This one was fun, and a pangram no less, which helped when I was staring at 2dn and realised I still needed a Q. A good range of difficulty, 11 min for me.
Across |
| 7 |
Copper outside, look, to employ a bungling inspector (8) |
|
CLOUSEAU - Copper is CU, outside LO + USE. |
| 8 |
Polish face of yellow gemstone (4) |
|
RUBY - RUB + Y |
| 9 |
Some withdrawing support sacked old world leader (6) |
|
CASTRO - Looked at this for ages before spotting it was a reversed hidden word, despite the universal trigger word 'some'. suppORT SACked |
| 10 |
Drab and dull old woman depresses you, first of all (5) |
|
DOWDY - first letters of Dull Old Woman Depresses You |
| 11 |
A sign of pride? (3) |
|
LEO - whimsical definition. 'Sign' very often means astrological house |
| 12 |
FBI agent backed objective to protect (6) |
|
DEFEND - FED backwards + END |
| 14 |
Classes rise to welcome king and son (6) |
|
GROUPS - GO UP with R inside, then S |
| 16 |
Trembling like a fish (6) |
|
ASHAKE - AS HAKE |
| 18 |
Insect that buzzes around girl in the country (6) |
|
BELIZE - BEE round LIZ |
| 19 |
Fix something to eat with bread (3) |
|
JAM - double definition |
| 20 |
Second rate garden tool that will slow you down (5) |
|
BRAKE - B-RAKE, as opposed to the presumably higher quality A-rake |
| 21 |
Warning sign about endless trouble for well owners? (6) |
|
OILMEN - OMEN outside IL (i.e. ILL shortened) |
| 23 |
This boy has turned a shade of green (4) |
|
EMIL - LIME backwards |
| 24 |
I rate inn poorly lots of years (8) |
|
TRIENNIA - anagram ('poorly') of I RATE INN |
