Cryptic 1: Pol Known To Spout Off

dilly 🤓1:32 · circa 2 mesi fa

It’s great to see so many people getting into the world of cryptics! This is a great first effort, here is some clue-by-clue feedback, hopefully some of it can be helpful:
1A: P(ACT)S: no notes on this one, wordplay works great and the surface feels natural!
4A: /tooter/: this one also works great, though I might take issue with the verb tense: “evoked tooter” and “evoking tooter” are both phrases that can stand on their own referring to the sound of “tooter”, and “evoke tooter” works as an imperative, but I find it’s harder to make a case for “evokes tooter.” But this is a bit nitpicky.
5A: SIRED[-e] (desire*): this is great wordplay & a great surface. The only iffy part is using “despite” to connect the def & the wordplay; something like “from” or “out of” works a bit better as in “[this definition] (comes) from [this wordplay]”.
1D: POTUS*: I really like “spout off” as an idiomatic bit of wordplay. Similar to 5A, only question is whether “[def] known to [wordplay]” makes sense as a connector. Cryptic solvers tend to be very picky about these extra words!
2D: CAT+ER: here again “[wordplay] can [def]” is a bit iffy as a connector, something like “[Feline hesitation] [to serve]” with no connector avoids this.
3D: SHRED*: this is an indirect anagram (i.e. an anagram of a synonym; "cattle" for "herds") which is pretty much universally verboten in cryptics, as it is considered too difficult to find an anagram when the letters aren’t given directly. So it would need to be “Tear like spooked herds” which still surfaces well, and “spooked” is a great anagram indicator.
Ok, hopefully there’s something helpful in there! You’ve got definition and wordplay down well, just make sure you can justify the words between them. Looking forward to your next!

Cryptic 1: Pol Known To Spout Off

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