Clued In #310 | The answer cannot be found in material things
Mihir Balantrapu | 23 May 2021
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Sometimes, the wordplay is fairly easy to decipher and you think you have found all the bits and pieces that make up your answer. But when you put them all together and expect to see it spell out the answer, it doesn’t.
That’s when you realise that while the setter must make sure that all parts of speech match between answer, wordplay, and definition, he is not quite obligated to make them match between the surface and cryptic readings.
Clued In #308 | Decoding the mundane surface | 19 May 2021
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The revelation of a cryptic clue is, we may imagine, the equivalent of Neo having spent a lifetime tied down by a deadening false Matrix world before suddenly sprouting the eyes to see the true pure green dynamic code of reality that had always underlaid the mundane.
CLUE: Fight after motor breaks down? When the solution to this might be printed. (8)
Clue types: position, anagram
Answer:
Another word for ‘fight’ is ROW.
‘Breaks down’ is an anagram indicator since it suggests some sort of destructive change. An anagram of ‘motor’ is TOMOR.
Clued In #304 | Pay attention and you will get your reward
THCrosswordPlus Desk THCrosswordPlus Desk | 12 May 2021
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A setter is not all devious and the embodiment of pure deceit. They are obliged to be fully truthful about every piece of misdirection they are employing. So, the better attention we solvers pay to the clue’s wordplay, the more likely and certain we are piecing the answer together.
CLUE: Country song after limited expansion (8)
Clue types: position, letter-pick
A kind of classical ‘song’ is ARIA.
Another word for ‘expansion’ is BULGE. ‘Limited’ is an indication that we need to leave out the last letter, and so we get left with BULG.