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An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix

After solving the following cryptic clues, find the following properties:

  1. A major property that all ten words share.
  2. A minor property shared by the words in one set, but not the other.

Group 1

  1. Round, crooked grin (4)
  2. Half-baked trifles accomodating upper class's return (5)
  3. Contact the old university heads before church (5)
  4. Mean queen following Penny (6)
  5. Floating motion around two different motorways (8)

Group 2

  1. Youthful graduate at hand (4)
  2. Wandering nomad meets unknown from beginning of week (6)
  3. Crowds in somber assembly back peacekeepers instead of nothing (7)
  4. Lower poles around distant, enclosing gas (8)
  5. Sour, ripe bananas from manager (8)
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    $\begingroup$ I think I can get 9/10 clues but the connections are quite tricky. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Jan 25, 2021 at 11:42
  • $\begingroup$ @hexomino The connections are a bit different than what is normally seen in the Word/Phrase puzzles, but I think (hope) this tag still applies. The second property also depends on the first property, if that helps $\endgroup$
    – samm82
    Jan 25, 2021 at 14:33

1 Answer 1

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The Clues – Group 1

Round, crooked grin (4)
  — RING = GRIN* ("crooked")

Half-baked trifles accomodating upper class's return (5)
  — FRUIT = U (upper class) in (TRIF(les))* ("half-baked", or 4/7-"baked", more like)

Contact the old university heads before church (5)
  — TOUCH = T(he) O(ld) U(niversity) + CH (Church)

Mean queen following Penny (6)
  — CENTER = CENT (Penny) + ER (Elizabeth Regina)

Floating motion around two different motorways (8)
  — SWIMMING = M + MI (two motorways) in SWI.NG

The Clues – Group 2

Youthful graduate at hand (4)
  — BABY = B.A. (graduate) + BY (at hand)

Wandering nomad meets unknown from beginning of week (6)
  — MONDAY = NOMAD* ("wandering") + Y (typical unknown in algebra)

Crowds in somber assembly back peacekeepers instead of nothing (7)
  — NUMBERS = S(O > UN)MBER* ("assembly"; the UN are the peacekeepers)

Lower poles around distant, enclosing gas (8)
  — SOUTHERN = H (hydrogen, "gas") in OUT.ER ("distant" ), all in S.N ("poles")

Sour, ripe bananas from manager (8)
  — SUPERIOR = (SOUR RIPE)* ("bananas")

The property all words share:

They are all one item in a set of five:

Five fingers on a hand: Thumb, index, middle, ring and little finger
Five groups of food: fruit, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy
The five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
Five basketball positions: center, power forward, small forward, point guard and shooting guard.
Modern pentathlon: fencing, swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running

Five Spice Girls: Scary Spice, Sporty Spice, Baby Spice, Ginger Spice and Posh Spice
Five workdays: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
Five Oceans: Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean.
Five Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario

What differs between the two groups:

The items in Group 2 are proper names and the items in Group 1 are just regular nouns.

High fives to:

hexomino, who solved 2.4.

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  • $\begingroup$ My own guess for 2.4 was rot13(FBHGUREA = F naq A fheebhaqvat BHGRE juvpu pbagnvaf U (ulqebtra)) but I can't think how that would fit now. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Jan 25, 2021 at 17:17
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    $\begingroup$ Actually it's probably to do with rot13(gur svir cevapvcny bprnaf) $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Jan 25, 2021 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, the answer makes sense. Perhaps it's rot13(gur Svir Pbzsbegf). :) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 25, 2021 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ You got it! For 1.2, I was going for rot13(sevggref, n flabalz sbe gur ireo gevsyrf, unys bs juvpu tvirf sevg) $\endgroup$
    – samm82
    Jan 25, 2021 at 17:22
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    $\begingroup$ (I guess I'm lucky that my solution worked. I'd never have gotten that synonym.) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 25, 2021 at 17:28

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