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That was a struggle for me and not an enjoyable start to the day. Soon as I see the word 'Spooner' my mind goes blank 🙄.

I do like Spoonerisms but I sometimes feel as if they are the wrong way round! Shouldn't Spooner be the one that is sweeping his hand across the duck here? I thought the clue should be.. Spooner sweeps etc: lost for words.

Oh dear - not a good start to the day. I think I’ll decamp to the garden and wage war there rather than with this crossword. Will revisit later when hopefully the brain will have engaged.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

4 clues solved.

How on earth do you read 1a or 1d? What kind of clues are they?

Hi Druh,
1a. this would be my thought process, working in reverse…“perhaps” is usually an indication of definition by example, so what a herring is an example of. Skipping starter will usually mean missing a first letter. Germany is often a single letter (note German can be G but Germany is another letter) . That leaves meal as the definition.

Did anyone look at 1d and think “monkey”. I know I did.

Thank you.

Is the answer FISH?

No, but we don’t give answers. You almost have it though.

@druh Close, but check your first letter. That's where the "Germany" comes in. Think car registration letters.

For 1d, the "foolishly" suggests an anagram, but "girl loans" is one letter short (9), and you need 10 (6,4). 500 has a usual cryptic (Roman) value which just leaves thast very odd first character in the clue....

Thank you, both.

Frustratingly I am not improving at all, as you can tell!