The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

ercbegntr
fgevat

alarmists?

damnit i THOUGHT the council house answer!

shoulda got the journalists one tbf

lately indebted one threw me but is a good clue

wait did we get the journalists one yet?

yup. xp might need that explained...

i was close to it!

i kinda get #2, don't get #1

Journalists one is nice. Quite like the 4-5 too.

Crucial for #1: peach = betray, accuse

^ my new thing learned for the day

^ !

Ohhhh.. #2: double def, front sight of a gun

Yeah, I just looked up peach on thesaurus.com - still couldn't make it fit into an answer, right enough.

this is total new word def day for me. Wait! Very!

still can't get #2 to parse but friday evening settling in at this stage

Ey thanks and kudos to GP for this shot in the arm btw

Cor, also did not know about bead = sight on a gun. This is very informative (and pretty obscure) stuff all round.

Can someone explain 'lately indebted'? I get #1 and the 'bang' one now, thanks guys.

and i'd like to thank the makers of the chambers iphone app for helping me find these ridic words

Lately indebted basically other way of saying overdue, no?

I think it's just an &lit: 'lately indebted' = late on your debts = arrears

that was xp

I knew bead = sight on gun, but didn't click.

yeah arrears just late on debt

'wearer of a necklace' not really sure bout this part though

necklaces have beads. sometimes. this is the weakest thing yet imo.

yeah the rest of that batch are pretty solid clues tho

How does the 'council' one work?

you pay rates based on the value of your house as determined by the council, right?

so if they 'don't appreciate' etc- underrated

Ah, right, right. Good work everyone!

well, it is actually, but thanks

I'll try and paste the last batch of these sometime next week.

V works in council housing section fyi V

dawn broke in not so poor a way as this (9)

i have the answer, can post in rot-13, but for the life of me the dawn broke part is as well to be a random addition.

aye, rot-13 it because I can't figure it, but might be able to figure it back?

i will be impressed

comin up

qrfgvghgr

OK, nothing leaping out at me. I can see the use of "broke", I can see "not so poor as way as this", but can't see how they would fit together at all?

Would put good money on ledge cracking it though.

dawn, i mean wtf?

Just stared at this for a whole episode of family guy. I got nuthin.

as long as it's not just me and my bro tbh

Yeah, nothing here, and I tried it just after watching Sherlock, which should have given me the deductive skills to get it. Keep thinking the 'dawn' has to be an allusion of some kind.

o crap, wait, I sort of see - is it misdirecting then flagging up its own misdirection? ie dawn is *just* there to mislead on the sense of 'broke' (which serves as the definition, despite being mid-clue), then telling you 'the answer ≈ broke, but in another sense to do with poverty'.

That's an unacceptable clue by UK crossword standards imo.

that reading would be as strange for crosaire as it would anywhere else though.

re: mid clue definitions though, tis an interesting point. it is possible to construct legitimate clues that way, and some barred-grid setters use them. you just have to try and stick the def inbetween two bits of wordplay (e.g. anag fodder, anag indicator), like so:

hero's a nag, when upset (5)

well that's legit, but it's a hell of a jump from that (also 'a nag' deliberate or not?) to throwing in a random word with a sketchy indication to ignore it.

i don't think it's a runner in this instance, based on 15 odd years with these particular crosswords.

but why dawn? if it's just there as misdirection, then that's not on.

xpost

dawn broke in not so poor a way as this

destitute

i mean you'd be looking for 'dawn broke' as the puzzle piece to go along with the 'poor state' straight definition, it's as simple as that. just not.

agree that dawn-as-misdirection is an obscenity, but I just can't see any other way to account for it. But I'm not really convinced myself, & wld be happier if we found a poem by Thomas Moore about the Undestitute Sunrise or something.

& re mid-clue defs, yes that doesn't feel too bad if it's fairly easy & used in moderation, but I'm not used to it & frankly fear a world where defs can be anywhere and letter jumbles are separated from anagram indicators.