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It's still worth asking about because of the "ghost synonym" thing.

OK, aristo, keen/eager are synonyms, eager/eagre are homophones - I don't see any ghosts, it's just double wordplay. If eagre were the only spelling is the clue OK, which was my original question what seems like a long time ago. I think it's too convoluted and I won't try doing it again.

My point was that using a synonym (B) for a word (C) that's a synonym for the answer (A) when B isn't a synonym for A makes it a ghost synonym.

I haven't done that, aristo. I can't explain the construction any clearer than I did in post #12 so I'll have to give up - thanks very much for the discussion.

Rambler.
I'll try and explain
The ghost anagram works as follows.

Regular cryptic clue is:

Cheap kind of fruit (5) - ANSWER = PEACH
Cheap = anagram fodder
kind of = anagram indicator
fruit = Definition

The Ghost works as follows:

Inexpensive kind of fruit (5)

Fruit remains the Definition
kind of remains the anagram indicator
BUT
Inexpensive is NOT the anagram fodder (and not the wordplay) but a synonym of the word that has to be found before one can create an anagram from it (the wordplay).

So it's like the cryptic wordplay is once removed from the original fair play of the clue

So, where you used KEEN, then that has to be associated (or synonymised) with Eager/Eagre to then be synonymised with TIDAL BORE which is once removed from what should be the original fair wordplay of the clue.

So aristo's ABC is a good bench mark to go by because A associated with B is fair and B associated with C would be also fair (I think) but A is not associated with C directly so is once removed from the clue and would be deemed unfair.

Did all that make sense, I think I confused myself somewhere in there.


NB: I have no idea if 'synonymised' is actually a word without checking... Ha ha!

Sorry, I meant 'Homophoned' in the 'Eager/Eagre' part

Perfectly clear thanks, les. We've had these discussions on the forum before but some of us still fall into the trap.Thanks very much for all the input.

Thanks, Les, for the puzzle.
My mouse, & then the printer, went south so all that is tomorrow's project. (I always have spares)

Also for the explanation. After reading the back & forth was starting to feel like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcz7v3crrug

Hard to tell them apart, but some were wearing pants, I believe.