excavator (13) ARCHAEOLOGIST*

DOWN

2   It's almost two — impatient and worried (7)  TWITCHY {TWo}{ITCHY}

3   Sabotage — result of a French and the German bomb (9) UNDERMINE {UN}{DER}{MINE}

4   Agatha Christie novel avoiding gate crash in the country (5) HAITI {agatHAchrIsTIe}*

5   Cast over relative showing off (9) FLAUNTING {FL{AUNT}ING}

6   Interest seen among legends for a river (5) LOIRE {LO{I}RE}

7   Am I part of retrenched workers? Showing staying power (7) STAMINA {AM}{I} in {ANTS<=}

8   Permits for beer — the entire lot has to go (9,4) CLEARANCE SALE {CLEARANCES}{ALE}

9   Shoot and catch on (3,3,7)  GET THE PICTURE [DD]

15 Clarify on cryptic clue, I see (9) ELUCIDATE {CLUE*}{I}{DATE}

17 Evading glide overboard (9) WEASELING {W{EASEL}ING}

19 Perhaps normal to accept one finally as a benefactor (7) ALMONER {ALMON{onE}R}

21 Brief copies — recoup odd bits inside (7) APERCUS {APE{ReCoUp}S}

23 Followers of Amman hungry, not fed (5) AMISH fAMISHed 

25 Stagger carrying cold fish basket (5) CREEL {REEL}<=>{C}

Reference List

Indian = I, Socially acceptable = U, Hands = R,L, A in French = UN, The in German = DER, Interest = I, Cold = C