Saturday Times Jumbo Cryptic 1083 Saturday March 22Nd 2014

[diogenes44]

1.down. Cloth unfortunately short - better to be covered up (6). a?p???. Looks like alpaca (alack short) but can't parse the rest of it.
15 across. Picks rows, heading off - preferred (5). ??l?s. Possibly c at start if alpaca is correct. Thanks in advance.

[bibblebub]

1d) ALPACA = cloth

unfortunately short = ALA(s)
better to be covered up = put cap reversed inside i.e. PAC

AL pac A

[bibblebub]

15a) CULLS = (s)culls

(i reckon 'preferred' is a printing error and shouldn't be there at all)

[diogenes44]

Thanks bibblebub. I couldn't work out if I was looking for "rows" or "preferred" so I think preferred may indeed have been printed in error. Thanks for the help. Cheers.

[bibblebub]

it does come on the line after the clue and letter count (and the dash comes after that too)

you're welcome

[diogenes44]

I don't have the paper, I printed it from the Times Crossword site and it appears as "Picks rows, heading off - preferred (5)". All on the same line. Thanks.

[bibblebub]

this is how it appears in the paper http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p701/bibblebub/Scr2014-03-2214h35m36s_zps2b36951a.jpg?t=1395500623

[diogenes44]

15 across). "Picks rows, heading off (5) .....
preferred.
I think that would have bamboozled me even more !! Thank goodness I was only dazed and confused.