No 14940, Wednesday 04 Nov 2026, Hypatia

Solution to 20A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only 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   Play fine part briefly - extremely iconic (6) FROLIC {F}{ROLe}{Ic..iC}

9   Merchants on the net using real site (8) ETAILERS*

10 Lots of restrictions on department made redundant by outsourcing (10) BANGALORED {BAN}{GALORE}{D} Lots or Lot? POS Error?

11 Basically every villain is legitimately wicked (4) EVIL Acrostic

12 Cheesy style of posh folk visiting city with money (2,6)  AU GRATIN {A{U}GRA}{TIN}

14 Arrested and posted by leader, moving a step ahead (6) NAILED (-m+n)NAILED

15 Lover and acquaintance entered by porch (7) VERANDA [T]

17 Dad gathering items for hobby (7) PASTIME {PA}{ITEMS*}

20 Sharply criticise one distorting opinion? (6) ?K?W?R (Addendum - SKEWER [DD] - See comments) 

22 America fighting war mostly leads to inequitable arrangement (1,3,4) A RAW DEAL {A}{RAW+LEADs}*

24 Beam in round cycles (4) GRIN (+g)GRIN(-g)

25 Check in and back off (7,3) CHICKEN OUT {CHECK+IN}* [RA]

27 Stench of onion, initially eaten by guy - almost forbidding (5) MALODOUR {On..n} in {MALe}{DOUR}

28 Dismissed former English parliamentarian close to cabinet (6) EXEMPT {EX}{E}{MP}{c...eT}

DOWN

1   Hold dear darling (8) TREASURE [DD]

2   Primarily slimy, like ugly garden creature (4) SLUG Acrostic Semi&lit

3   Occasionally touch Elliott's cat (6) OCELOT {tOuCh+ElLiOtTs}

4   Spooner's smelly bag charm, say (7) KEYRING (reeking to key ring)

5   Najeeb and Ann always wearing headscarf (8) BANDANNA [T]

6   Relieved engineer in vital deal abroad (10) ALLEVIATED* {E} in {VITAL+DEAL}*

7   Maverick actor's voyage (6) CRUISE [DD]

13 Stern woman whose husband died bored by new movie (4,6) REAR WINDOW {REAR}{WI{N}DOW}

16 IT record encrypted for supervisor (8) DIRECTOR*

18 My bad clue: "A map unfolds" (3,5) MEA CULPA* I somehow hate this wxpression. Do we have a 'My Good' also :-) ?

19 Some retiring from the RBI lack competence (7) CALIBRE [T<=]

21 After dusk, frequently picked up small ethnic outfits (6) KURTAS {AfTeR+dUsK<=}{S}

23 Jewellery taken out worn by girl ultimately (6) ANKLET {ANK{girL}ET*}

26 Newcomer agitated this tree crow (4) NEEM {NEEM+CROW}*=NEWCOMER

Reference List

Fine = F, Posh folk = U, Money = TIN, English = E, Engineer = E, New = N, Small = S