Contest between insects? (7,5)

'insects?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'contest' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'contest' could be 'match' (match is a kind of contest) and 'match' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'cricket' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'between' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?