Hi Ged,
I think I found the answer ... even though strange ... never noticed / had that issue:
There is a difference if
a) opened from Photoshop > Filter > Camera RAW Filter ... and ...
b) opened directly from bridge as (usually as a DNG, and sometimes as jpg)
... a) does NOT show the crop tool
... b) does show the crop tool
So, I'm not able to use the Camera Raw crop tool when coming from something already opened in Photoshop.
It is, of course, not a big deal since I can always crop in Photoshop.
But, through all those years, I can't remember that the Camera RAW crop tool only works when accessing CR directly from bridge (not from Photoshop > Filter, which I often do to take advantage of Camera RAW tools)
Please add anything that would clarify this further ... otherwise issue solved.
Thanks for your time
The answer was given earlier by Derek and later by Ged.
Although Camera Raw and the Camera Raw Filter have similarities, they are not the same thing and only one of them (Camera Raw) has the ability to crop. So to see the crop tool you need to open the image directly in Camera Raw rather than using the Camera Raw Filter from Photoshop.
Dave