Crafty about mode of transport going to Clare? Hardly! (8)
I believe the answer is:
scarcely
'hardly' is the definition.
(I know that hardly can be written as scarcely)
'crafty about mode of transport going to clare?' is the wordplay.
'crafty' becomes 'sly' (sly can mean crafty or cunning).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'mode of transport going' becomes 'car' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to clare?' becomes 'ce' (I've seen this in other clues).
'car'+'ce'='carce'
'sly' going around 'carce' is 'SCARCELY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scarcely that I've seen before include "Almost not" , "Not quite" , "Barely, hardly" , "Only just or hardly even" , "Surely not" .)