Stats -The puzzle was well received and 22 people managed to submit the completed grid for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 17 got the full score of 33. Further, 18 people could CORRECTLY & fully answer the Bonus question.

Here’s the Solution grid

The description of this puzzle had a cryptic message that read “14 may 10 and leave no 5 to 21. Must be 25, or else, 26!”. Solvers were also required to decipher this message, along with their solutions.

The message, substituting  the words for the (clue) numbers is “Earthquake may overpower, and leave no leeway to evacuate. Must be on guard or else adieu”

Here are the Annotations.

Across:
9  Finally abridged a book (5) AT LAS(-T)
10  Crush / romantic partner loses head — heartless psycho wife about to return! (9) (-L)OVER P(-sych)O W RE<<
11  Ask to compete in a season in which the leader has slipped to the last spot (9) (-W)INTER W<<VIE
12  Easy to return from Kaycee via Nebraska (5) Rev T
13  Cover gold table (7) PLATE AU
15  “Yesterday, I was this confused guy” — Nero (7) NEROGUY*
17  Instruction for derelict members? (5) T
18  Have the intelligentsia lost, at last? (3) Last letter acrostic
20  Find details oddly lacking in dream (5) (-f) I (-n) D (-d) E (-t) A (-i) L (-s)
22  Cook consuming excellent, sizzling hot luscious starters — with sauce! (7) FRY <<(E S H L)
25  Working girl (Uma) ends hollow red alert (2,5) ON G UA RD
26  Commercial that is unrestrained but so long! (5) AD IE (-B)U(-T)
27  Technique to get around impotence (9) PROCURE<<ED,
30  Couple of beds in the U.S. bearing the first lady and second (9) TWIN K(L)ING
31  Bury the first five of eleven (5) first five letters of 11A (INTERVIEW)

Down:
1  One under obligation to go slowly (4) TAX I
2  Fifty boring bulky shades of lacklustre action naively described in a novel lacking depth (8) L>>FAT L A N D – Alluding o 1884 novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott
3  One who might trip round emotional sentences usually starts over (4) Rev Acrostic
4  Crumpled, soiled clothes! You in Spain? Your “you time”!? (8) SOILED*<<TU
5  Room in Spooner’s tiny place? (6) Spooner – WEE LAY
6  First to embrace rising eccentric for a special strings arrangement? (4,6) OPENING <<NUT<
7  Right Wing: an extension with shady functionality (6) WINGAN*
8  Beg Russia to hold back press (4) Rev T
13  “Say, if there is a largest prime, then the product of all primes plus one leads us to a contradiction” — teacher, in short, receiving a zero! (5) PROF<<O
14  At 4 or 5, one of these may really shake things up (10) CD
16  Upset eviction of top two nationalists in Ireland shuffle (5) IRELAND-NA*
19  While mopping up or sweeping… (8) THOUGH<<OR
21  … leave even half a tea cup nearly brewed (8) EV + A TEA CU*
23  Obelix irresponsibly smuggled potion (6) T
24  Indeed, pizza for a millennial working in San Francisco, perhaps? (6) YUP PIE
26  Cats fragments? (4) &Lit Anag
28  Excellent dramatic short piece (4) PIEC(-E)*
29  Get an education, lose a bit of laziness, make money (4) (-L) EARN

Here is the scorecard (sorted by score and then in the order of submissions received)

Congrats to all of you.

10 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent”, 11 rated it “Good” and 1 rated it as “Average”. Overall, a very good rating. 28 clues in the grid got picked atleast once, in the top 3 favorites voted by the solvers. Twinkling, Plateau, Procedure and Taxi got 5 votes each or more.

Thanks a lot to Gussalufz (Viresh) for a challenging grid. Great going. I am sure that, along with us, our readers also look forward to more puzzles from you.

Did you enjoy the puzzle? Do you have any feedback for us or for the setter. Do comment in the blog and let us know.