No 13742, Wednesday 21 Dec 2022, Dr. X

Margazhi Day 6 Rangoli by Gowri

Solution to 1A 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.

ACROSS

1   Director shortly hiring one to manage cinematographic apparatus (8) B?O?C?P?  (Addendum - BIOSCOPE {B{1}OSs}{COPE} - See comments)

5   Fish is fresh bass and trout (6) TURBOT {B+TROUT*}

10 Approach century, playing with skill (7) CONTACT {C}{ON}{TACT}

11 One interfering with Mexico's top drug dealer, beheaded (7) MEDDLER {Me...o}{pEDDLER}

12 Tenor enthralled by simple rhythm (5) METRE {ME{T}RE}

13 Places for young children to race around on cycle (9) NURSERIES {RUN<=}{SERIES}

14 Application by insolent model wanting divorce (12) PERSEVERANCE {REP*}{SEVERANCE} (Correction - {PERt}{SEVERANCE} - See comments)

18 What to do with football before taking penalty kick to give trouble (3,2,3,4) PUT ON THE SPOT [DD]

21 Manage to acquire launch and go off to travel widely (5-4) GLOBE-TROT {G{LOB}ET}{ROT}

23 Probe a harridan conducting a form of witchcraft (5) OBEAH [T]

24 Fuss about noisy student wanting fruit (7) AVOCADO {A{VOCAl}DO}

25 Old relatives, briefly on vacation in Japanese prefecture (7) OKINAWA {O}{KIN}{AWAy}

26 Sick tot held by woman becoming more febrile (6) HOTTER {H{TOT*}ER}

27 Problem reviewed, tackled by expert group (8) ASSEMBLE {A{MESS<=}BLE}

DOWN

1   Worker stealing company man's suit (6) BECOME {BE{CO}{M}E}

2   Fancy mineral aggregate turned brown inside (6) ORNATE {OR{TAN<=}E}

3   Creature over top of hedge, one in disguise? (9) CHAMELEON {C{He..e}AMEL}{ONE*} Semi&lit

4   Be sure of misleading hot sirens in deception (3,4,5,2) PUT ONES SHIRT ON {HOT+SIRENS}* in {PUT ON}

6   Unnecessary feud, nuisance to tackle in retrospect (5) UNDUE [T]

7   Europeans stay with gals in building (8) BELGIANS {BE}{GALS+IN}*

8   Punishes harshest criminal (8) THRASHES*

9   Vamps and scamps entertaining a visitor on trips (14) IMPROVISATIONS {IMP{A+VISITOR+ON}*S}

15 Hold ring up in ceremony to show gemstone (9) RHODOLITE {HOLD+O}* in {RITE}

16 Inscription, say, about Greek character playing harp (8) EPIGRAPH {E{PI}G}{HARP*}

17 Brawny old con entering caught the eye (5,3) STOOD OUT {STO{O{DO}UT}

19 Couch, primarily unclean, covered by a black smear (6) BEDAUB {BED}{A}{Un...n}{B}

20 Trail outside hotel in ancient European region (6) THRACE {T{H}RACE}

22 Remove erratic seamer leaking many (5) ERASE SEAmER*

Reference List

Bass = B, Century = C, Tenor = T, Model = T, Student = L, Old = O, Company = CO, Man = M, Old = O, Black = B, Hotel = H, Many = M

No 13738, Friday 16 Dec 2022, Vidwan

Margazhi Day 1 Rangoli by Gowri

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS 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.

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

ACROSS

1   Most staple South Indian food and dance (5) SAMBA SAMBAr 

4   Spears Spooner's mean thugs in Sydney (8) HARPOONS {~par hoons to harpoons}

11 Limpid and deceptively real CNN stunt? Not new! (11) TRANSLUCENT {REAL+CNn+STUNT}*

12 One hundred percent more! (3) TWO {1+1=2} &lit

13 Large drug injected, overdosed after party, moved aimlessly (7) DOODLED {L}{E} in {OD'D} after {DO}

14 Model thieves? No current merchants! (7) TRADERS {T}{RAiDERS}

15 Songs like 'Ek Do Teen...'? (7,7) NATURAL NUMBERS [C&DD]

19 Che's grave crises involved extra cost for food provision (7,7) SERVICE CHARGES {CHE+GRAVE+CRISES}*

25 Competitive corporate world may care about following art movements (3,4) RAT RACE {CARE}*<=>{ART}*

27 Bothersome! Unemployed black men ushering in crime (7) MUGGING {bUGGING}<=>{M}

28 Sense of identity that exists before essence of ignorance gets dissolved (3) EGO ErGO

29 Live with a clean good kind of missionary (11) EVANGELICAL {LIVE+A+CLEAN+G}*

30 Scorers shifting syllables in mind (8) TALLYMEN (~mentally to tallymen)

31 Part of Tour Alsace spanning Europe and Asia (5) URALS [T]

DOWN

2   Roaming satrap! Our Jurassic Park giant! (9) APATOSAUR* (There is an extra R and an A short in the fodder)

3   Intellectual lady's beginning to build usable careers (3,4) BAS BLEU {Bu..d}{USABLE*}

5   Persian 'birds' train regularly (7) AVESTAN {AVES}{TrAiN}

6   Modi possess peculiar art of holding, growing, something intoxicating (3,4) POT FARM {PM} over {ART+OF}*

7   Odd unusual type! Real eccentric basically! (5) OUTRE Acrostic &lit

8   20 Across? Small South-Eastern director (8) SCORSESE {SCOR{S}E}{SE}

9   Look at solid runs scored (5) STUDY STUrDY

10 Some hard nuts on way back to Siberia (6) TUNDRA [T<=]

16 No banks to put hundred thousand (3) LAC pLACe

17 Lamenting call that is age inappropriate (9) ELEGIACAL {CALL+IE+AGE}*

18 Greedy English certainly shackled India with new taxes at start (8) ESURIENT {E}{SUR{I}E}{N}{Ta..s}

20 Description of mega changes in Indian Railway (7) IMAGERY {I}{MEGA*}{RY}

21 High society girl dismisses one's advance (7) ELEVATE {EL(-i+eva)EVATE}

22 Respect a good inspiring environment (6) HOMAGE {HOM{A}{G}E}

23 Kind of larger, universal standard (7) REGULAR {LARGER+U}*

24 Acute angle? Drawing one? No...No! (5) AGILE {AnG{1}LE}

26 Damage involving Republican abuse online (5) TROLL {T{R}OLL}

Reference List

New = N, Large = L, Drug = E, Overdosed = ODD, Party = DO, Current = I, Black = B, Men = M, Good = G, Birds = AVES, Small = S, South-Eastern = SE, Runs = R, English = E, India = I, Railway = RY, Universal = U, No = N, Republican = R