Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Help, please, parsing these....

1a. Look-out place in rear part of yard guarded by dog (3,6) - BOW WINDOW (Look out place)

I can see the 'Dog' part (Bow), but why 'in rear place of yard'?

9d. Before fine party see beer passed round, free (9) - AVAILABLE (Free)

Other than the fact it's got ALE 'Passed round', I'm at a loss.

36d. After spirit, ready for some cake (11) - GINGERBREAD (Cake)

I assume GIN is 'Spirit', but after that......

56a. Depression, say, admitted by writer after setback (5) - BASIN is the only thing I can think of that comes close to definition, but I can't parse any of it so...

1a) bow wow + in + d (YARd)

1. The dog is Bow Wow+In (from the clue) and the 'd' at the end (rear part_ of Yard. Bow W In D Ow.

36 Spirit = Ginger, ready = bread (money)

56. Basin is the depression. Nib is the writer,(setback = reverse it, so Bin) and as = say. B As In.

Available... and I'm often hopeless at parsing.

Ale is beer
Ai is fine
V is See
Lab is party

A V ai Lab Le

Re Available... the V = see is from the Latin. I've seen this in crosswords before.

That's brilliant, thanks Malone, thanks Andy.

PS. Hi Andy, do you remember when I first started doing these cryptics, you, Mamya, Jazzgirl , Trevor and several others used to come to my aid on a nightly basis?

Yes I do Brendan.....the good old days! You don't need us as much now....well done.