Special, Sunday 02 May 2021, Crux

Lockdown Day 5 of 14 Stay Safe

Welcome to our new setter duo CRUX. Bouquets and Brickbats welcome.

Three answers per commenter till 6 PM (Annotations compulsory) 

Please submit all your answers in one comment.  

(COMMENTS ENTERED WITH LESS THAN THREE ANSWERS/ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE, UNLESS THE COMMENTER SPECIFIES THAT IT IS A COMPENSATION FOR A REPEAT)

Enjoy.

The Sunday Crossword No 3148, Sunday 02 May 2021

Lockdown Day 5 of 14 Stay Safe

ACROSS

1   US government dept wanting redesign, receives crest (6,7) SECRET SERVICE*

8   What's seen next to delta? Sound (again) (4) ECHO [DD]

9   Historian, atrocious lecturer with hesitant expression (10) CHRONICLER {CHRONIC}{L}{ER}

10 Everyman eating starter of udon, followed by rieslings: essentially healthy meal (6) MUESLI {M{Udon}E}{rieSLIngs}

11 Like blushing bride ... or wife in northern cathedral before midweek (5-3) NEWLY-WED {N}{E{W}LY}{WED}

12 Water and transplant bergenias (6,3) BERING SEA*

14 Gather ... and flow back (4) MEET<=

15 Naked co-host returning to red-light district (4) SOHO {cO-HOSt}<=

16 Kind of graph line displaying eroticism (9) ISOMETRIC*

20 City accommodating national building's elected representatives (representing Australia, primarily!) (8) CANBERRA Acrostic &lit

21 Bacon's getting increasingly hot-headed (6) RASHER [DD]

23 Milliner: not 'dealer in candle-making' – that's silly talk! (10) CHATTERING {HATTER} in {ChandlerING}

24 Watched some of a play in the auditorium (4) SEEN (~scene)

25 Funny (cutting) to include 'magic powers' alongside Freudian concept (4-9) SIDE-SPLITTING {S{ID}{ESP}LITTING}

DOWN

1   Some vacuous blind at the end in clue for 'cloister' (7) SECLUDE {SomE}{CLU{blinD}E}

2   They benefit the workers (getting pounds) (2-3) CO-OPS [CD]

3   Cutting alien, replacing lead character in Chinese book (7) ETCHING (-i+et)ETCHING

4   Dog chewed slippers in anger (8,7) SPRINGER SPANIEL* 

5   'Literature' now normally includes celebrity (6) RENOWN [T]

6   Desire to move on, abandoning bold, malicious poetry (5,4) ITCHY FEET {bITCHY}{FEET}

7   Most dangerous, heading off to mountain (7) EVEREST sEVEREST

13 Shy, not going out, I hit bed, tossed and turned (9) INHIBITED {IN}{I+HIT+BED}*

15 Causes injury with farm implements: end of agony? No, the beginning (7) SCATHES SC(-y+a)THES 

17 Husband material skipped a ceremony, they say (2,5) MR RIGHT (~missed  a rite)

18 Lettuce, rice (and giblet, oddly enough) in salad (7) ICEBERG {RICE+GiBlEt}*

19 Demobbed soldier finally given firearms, regularly missing sources of heat? (6) DRIERS {d...eD}{s...eR}{fIrEaRmS}

22 Dish, South American, hot chili – at last! (5) SUSHI {S}{US}{H}{c..lI}

Reference List

Lecturer = L, Wife = W, Northern = N, Bold = B, South = S, Hot = H