The Stickler Weekly 34 Solution

What do you see when you look at the word INSPECTOR (15-down)? If I asked you for clueing ideas, what would you come up with? IN + SPECTOR (Beatles record producer),  or maybe anagrams like PC IN STORE or PR SECTION? The truth is, with a word like this, there will be dozens of potential wordplays, so how do you pick one? The starting point is rarely the wordplay (although word selection may be based on wordplay availability), it’s the definition. As a cryptic clue is the (hopefully seamless) combination of definition and wordplay, attention must be given to finding as many options as possible in order to end up with the best clue. So, the first task is looking up every reference and reading INSPECTOR entries, arming yourself with as much fodder as possible: the more you have the easier it will be to join with one of the many wordplays available. INSPECTOR has its limitations – it can only be a noun, for example – but nonetheless there are over 20 thesaurus entries, general inspectors (whose who inspect in any way), appointed inspectors (those who inspect as a job), and ranked inspectors (in the police force etc), so a lot to work with. Next, it’s time to explore the wordplays to see if any of them have a natural relationship with a possible definition. For example, an anagram of PC IN STORE would tie in nicely with ‘(police) officer’ thus: “PC in store updated senior officer (9)”. The aim here is to give the solver a complete picture so that breaking down the clue into wordplay and definition isn’t that obvious. Sometimes their isn’t a seamless marriage between definition and wordplay, which means tinkering with the definition, finding new wordplays or (last resort) settling on a clue that you know is deficient. It all takes time but is well worth the effort.