Hi everyone.
The preamble:
All ten-letter entries are unclued, each comprising two words suggested by a quotation (in ODQ8), derived from single letters, when read in clue order, to be removed from each of 17 clues prior to solving. Unchecked letters in the unclued entries could be arranged to suggest SUNDAYS SEEM A JOKE. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
As the solve progressed some faint ideas for the unclued entries floated into my head, but things were going smoothly so I didn’t dwell on them. Towards the end the message started to crystallise:
LIONS LED BY DONKEYS
It was familiar as one of those phrases but I had to look up the details; without an ODQ to hand I found the Wikipedia article informative.
Accordingly, lions are preceded – or led – by donkeys in the unclued grid entries, all neatly fitting into the symmetric pattern. The animals come from various sources, some fictional some real. They were fun to find (except that I was sad to be reminded of Cecil and could say a few choice things about humans). Thanks Eclogue!
The donkeys:
JACKASS – a male ass
CUDDIE – Scottish word for a donkey
ASS – a wild ass or a donkey
GENET – variant spelling of jennet, a jenny donkey
HINNIE – a cross between a stallion and a female ass or donkey
EEYORE – a favourite character from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories
The lions:
LEO – The Lion, constellation; zodiac sign; general name for a lion
ELSA – the lioness of Born Free
PARSLEY – animated lion from the TV series The Herbs
SIMBA – the Lion King from The Lion King
CECIL – real lion, pointlessly killed
SCAR – Simba’s uncle (The Lion King)
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 8a | BREGMA | German amb[l]er crushed bones in meeting (6) | L |
| Anagram of (… crushed) G (German) and AMBER | |||
| 9a | COHUNE | Barbarian infiltrating Council of Europe for source of oil (6) | |
| HUN (barbarian) going into (infiltrating) COE (Council of Europe) | |||
| 10a | AIDE | Presidential assistant, for instance, having sa[i]d idea (4) | I |
| Anagram of (sad) IDEA | |||
| 11a | FRIDAY | Robinson’s companion free to interrupt poetic fairy (6) | |
| RID (free) in (to interrupt) FAY (poetic fairy) | |||
| 12a | ENIAC | One used to calculate current borne by buffeted can[o]e (5) | O |
| I (current) inside (borne by) an anagram of (buffeted) CANE | |||
| 13a | SEJEANT | Perhaps Harlow in group sitting, up in arms (7) | |
| JEAN (perhaps Harlow) in SET (group) | |||
| 15a | ANGER | Range about ra[n]ge (5) | N |
| RANGE anagrammed (about) | |||
| 16a | PROTON | Break down in power in contact with particle (6) | |
| ROT (break down) in P (power) and ON (in contact with) | |||
| 17a | OF YORE | Derived from variable aggregate[s] in times past (6, two words) | S |
| OF (derived from) + Y (variable) + ORE (aggregate) | |||
| 18a | AYESHA | Haggard work indeed has served (6) | |
| AYE (indeed) + anagram of (… served) HAS | |||
| 20a | PICULS | Pil[l]s containing copper? Loads in China (6) | L |
| PILS containing CU (copper) | |||
| 22a | REJIG | Rearrange with reference to appliance guiding tool (5) | |
| RE (with reference to) + JIG (appliance guiding tool) | |||
| 24a | HOMERIC | Poetic [E]den, endlessly fertile (7) | E |
| HOME (den) + endlessly RICh (fertile) | |||
| 27a | PLICA | Fold lip in snarl and call to Hamish (5) | |
| LIP anagrammed (in snarl) and CA‘ (call to Hamish) | |||
| 29a | LIABLE | Likely to have bale[d] out following short story (6) | D |
| BALE anagrammed (out) after (following) LIe (story) without the last letter (short …) | |||
| 30a | ICER | One who might apply coating twice, rushing somewhat (4) | |
| TwICE, Rushing somewhat | |||
| 31a | EN L’AIR | Embracing the French, review of [b]rine is being discussed (6, two words) | B |
| Around (embracing) LA (the French), reversal (review) of RINE | |||
| 32a | KALONG | Egyptian soul to die for large bat (6) | |
| KA (Egyptian soul) + LONG (to die for) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | ARIDER | Drear[y] drunk adopting instructions initially, becomes drier (6) | Y |
| DREAR anagrammed (drunk) taking in (adopting) the first letter of (… initially) Instructions | |||
| 2d | CEDE | Give way to Chancellor of the Exchequer and Department of Employment (4) | |
| CE (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and DE (Department of Employment) | |||
| 3d | AMNIA | Innermost membranes ai[d] man potentially (5) | D |
| AI MAN anagrammed (potentially) | |||
| 4d | SAVANNAH | Plain short girl, who God has favoured, on vessel ascendant (8) | |
| Without the last letter (short) HANNAh (girl, who God has favoured) and VAS (vessel), all reversed (ascendant) | |||
| 5d | LORCA | Whale following L[o]ire inspires Spanish poet (5) | O |
| ORCA (whale) following L (lire) | |||
| 6d | OUDH | Former Indian kingdom is part of proud heritage (4) | |
| Part of prOUD Heritage | |||
| 7d | ONAGER | Old military engine [n]one deployed with rag (6) | N |
| ONE anagrammed (deployed) with RAG | |||
| 14d | TOPOLSKI | Rowing coach to add runner under Pol[k] (8) | K |
| Start with TO, then add SKI (runner) under POL | |||
| 19d | YEXING | Government follows one in Glasgow catching former partner spitting there (6) | |
| G (government) follows YIN (one in Glasgow) around (catching) EX (former partner) | |||
| 21d | LIMENS | Limits in awareness being found after returning mil[e] (6) | E |
| ENS (being) found after the reversal of (returning) MIL | |||
| 23d | GELID | Cold upper-class girl I deserted (5) | |
| GEL (upper-class girl) + I + D (deserted) | |||
| 25d | MINAE | I name [y]on ancient Greek weights (5) | Y |
| An anagram of (… on) I NAME | |||
| 26d | TALC | Tate and Lyle company originally producing soft mineral (4) | |
| Tate And Lyle Company originally | |||
| 28d | ACOL | System of bidding in bridge a[s] company left (4) | S |
| A + CO (company) + L (left) | |||
Trickier than the last couple of EV’s I have tackled but once the letters revealed the quote It was only the fact that Genet is also a type of feline as well as an equine that held me up
I was very close to giving up on this one, given the very tricky answers and the many empty unclued lights. But then I got to LIO BY DON__YS (likely with two letters missing given the even spacing), which led me to DONKEYS then the phrase. From then on it was straightforward enough completing the grid, although having a list of unchecked letters helped for the last couple.
So in the end, a nice puzzle and a fun experience. Just.
PS: I agree much harder than previous EVs, which were so easy I thought it was EV policy to go for lower levels of complexity than the Inquisitor. Perhaps not!