No 14704, Friday 30 Jan 2026, Dr. X

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

Each commenter is requested to post only 5 answers thereby giving others also a chance to participate. Please provide all your answers in one comment.

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

ACROSS

1   Star's rebellious boy does meth at premiere (8)

5   Article about unionist becoming insolvent (6)

10 Succeeded, made a comeback after good fortune in Indian city (7)

11 Most attractive presenter entertaining models on base (7)

12 Coach in academy inspires mate (5)

13 Liaison with hot rogue when husband's away leads to separation (9)

14 Groan about working for lout, extremely rude and bossy type of person (7,5)

18 See head of elite club terribly overwhelmed by anxiety in notorious controversy (5,7)

21 Feeling excited, turned on by drug (9)

23 Escort inviting prince for orgy (5)

24 See 9 Down

25 Charged with loud exclamation of disgust to interrupt scoundrel (7)

26 University girl catches ultimately vile pervert (6)

27 Short joke playing in reel's funny (3-5)

DOWN

1   Marry girl finally, overwhelmed by excitement (6)

2   Help out emcee entertaining posh relatives (4,2)

3   Bars almost everywhere in old Indian city (9)

4   Unhappy with the modus operandi in new whodunnit (4,2,3,5)

6   Cavities in infant, rampant (5)

7   Arguments in building (8)

8   Rodent-eating serpent in a tanker abandoned outside society (3,5)

9 & 24 Inadvertently harm one's own interests, leaving one with a limp perhaps? (5,7,2,3,4)

15 Stop in jungle with everyone (9)

16 No Bumrah ultimately! Somehow, coach must adapt (8)

17 Start to seductively take off summer garment (8)

19 Men drink outside island's base (6)

20 Decay in strong organic compound (6)

22 Rebels in revolutionary activity around southern border of Mexico (5)

No 14703, Thursday 29 Jan 2026, Afterdark

Solution to 8D 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

9   Part of eleven? 50% replaced by adults with bat ultimately (7) ELEMENT {ELEven}{MEN}{baT}

10 One worried about American University's duplicate (7) IMITATE {1}{MIT}{ATE}

11 Cancelled a very old identity carried by journo (7) AVOIDED {A}{V}{O}{ID}{ED}

12 PTA cancelled, operations reworked on attrition (7) EROSION {OpERatIONS}*

13 Outcomes from last month? Failed mission losing millions (9) DECISIONS {DEC}{mISSION}*

15 Orangeman out of Oman's reach (5) RANGE oRANGEman

16 Optical phenomenon created by AI in brown splash (7) RAINBOW {R{AI}NBOW*}

19 Taster had enough in special rave in the beginning (7) SAMPLER {AMPLE} in {S}{Rave}

20 Specialist chasing silver vehicle (5) AGENT {ENT}<=>{AG}

21 Ignored North-east girl with the French journo caught in between (9) NEGLECTED {NE}{G}{LE}{ED} over {CT}

25 Sharp at home with present perhaps (7) INTENSE {IN}{TENSE}

26 Say, mother's younger sister is the smallest (7) MINIMUM {MINI MUM}

28 Great text, remember the contents (7) EXTREME [T]

29 Flying sea bird is oriental (7) EASTERN {SEA*}{TERN}

DOWN

1   Believe Royal Engineers have drawback (6) REGARD {RE}{DRAG<=}

2   Undaunted head constable relieves engineer off drug (6) HEROIC HEROI(+c-n)C N/Engineer?

3   Almost 7 days daughter had marijuana (4) WEED {WEEk}{D}

4   Workshop boss's binary (6) STUDIO {STUD}{1 0}

5   Complaints on seaside renovations on Sunday (8) DISEASES {SEASIDE*}{S}

6   Unit of Mike running to control record crowd (10) KILOGRAMME {MIKE}* over {LOG}{RAM}

7   Designation allows to arrest citizen (8) NATIONAL [T]

8   Hold, hold over footless animal (8) ?E?N?E?R (Addendum - REINDEER {REIN}{DEfER} - See comments)

14 Substitute stands with drugs, perhaps (10) SUBSTANCES {SUB}{STANCES}

16 Fulfilled kinky desire by kidnapping a lady (8) REALISED {RE{A}{L}ISED*}

17 Name of a shelter keeping a bird's unknown (8) IDENTITY {1}{DEN}{TIT}{Y}

18 Roamed with staff before day's beginning (8) WANDERED {WAND}{ERE}{Day}

22 Covered gem with mud extraordinarily (6) GUMMED*

23 Victim Bernard held with wood (6) TIMBER [T]

24 Urge daughter to keep in custody disregarding rule (6) DEMAND {D}{rEMAND}

27 Organ in new orchestra's score's excellent as per sources (4) NOSE Acrostic

Reference List

Very = V, Old = O, Journo = ED, Millions = M, Special = S, Specialist= ENT, Girl = G, The in French = LE, Caght = CT, At home = IN, Royal Engineers = RE, Daughter = D, Sunday = S, Foot = F, Lady = L, Unknown = Y, Before = ERE, Rule = R