From the "credit/blame where credit/blame is due" department, the clue was in a Cryptic Crossword puzzle in the September 6, 2014 edition of Toronto's Globe and Mail, set by Canadian cryptic legend Fraser Simpson. The cleverness/deviousness of the clue was making us think that the 'x' at the end of the solution (easily determined by the crossing word solution 'sandbox' was part of the word play, not the clue definition. And as noted earlier, 'spotted' as in 'lent' - I spotted him ten pounds until payday - was similarly diabolical.