Crossword Genius

Inferior, replacement pliers break in half at capital of Zimbabwe (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ersatz

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

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

'half at capital of zimbabwe' is the wordplay.
'half' becomes 'ers' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'capital of' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'zimbabwe' is 'z'.
'ers'+'at'+'z'='ERSATZ'

'replacement pliers break in' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ersatz that I've seen before include "inferior type" , "Imitation or substitute, from German" , "Bogus" , "Made in imitation - in Germany" , "Mock" .)

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