Cryptic clues — 12 October 2026

Answers & explanations

1. BASS (4)

   Cultural attaché's aside before the recital. Within marks BASS inside embassy — guitar in the bass sense, the low strings. Name cards and warm white wine cloak the diplomatic host while the instrument sense lands cleanly.

2. PIECE (5)

   Chess-club mutter: rep semi more logic zone. Finally takes P-I-E-C-E. Man is the piece sense — a chessman — while the tournament zoning fronts the closers.

3. REPLY (5)

   Cabinet lobby when the brief still rustles. President yields P; enclosing puts it in trust (RELY) — RE(P)LY. Answer is the reply sense. Soft carpet and a humming fax sell the container as Whitehall mutter, not a civics primer.

4. DESERVE (7)

   Wage justified. Earn means deserve; reserve with a change of heart swaps R for D, giving DESERVE.

5. PRAT (4)

   Schoolyard insult. Butt is the prat; brat when one becomes another replaces B with P, giving PRAT.

6. EXALT (5)

   'Wild' frees LATEX and it becomes EXALT — to glorify. Rubber plant or paint, the definition is up front.

7. TEASER (6)

   Memory-test brief that never quite coheres. Leading letters of they ever allow split extent recall, tipped by 'initially', assemble T-E-A-S-E-R. Puzzle is the definition — a teaser — while the cognitive checklist does the camouflage.

8. BONUS (5)

   Payroll office when the envelopes still stack. Book yields B and burden ONUS — B+ONUS spells BONUS. Incentive is the extra sense. Soft paper and a humming fan wrap letter-then-load as clerkly mutter.

9. SCRATCHES (9)

   Double duty: scratches as light wounds, and scratches as light touches. Skin-deep either way.

10. CEU (3)

    Portuguese céu is sky (CEU in the grid). Lisbon looks up for you.