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Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

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    Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

    Ah, the Gers part would no doubt have continued to escape me. Thanks

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      Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

      Kerrang readers' boron, silicon and arsenic (10)

      This is a guess. I'm a 70s dad rock fan who failed to complete my PhD in inorganic chemistry alas...

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        Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

        Kerrang-directed "Hollow Slant", anarchic music film (3,5,4,3,4,7)

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          Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

          Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

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            Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

            Deutsche Grammophon Metalloids compilation: it's a winner in America! (4,8)

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              Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

              Scrimmaged about gold medalist, mangled as it is removed (6)

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                Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                Rugby player mauled at the line (but not in play) (7)

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                  Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                  Athlete's release of anger during point-to-point (5)

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                    Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                    W _ _ _ _

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                      Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                      Wires knotted - arcane ties (10)

                      (Unfamiliar with Athlete's oevre, I was looking for a justification of SIREN.)

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                        Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                        Let's carry on grinding the site into the dust, allegedly.

                        Wires knotted - arcane ties (10)

                        _ _ T _ _ _ _ I _ _

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                          Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                          Batter describes catenaries (4)

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                            Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                            _ _ S _

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                              Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                              C _ S _

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                                Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                1 Cosh the driver! They're all guilty! (2,3,2,8)

                                And for your bonus,

                                2 Christmas at Wapping (7,2,3,3)

                                3 Attractive but empty (6,6)

                                4 Uke hint (7,2,3,1,1)

                                5 Ignore shadow chancellor (5,4,3,8)

                                Solutions are linked

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                                  Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                  No one is innocent, sadly, when it comes to the primal urge (8)

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                                    Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                    page

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                                      Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                      Shows instinct in bowel movement. (3,8)

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                                        Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                        Shows instinct in bowel movement. (3,8)

                                        _ _ T / _ _ _ _ T _ _ _

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                                          Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                          How does WoE's clue work? I can't quite get the anagram to fit.

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                                            Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                            Crude gut reaction about eleven is to bring in elevenses, maybe? (7,8)

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                                              Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                              "when it comes" places it into the anagram of is innocent, no one leaves an anagram of instinct.

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                                                Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                                Yes but if you put "it" into the anagram you have too many "i"s. If you don't put it in you have too few "t"s.

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                                                  Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                                  I meant to come back to this earlier in the week, but forgot:

                                                  * Araucaria and Ximenes are/were the pen names of two of Britain's most popular setters. The broad difference in their styles can be summarised,

                                                  X: clues should follow fairly rigid rules in setting, even if the surface reading looks a bit clunky

                                                  A: they should read as pithily/ elegantly as possible, even if that means some liberty with the rules.
                                                  I don’t think this is quite right. It’s certainly true that Ximeneans say that there should be specific rules to be followed (eg you can capitalise a non-capitalised word – so for the purposes of misdirection “reading” can become “Reading”, say – but you can’t fairly do it the other way round), and they say that a clue should be quite precise in the way that it is parsed and in the way it leads logically to the solution. And it’s certainly true that Araucarians are more liberal in their interpretation of the rules, and are all in favour of bending or ignoring the rules under many circumstances (although only as long as they remain fair to the solver).

                                                  However, I don’t think surface reading or elegance really comes into it – or at least, even if that’s the stated motivation for rule-bending it’s not what we see in practice. The most frequently voiced criticism of Araucaria that I’ve heard is precisely that many of his clues are over-wordy and completely lack any surface intelligibility – they can’t read as anything other than crossword clues, which is practically the definition of inelegance in a clue. That’s of course not to say that Araucaria can’t be elegant in his clueing – but that particular criticism regarding surface reading is the one that is levelled at him more than anyone.

                                                  Conversely, some of the most pithy, elegantly worded clues you will find come from arch-Ximenean Pasquale. In fact, for pithy elegance in clueing, I think him and fellow Ximenean Brendan are probably top of the Guardian tree (which isn’t to say they are the best in general – the wit of the more Araucarian Paul makes him top dog for me).

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                                                    Friday Cryptic Crossword Game

                                                    ad hoc wrote:
                                                    Yes but if you put "it" into the anagram you have too many "i"s. If you don't put it in you have too few "t"s.
                                                    "No one is innocent, sadly" = INSTINC. This comes to "the primal" = T. Definition part is "urge".

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