Cryptic 11x11 #2 by tuber

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• tuber constructor · 2023-12-22T12:33:38.006Z

  Only my third puzzle at this size? I find that surprising. Quite a lot of clues of the form "anagram with insertion" this time around, so apologies for any sense of sameness experienced, it's just whatever seems right. Other than that - I've been off working on other things, so just waiting for the crossword bug to bite me once again and I'll start putting more puzzles out.

  Time for the wash-up:

  ACROSS. 1A. Containment of "revenue initially" = R in anag. "English" = E + TAX. 4A. Anag. "British" = B + BAKE. 7A. "Pill" = E + reversal of "headed" = LED, contained in "Mentalist" = PSYCHIC. 8A. "Oscar" = O contained in anag. KEELS + "over" = O. 10A. Double def. 11A. Hidden in "yoGAStudio" 12A. Anag. CUBIST + "one" = I. 14A. "Irrational figure" = PI contained in anag. ANOONTIDE. 16A. Remove last letter from "bubbles" = LATHER. 17A. "Criticize" = PAN + outer letters of "stringy" = SY.

  DOWN. 1D. "Former" = EX + "student" = L after "training" = PE. 2D. Homophone of "seamstress" = "tailor" + "fast-working" = SWIFT. 3D. Anag. HAS. 4D. Reversal of 10A = NEY in "issue" = KIDS. 5D. Cryptic def. 6D. "Impose restrictions upon" = BAN, inserting "CO" = company. 9D. "Green" = LIME, "boat" = SUB goes first. 11D. "Become" = GROW + "large" = L. 13D. "addressed for" = TO + "Doris, perhaps" = DAY. 15D. Double def.

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  • Oliver Hardy 19:17 · 2023-12-22T18:05:17.391Z

    Thanks! Your advice, please; is it generally accepted to include abbreviations in anagram fodder, as in 4A?

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    • tuber constructor · 2023-12-22T23:48:46.720Z

      "Yes," he said, but somewhat hesitantly and with shifty eyes...

      This isn't a professional source, but https://cryptics.fandom.com/wiki/Indirect_anagram says "the partial use of abbreviations [is] a practice normally considered fair in moderation," which I think reflects my experiences as a solver pretty well. When setting, though, I do consciously try to avoid this practice, and indeed I looked for better alternatives for 4A and 8A but without much success.

      My personal compromise stance on this is to use only the most straightforward abbreviations where a single word stands in for a single (initial) letter.

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      • Oliver Hardy 19:17 · 2023-12-23T07:04:32.580Z

        Many thanks for the reply and the link.

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• Hector 🤓17:31 · 2023-12-22T17:21:03.616Z

  Very enjoyable, thank you! I'm very slowly catching onto cryptic conventions and Britishisms, and had to google "student L cryptics", to discover that in the UK there is a license plate with a big "L" for a newly-licensed ("learner") driver.

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  • tuber constructor · 2023-12-22T23:57:40.807Z

    Thanks! Glad you liked it.

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• merlinnimue 🤓10:08 · 2023-12-22T19:32:09.219Z

  Got got by 4a (for a long time I had babke, got fooled by the surface, and thought it mightve been an alternate spelling) and 7a (could not find a parse on my own)... thanks anyway for your great puzzles, sorry for the inconvenience

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• kieranjboyd 🤓7:19 · 2023-12-23T04:06:41.561Z

  Fun! I quite liked the clues for KEBAB and GROWL. Could've submitted for the recent midi contest with 2D!

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• metagloria 🤓9:11 · 2023-12-23T18:05:42.533Z

  Very enjoyable! Keep up the good setting :)

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• ObscureFox 27:16 · 2023-12-23T19:49:51.920Z

  Fun, thanks for sharing

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