to be annoyed that I struggle with cryptic crosswords...

[NessCathy]

I've been trying to get into cryptic crosswords, and I'm really annoyed that I struggle with them, and some find them so easy. I can usually get a few and when I cheat, find myself thinking either
a) Oh, that's so bloody obvious, or
b) How could anyone have put all that together?

Anyone else like them? Maybe we could have a MN group to improve? Or a grandmaster to help us?

Norma I think it is TICK

Well I have my Sat Telegraph that I've started on but still stuck n some of the Guardian ones from the other day, just want to finish it now!
Think I may have been indoctrinated by years of the Telegraph too.

So a few of the ones I've got left:

9ac: ? spread story: icon covering head in shocking Pepsi outburst (9)
G?S?I?P??
12ac: A new suggestion for wager ? Ascot, firm going, Dettori finally getting his starting orders? (9)
A???P?S?I
13ac Foreign news breaking: "Union backing musical" (8)
U?N?T?V?

Any ideas?

I thought tick as well - just not satisfied that I get the reason why
A tick is a biter, but 'bit'?

JKS - what kind of help do you want? I can help you get the answers or do you want to know what the answers are?

I think 9ac is about spreading stories but not sure how the clues work out, except that part of Pepsi is anagrammed in it

Pretty sure the second one is to do with ordering starters

haven't got the 3rd one yet.

icon = God
Head in shocking = S + pepsi outburst (anagram)

so anagram of spepsi in god

oops, silly me - it has two Ps in it, I thought only one.

Have you got the 3rd one, Norma?

13ac Foreign news breaking: "Union backing musical"
Means foreign

NN for news (2 x new)

Breaking (inside)

U for union

Backing musical - so a musical backwards.

So it is UNN with a backwards musical

Find a musical that is ?V?T?

Ta daa

is that even a word?? I have it, but it seems utterly made up!

It does doesn't it

Well I'd the answers but with an explanation too please :)

So 12ac is Antipasti then? Didn't come up in my word finder app.

9ac Gossiped?

and 13 UNNATIVE ? well it does mean foreign i suppose, not a word i would have thought to use.

That sorted me out with quite a few more, think I have just 2 left:

15d Protector of plant's opening job for warder (5,4)
G?E?T,?E?L

something cell? great cell?

and this one: Spice girl with a soprano (5)
M?L?A

think Mel B + a = MELBA, is that a soprano?

Yes, the suprano is Dame Nellie Melba. So Mel B is the spice girl with 'a' .

Can't get the other one yet...

I've just spotted the 'cheat' box on the webpage!
It was GUARD CELL.

Will get back to my weekend Telegraph ones now :)

I didn't like the prize one in The Guardian today. I don't like having a theme either much. I think I am an entrenched Telegraph girl! Although I do like trying to word out the individual clues that people are posting. Any more?

DId you all know that the peach melba was created and named for Dame Nellie Melba, c. 1892/3, when she was in London at the Savoy Hotel?
I have just checked dates in Wiki and discovered that Jan 13 is National Peach Melba day in the USA!!

JKS, 9ac Gossiped?

Spread story is the definition.

Anagram of:

god - icon
pepsi - outburst, so jiggle it around.

The extra s from shocking??

For UNNATIVE, I get the UN & evita going backwards, but not the rest.

JKS - yes, it is antipasti.
12ac: A new suggestion for wager ? Ascot, firm going, Dettori finally getting his starting orders? (9)

A N(ew) TIP (suggestion for wager) AS (Ascot), not 100% sure about the TI tbh but I had the word by then and Dettori just signifies the Italian starter, I think.

Help needed Have got one clue left in MOS Prize Crossword:
Logical fallacies I-O-A Any ideas ?

Um, no. I have cheated and used the word finder but none of the 4 words it turned up had any definitions.
without being rude, are you sure all those letters are correct?

It sounded like a plural with 'a' on the end so I searched for 'i???us' and 'i???um' words and found 'idolum' which means 'fallacy' so 'idola' could be the plural? Don't get the logical bit though.

I have spent too long reading about logical fallacies (I know it's not that simple) and trying to work on the collapse of logic, but it didn't fit and doesn't make another word anyway.
Idola looks good - other definitions include mental images, spectral images, phantasms, ideas - some people consider spectres (ghosts) to be illogical, would that work?

Answerbank says IDOLA :)

Hocus Thumbwitch JKSLtd Thankyou all for your help. IDOLA must be right but I had tried different letters in the D position this am with no luck.

Thumbwitch - going back to the end of the Antipasti clue; ASCOT with 'firm going' - firm in the sense of a company, or co., going, so remove CO from ASCOT; leaving you with AST.

• DETTORI finally - take the final letter of Dettori - I

• getting his starting orders - the 'his' merely linking Dettori's nationality to the Italian starter, ANTIPASTI.

If any of that made sense at all, er, hurrah! I clearly don't have Araucaria's way with words...