Crossword Genius

A surrogate I caught heading south, being greedy (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

avaricious

'greedy' is the definition.
('avaricious' can be a synonym of 'greedy')

'a surrogate i caught heading south' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'caught' could be 'c' (cricket abbreviation) and 'c' is found in the answer.
'south' could be 's' ('S' can be a synonym of 'south') and 's' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'being' is the link.

(Other definitions for avaricious that I've seen before include "mercenary" , "keen to grab treasure?" , "Greedy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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