Cryptic 7x7 #6 by tuber

Comments

• tuber constructor · 2023-08-29T00:29:49.472Z

  Hi solvers! Thanks for giving my puzzle a crack (and hopefully also cracking the puzzle.) Your feedback's always very welcome, so let me know how you got on Here's the wash-up:

  ACROSS. 1A. Enough = AMPLE after first of "small" = S. 5A. Crack = SOLVE by Sailor = AB. 6A. Setter = ME contained in anag. REAL, + diamonds = D. 7A. Fish = RAY contained in fiddle = CON.

  DOWN. 1D. Homophone ("say") of soft leather = SUEDE. 2D. anag. ("suspect") of AHEMSIR. 3D. Student = L (Learner) + A (given literally) contained in anag. BULLY 4D. Field = LEA + study = DEN. ("Heavy" / "metal" is a double definition.)

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• Jon 8:05 · 2023-08-29T03:46:09.722Z

  Nice. Thx.

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• Jon 8:05 · 2023-08-29T03:54:06.966Z

  IMO 7D is misleading. All is good except I believe it's a stretch to go from "student" to intuit the L for learner. Maybe something more direct. The rest of the cluing is great. Thanks.

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  • tuber constructor · 2023-08-29T08:16:35.490Z

    Believe it or not, this one is occasionally a matter for debate among the great and good of cryptic crossword setters and solvers. I am neither great nor good, so I can only humbly submit in my defence that (i) it still crops up in newspaper cryptics, and (ii) Wikipedia lists it on its "crossword abbreviations" page, at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword_abbreviations.

    I'm not sure I've convinced even myself that I disagree with you, though. I'll let it stand here and try harder to avoid it in future. Thanks!

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    • Jon 8:05 · 2023-09-01T23:59:43.542Z

      Thank YOU!

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• Iris 🤓5:11 · 2023-08-30T04:29:41.014Z

  Lovely! The use of "apprehend" was a cleverly misleading in 2D - a very nice clue!

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• merlinnimue 🤓5:43 · 2023-09-01T01:03:08.021Z

  very nice

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• dooiemus 🤓29s · 2023-09-06T15:02:06.609Z

  Overall pretty good. Couple of nits though. In 1A "had" is only there for the surface reading. Does "first small" really mean "the first letter OF small"? To me it doesn't, but I see it in the dailies all the time so I'm not complaining. In 6A does "real trouble" really mean an anagram of "real"? To me it doesn't. Same deal. "Troubled" would work for me, though. In 4D, "of" is only there for the surface. On the other hand, I agree with you that "L" clued as "student" is absolutely fine. No need to avoid anything in that regard in the future I would say. While I'm at it, I've seen cryptics here on crosshare that broke every rule in the book and still be labeled as "awesome" in the comments. Breaking cryptic rules is no big deal of course but please don't call your puzzle "cryptic" if you do! "Ridiculously loose wordplay" might be a better handle.

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  • tuber constructor · 2023-09-06T16:45:37.038Z

    Of course, the really silly thing is that "small" already stands for "S" without any initialism indicator at all...

    Thanks for this, your nits are worth picking at. My barometer, the setter to whose standards I most aspire, is Private Eye's Cyclops, aka Eddie James.

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