Super ambitious to have your first cryptic be a stack of interlocking 10s! It's a very pretty grid, fairly checked, and you've got some good entries—but there's also a bunch of broken "rules" that you might not be aware of.
1A: The two meanings here are too similar, a shared root: it's cheap meat FOR the savings. 6A: This is a pretty good clue! The surface is a little stuff, but [disordered] fits with the idea of one person going first. 7A: This one's better at avoiding the shared roots, but I think STRAPS is still evoking the same thing in both senses. I like the surface sense though! 8A: One of the rules I would advise following is that if it's a word in your answer, it shouldn't be in your clue (unless it's broken up differently). So [The] for THE isn't great. The rest is pretty good, though I don't know that the surface sense means much. 9A: Audaciously difficult to use [infecundity] for erectile dysfunction: nothing wrong with that if it's your intention, but I don't know that it adds much to the surface. Beyond that, [hole] is I think another shared root. 1D: Solid cryptic grammar; again, the question to ask is what does the surface itself mean? 2D: As with 1D, great wordplay, but the surface is a bit of a stretch. (I can sort of envision it though!) 3D: I'm cautious about using proper names; I don't know if there's enough of difference with the idiom for this clue to surprise the solver. 4D: I like this kind of wordplay, and I think PICK avoids double-definition, but there are some setters who would say if you have a two-word phrase, you should try to break it not into the same two words. 5D: I guess the quarterback is the singular [Intruder] here? I might quibble about whether [trio] means TRE but I think this is a great idea!
I hope the feedback's helpful/wanted. As I said, you took some very ambitious/impressive swings here, and I'm excited to see what else you come up with!
Alex Peebles-Capin constructor · 2024-07-02T18:31:12.926Z
Thanks for the feedback! I think this will be helpful for any future efforts. Especially avoiding shared roots.
One thing - for 5D, the straight clue is Intruder and the Spanish trio is TRES and the quarterback is PASSER. Does that make any more sense?
Sorry, was a typo on my end (no edit feature): I don't know Spanish that well, but while THREE = TRES, I don't think TRIO does (I think that's actually just still TRIO).
6A: This is a pretty good clue! The surface is a little stuff, but [disordered] fits with the idea of one person going first.
7A: This one's better at avoiding the shared roots, but I think STRAPS is still evoking the same thing in both senses. I like the surface sense though!
8A: One of the rules I would advise following is that if it's a word in your answer, it shouldn't be in your clue (unless it's broken up differently). So [The] for THE isn't great. The rest is pretty good, though I don't know that the surface sense means much.
9A: Audaciously difficult to use [infecundity] for erectile dysfunction: nothing wrong with that if it's your intention, but I don't know that it adds much to the surface. Beyond that, [hole] is I think another shared root.
1D: Solid cryptic grammar; again, the question to ask is what does the surface itself mean?
2D: As with 1D, great wordplay, but the surface is a bit of a stretch. (I can sort of envision it though!)
3D: I'm cautious about using proper names; I don't know if there's enough of difference with the idiom for this clue to surprise the solver.
4D: I like this kind of wordplay, and I think PICK avoids double-definition, but there are some setters who would say if you have a two-word phrase, you should try to break it not into the same two words.
5D: I guess the quarterback is the singular [Intruder] here? I might quibble about whether [trio] means TRE but I think this is a great idea!