Crossword Genius

Terrible state of duck in pasty I'd cooked (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dystopia

'terrible state' is the definition.
(a dystopia is a terrible state or world)

'duck in pasty i'd cooked' is the wordplay.
'duck' becomes 'o' (resembles zero - 'duck' in cricket).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'cooked' is an anagram indicator (letters cooked into a new form).
'pasty'+'id'='pastyid'
'pastyid' with letters rearranged gives 'dystpia'.
'o' put into 'dystpia' is 'DYSTOPIA'.

'of' is the link.

(Other definitions for dystopia that I've seen before include "worst possible place?" , "Imaginary society in which everything is bad" , "where everything's bad" , "there's no worse place" , "Imaginary place where all is bad" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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