Across
NOD OFF
MUSED
ECHO
AUTOMOTIVE
HEALTH
TENT POLE
RAINDROP
SHRED
BEGIN
STAND PAT
ABSENTEE
MISHAP
SWEAR-WORDS
RAFT
DRYAD
AS WELL
Down
NUCLEAR
DROLL
FLASHED
MOMENT
SET UP SHOP
DIVULGE
STATE OF THE ART
ITINERARY
ELBOWED
NEMESIS
TEARFUL
STOWED
SURGE
How to solve Kropotkin, Tossman and other cryptic crosswords.
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Although I got the answer to 23d, because SURGE is a large wave, I don’t understand all of the clue. The first part of the clue is “Operator lost on…”. Could you please explain how that leads to SURGE? Thanks. (Your Answers and Explantions for 1003 and 1004 are still available on the Listener website, but not 1005.)
That’s one of my favourite clues this week, Morag!
An ‘Operator’ is a SURGEON (ie someone who does operations) – ON is ‘lost’ (ie drop those two letters ) and we have SURGE.
Thanks for your query – good to hear from you…
I got the answer to 25a but can’t understand how the final word of the clue fits in. A RAFT is definitely something that floats, but how does “floating voter” relate to the answer?
The word ‘voters’ is really just a ‘red herring’ to help mislead the solver that the answer is something to do with elections and political parties. The play on words works because ‘floating’ has the metaphorical meaning of ‘undecided’ as well as its literal meaning. Tricky!