Crossword Genius

County's bad mood inspiring poorly bowled over (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

suffolk

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'county's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'bad mood inspiring poorly bowled over' is the wordplay.
'bad mood' becomes 'sulk' (I've seen this before).
'inspiring' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'poorly' becomes 'off' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bowled over' is a reversal indicator.
'off' written backwards gives 'ffo'.
'sulk' going around 'ffo' is 'SUFFOLK'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for suffolk that I've seen before include "Eastern county" , "sheep" , "S.E. county" , "East Anglian county" , "Ipswich's county" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app