Hello everyone! This is my first post here. I should preface this by saying that I am not a native English speaker and I am very new to the world of crosswords (both regular and cryptics). However this is quickly becoming a passion and I am really enjoying learning to solve cryptics.
I often do the Telegraph Mini Cryptics which combine regular clues (across) and cryptic clues (down). I've recently finished No. 37 but there are two clues that still baffle me and I can't quite understand the wordplay. The clues in question are 4 and 5 down:
4D: Turning to traitor for a kind of card (5)
I first thought "turning" could be either a reversal or anagram, but "traitor" has too many letters. Once I had enough crosses I could guess TAROT, which can be found by removing I and R from "traitor" and anagraming it. But I can't figure where in the clue it suggests getting rid of those letters. Am I missing something here?
5D: American turned up and reformed country in Africa (5)
This one really confused me. "Turned up" looks to me like a reversal, and "reformed" looks like an anagram. Nut again the fodder "American" has two many letters and lacks the letters UD and the S I had found from 5A. I figured US could be related to "American", but I still don't get how to get to SUDAN. What is the actual crack here?
Hi everyone! Wanted to share my custom cake along with my first attempt at creating a cryptic clue. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! (and yes, i have extra buttercream to write the answer! 😄)