Thursdays Crusader

[Ognam]

2d Iwould havegone ahead but wasn't occupied I-L--

[bibblebub]

i'd led

[Quizmonkey]

There have been a lot of duff clues from this crossword recently! This one is just ungrammatical. 'I'd led' can only mean 'I had led' - the construction hinted at by the wordplay can only be 'I'd have led', which clearly doesn't equal the answer!

[bibblebub]

In this clue surely 'have' is used to indicate that 'id' has the additional letters 'led'.

[Quizmonkey]

I considered that - but then it would have to be 'I would has gone ahead...'.

[bibblebub]

I think you're just be a bit too picky, to be honest.

[Quizmonkey]

Cryptic crosswords are all about accuracy! If there wasn't an accepted code every clue would be insoluble. This is sloppy cluing, from basic incorrect grammar - as a compiler myself I (and every other compiler I respect) would reject it and rewrite it.

[bibblebub]

ok then. 'have' applies to the letters obtained from the rest of the subsidiary: the letters 'id' HAVE the letters 'led' (HAS would be ungrammatical in this case)

[Quizmonkey]

Hmm... so you're saying that any lexical unit could in theory take a singular or plural verb? Interesting, but let's agree to disagree!