Group of artists in a cryptic crossword? (4,7)
I believe the answer is:
dire straits
'group of' is the definition.
'dire straits' can be an answer for 'group' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'of' bit.
'artists in a cryptic crossword?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'artists' is 'straits' which is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dire' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dire straits that I've seen before include "Great difficulties" , "Position of extreme distress" , "Position of acute difficulty - pop group" , "(in) great difficulty" .)