Cryptic clues — 5 October 2026

Answers & explanations

1. SCRIPT (6)

   Clerk's aside as the tape is typed up. Within pulls SCRIPT from transcript — hand in the handwriting sense. Carbon paper and a ticking clock cloak the host so the noun feels spoken at the desk.

2. FATAL (5)

   Incident desk when the overnight brief arrives damp from the rain. Part of finds FATAL in fatality — disastrous, deadly in tone. Stamp pads and cold coffee sell the hide as official copy, not a melodramatic banner.

3. TRACK (5)

   Trail of footprints. Follow means track; trick after one letter change puts A where I sat, giving TRACK.

4. TICKER (6)

   Exchange floor when the labels still peel off screens. Watch is the ticker of prices. Beheaded removes S from sticker, leaving TICKER. Soft jackets and a humming board cloak the deletion as trading aside, not a stationery drill.

5. FLEET (5)

   Fast is the definition. Taking the last letters of golf, skill, came, welfare and planet, signalled by 'at the end', gives FLEET.

6. SALARY (6)

   Staff-room moan over loss era smell pizza junior billy. Last of all nips S-A-L-A-R-Y. Pay is the salary sense — the wage packet — while the leftover lunch fronts the terminals.

7. AUDIT (5)

   Campus accounts under the microscope. Primarily picks A-U-D-I-T from a university's detailed internal tally. Inspection is the definition — an audit — and the bursar's nightmare is the red herring.

8. INFINITE (8)

   Seminar hush when the chalk squeaks. IN plus FINITE — limited — yields infinite. Countless is without number. Cold coffee and a humming projector sell the join as campus weather, paradox worn lightly.

9. GAGGLE (6)

   Farmyard flock. Geese form a gaggle; giggle with a change puts A where I sat, giving GAGGLE.

10. ZANY (4)

    Ounce of some: Z + ANY. The goof is ZANY — wild and odd. Brown paper on the scales is just shop dressing.