Cryptic clues — 24 September 2026

Answers & explanations

1. REEL (4)

   Allotment path when the wind gets up. Within freely sits REEL between f- and -y. Rock is the reel/stagger sense; wet soil and a leaning shed cloak the short hide as garden grit.

2. SPIRIT (6)

   Dressing-room roar before the second half. Lurking in spirited sits SPIRIT before -ed. Mood is the feel — the spirit — while tape, studs and a slammed door sell the hide as match-day noise, not a dictionary gloss.

3. NORM (4)

   Garden-census humour. 'Last of all' ends robin too never him, giving N, O, R and M, which spell NORM. Average is the statistical norm. Birdwatchers argue counts; the finals settle the mean.

4. FRAME (5)

   Gallery mount. Shape is a frame; flame when one becomes another turns L into R, giving FRAME.

5. PENNY (5)

   Coin jar, donkey nameplate. Cent is the penny; jenny after a letter swap turns J into P, giving PENNY.

6. TAUGHT (6)

   Educated is the definition; the first letters of the listed words spell TAUGHT.

7. SCREEN (6)

   Covert is the definition; the first letters of seed, century, retired, edge, error and newly give SCREEN.

8. REMISS (6)

   Station office after the last train. RE is Ra; MISS the escape that got away. Remiss is negligent. Cold tea and a bent timetable sell the join as desk mutter, sun-god still before the miss.

9. WHORL (5)

   Scroll is the whorl sense — a spiral roll. We hear marks whirl as a homophone for WHORL, the spin spoken as the coil.

10. DECREASE (8)

    DECREASE is a double definition. The diminution sense is the change downward, and decrease is also a matter of magnitude or size. Decrease names both the shift and the drop.