My first occasion to lock horns with Rodriguez, at least on a blogging day.
This one all seemed to go in very smoothly. That the theme was clearly signposted at 27 across certainly helped. I’ve taken the liberty of italicising the insects themselves, though I’m sure solvers didn’t miss any of them.
Perhaps a slight query over 21 down where “O’CLOCK” is enumerated as (6), though I guess we’ve seen that sort of thing before.
New terms for me at 11 across and 24 across, so I’ve learned something today too. Many thanks for Rodriguez for a good, fun solve.
| Across | ||
| 8 | CHANTER | Geordie entertainer plugs singer, one who intones (7) |
| ANT in CHER. | ||
| 9 | BRIEFLY | In short coat from bazaar that is smart (7) |
| B{azaar}R + IE + FLY. | ||
| 10 | BUGLE | Cause irritation with the French horn (5) |
| BUG + LE. | ||
| 11 | WASP WAIST | Privileged American reporter’s useless, middle feature (4,5) |
| WASP + homophone of “waste”. | ||
| 12 | LEAKED | Field creature living on sheep escaped (6) |
| LEA + KED. | ||
| 13 | REPROACH | Criticise person selling fish (8) |
| REP + ROACH. | ||
| 16 | MAKE A BEELINE FOR | Go directly to competition in Korea and inflame rioting (4,1,7,3) |
| BEE in (KOREA INFLAME)*. | ||
| 19 | TOULOUSE | Books about posh rotter in French city (8) |
| OT< + U + LOUSE. | ||
| 22 | IO MOTH | US flier‘s test gets hard, having passed moon (2,4) |
| MOT + H after IO. | ||
| 24 | BEETLE OFF | Project love and females run away (6,3) |
| BEETLE + 0 + FF. | ||
| 25 | ANITA | Addicts overwhelming silly girl (5) |
| NIT in AA (silly = a noun). | ||
| 27 | INSECTS | They’re in all across answers, factionally divided (7) |
| IN SECTS (all acrosses contain an insect: ant, fly, bug, wasp, ked, roach, bee, louse, moth, beetle, nit, midge). | ||
| 28 | SMIDGEN | Poles consuming small person’s tiny portion (7) |
| MIDGE in S + N. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCAB | Trade union’s enemy in vehicle following Sierra (4) |
| CAB after S. | ||
| 2 | HANG BACK | Execute second lag (4,4) |
| HANG + BACK. | ||
| 3 | ST HELENA | Society cheers, receiving Trojan’s prize in place of emperor? (2,6) |
| HELEN in S + TA. | ||
| 4 | FROWN | Lower layer taken in by Le Pen supporters (5) |
| ROW in FN. | ||
| 5 | VIEWER | Person striving to comprehend compilers in The Observer (6) |
| WE in VIER. | ||
| 6 | AFRICA | Travelling fair around great land mass (6) |
| FAIR* + CA. | ||
| 7 | CYST | Perhaps boil some spicy stew (4) |
| Hidden in {spi}CY ST{ew}. | ||
| 9 | BESEEMLY | Appear in clothing for bride, extremely loosely fitting (8) |
| SEEM in B{rid}E + L{oosel}Y. | ||
| 12 | LIMIT | Bound to have left current US university (5) |
| L + I + MIT. | ||
| 14 | HARSH | Rough recipe to stuff meat dish (5) |
| R in HASH. | ||
| 15 | VERSIONS | Dislikes missing the first editions (8) |
| {a}VERSIONS. | ||
| 17 | NEO-LATIN | Struggling alone to preserve Renaissance language (3-5) |
| ALONE* + TIN. | ||
| 18 | FOOTINGS | Building soon fit to cover grand foundations (8) |
| G in SOON FIT*. | ||
| 20 | UNEASE | Discontent in leaving EU – insane rubbish! (6) |
| Anagram of (EU + {in}SANE). | ||
| 21 | O’CLOCK | Nothing to notice, according to timekeeper (6) |
| O + CLOCK. | ||
| 23 | OF USE | Handy old electrical component (2,3) |
| O + FUSE. | ||
| 24 | BAIT | Lure company of fliers with hanky-panky (4) |
| BA + IT. | ||
| 26 | ARNE | English composer deserved to get stripped off (4) |
| {e}ARNE{d}. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; {} = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
I like this setter. Someone may have mentioned Marcus Rashford (ie a brilliant newcomer).
I was puzzling so long on 12 then I looked up KED-another one for the collection.
Thanks to all.
Outstanding entertainment. All did not go in very smoothly for me. Needed several visits. Did not pay enough attention to 27A and when I did found I had not noticed, as usual, the critters in the A answers.
I suppose if 21D were enumerated 1’5 it would have been too bleeding obvious. Particularly liked 11A, 19A, 9D (not in common usage), 23D.
Please come again Rodriguez and thanks to Simon Harding for the blog.
Enjoyable crossie that proved a bit much for my meagre solving skills in the end. My honours today go to the well-implemented theme so thanks to The Plucker for the puzzle and to SH for the blog.