Continuing our series for those tempted or daunted by cryptics, we look at strings of letters associated with hospitals
In the example clues below, I explain the two parts of each: the definition of the answer and the wordplay – the recipe for assembling its letters. In a genuine puzzle environment, of course, you also have the crossing letters, which greatly alleviate your solving load. The explanations contain links to previous entries in this series on such matters as spelling one word backwards to reveal another. And setters’ names tend to link to interviews, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.
Any area of life where the same things happen again and again ends up with plenty of abbreviations. And then those abbreviations become fair game for a setter indicating which letters make up their answers. For example, health and hospitals.
8a Looking after Barnet Hospital, show anxiety (8)
[ wordplay: abbrev. for ‘Hospital’ + synonyms for ‘show’ & ‘anxiety’ ]
[ H + AIR + CARE ]
[ definition: looking after barnet ]
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