Missed My Bus

**Hello solvers,** and thanks for trying my puzzle.  I tried to make it not too difficult this time -- but I'm a terrible judge of difficulty, so let me know how you got on in the comments below. While you're here, you should also feel free to follow https://crosshare.org/tuber for more like this.  Here comes the wash-up:

ACROSS.  2A. ||Reversal of "predator" = WOLF.|| 5A. ||Reversal of "friend" = PAL + "caught" = C.|| 8A. ||"Cycle" (i.e. rotate letters of) "contract" = LEASE.|| 9A. ||"Guys" = MEN + "You texted" = U.|| 10A. ||First letter of "show" = S + "Snoop" = PRY.||

DOWN. 1D. ||Containment of "these days" = CE inside "commercial" = AD.|| 3D. ||Reversal of "genuine" = REAL contains first letter of "squadron" = S.|| 4D. ||"Old" = O + "enclosure" = PEN.|| 6D. ||"Vinyl" = LP containing "before noon" = AM.|| 7D. ||Double def.||

I feel like the explanations were fair but it was just a little out of reach for me! I got CLAP. That was it, lol. I was pretty close to getting LASER too, but I didn't parse the positional indicators correctly.

Thanks for a very entertaining cryptic. I loved 7D! 1D had me going for a while as I was trying to fit AD to "these days"; eventually the penny dropped! Only 8A gave me any real difficulty; if "cycle"is an anagrind I would expect the fodder to be the letters of LEASE. Thanks again!

Thanks, glad you liked it.  "Cycling" here suggests a transformation more specific than anagramming - the Grauniad has a few examples: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2019/may/27/cryptic-crosswords-for-beginners-cycling-clues

Hi! Thanks for the link; I don't remember seeing it in a Telegraph cryptic, but my memory isn't what it use to be. So "cycling" is an indicator for anagrams and transformations - this crossword game gets even more fiendish!

Many thanks for your explanations!  I'm terrible at cryptics (although at least I got LP+AM), so it's very helpful to understand how the clues work.

This one made me laugh out loud several times -- great clues!

Cryptic 5x5 #21 by tuber

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