Monday 15 August 2016

15 Cryptic Crosswords -One part of the word tells you what to do with the other part

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day. Unfortunately for some of the time I will be camping, so I hope to manage this, but it might get a bit tricky if I have no internet access.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

I love these.
You don't see them often, so you forget to watch out for them. Then they come along and surprise you with a visit and make you laugh.

Encircle a US private outright (4) Advertiser 12/2/16-two speed
Encircle is the straight clue
A US private is a GI
But this last bit is the tricky bit
Outright indicates that you should use the letters on either end of right (r and t) to make up the answer
Encircle =girt (GI plus rt)

Stable worker sent offshore twice (10) Advertiser 29/2/16
Here offshore indicates that you need to take the letters shore and make an anagram (in this case you need to do it twice)
The answer is horseshoer.

Not a lover of earthquakes(5) Advertiser 26/8/16
Not a lover is the straight clue
Earthquakes is the tricky bit.
Make "earth" quake and you get hater!

Indicators could be any word starting with in or out. There are others too I'm sure.
Another would be off as in the clue above (Offside, offshore)
Obviously words that have an action in them such as earthquake are also good for this.

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