A mixture today of some very easy clues and some that were a bit more tricky to parse. I was helped by having blogged an EV about a month ago where 22,12,24 and 23,18,16 formed part of the theme so these fell into place quite readily. A good variety of clue types, with not too many anagrams, led to an enjoyable solve.
Across
9 OLIGOCENE GO (turn) in LICE (infestation) in ONE – an epoch of the Tertiary period, between 34 and 23 million years ago
10 AGAMA hidden in ‘malAGA MAinly’ – an Old World genus of thick-tongued lizards
11 BRITTEN homophone of Britain (country) – Edward Benjamin Britten, English composer, conductor, violist and pianist
13 SKI hidden in ‘buSKIns’
14 GASTRIC BAND cd
17 PIN-UP IN (home) in PUP (dog)
19 NASTY d&cd – A ST (street) in NY (New York)
21 TITLE-HOLDER *(LITTLE HORDE)
23,18,16 THE FAT CONTROLLER *(THROTTLE OF LANCER)
25 EGOTIST *(IS TO GET) &lit
27 BILTONG L (£) TON (100) in BIG (notorious) – sun-dried lean meat
28 LEAVE dd
29 OVEREATEN homophone of ‘over Eton’ (like the Provost)
Down
1 BOMBES SEB (Coe) MOB (aggressive group) reversed – a dessert, usually ice cream frozen in a round or melon-shaped mould
2 SICILIAN CILIA (hairs) in SIN (evil) – a defence used in chess
3 COTTAGE PIE cd
4 FERN R (river) in FEN (marshy area)
5 REITERATED RE (on) IT (the article) T (time) ERA (time again) T[he] (the top) ED (journalist)
7,6 BANANA CAKE NANA (dog literally) CA (about) in BAKE (cook) – Nana is the name of the dog in Peter Pan
8 LACKADAY dd – 2008 was a leap year
15 SOFT OPTION cd – a reference to the hardness of pencils
17 POT-BELLY *(BELT) in POLY (college) – a person who has a protuberant belly
20 SET FORTH dd
22,12,24 THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE *(NO THANKS HE I GET AT MEN) – a pleasing definition ‘sociable online character’
26 ICES I SEC (dry) reversed
27 BEEF BEE (competition) F (fine)
Good to see Io so soon again. Last year he only appeared 4 or 5 times I believe.
Thanks for blog – I do enjoy an Io solve!
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I enjoyed this but have one niggle: 7,6dn is wrong: Nana is a literary, not literal dog but literarily, unfortunately, wouldn’t work for the surface.
And I wonder why Io didn’t have, in 8dn, ‘2008 didn’t’ or ‘2012 won’t’. Is this a carelessly recycled clue?
[I don’t understand ‘d&cd’ in 19ac.]
Hi Eileen
You are entitled to a niggle now and then, particularly when you are absolutely correct. This error escaped me when I was solving/blogging very early this morning. Perhaps I should have waited until I was fully awake.
I too wondered about the won’t in 8dn but decided that possibly the whole puzzle had been set several years ago rather than it just being a recycled clue.
In 19dn it was my shorthand way of saying that there was a definition and then a cryptic indication for the wordplay. Sorry if I didn’t make this clear.
Hi Gaufrid
Thanks for the explanation re 19ac. Sorry – I’d misread it as double/cryptic definition. 🙂