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A final flourish to a fine year for Steve Randall with victory in the Christmas Printer's Devilry challenge! This was his 3rd win of the year as part of his 7 top 5 finishes – superb consistency and well done Steve!
 
Paul Coulter snatched 2nd spot with his first podium place for a good while – unlucky Paul, just 3 points adrift with a clue that incorporated topicality!
 
John Tozer also plumped for some topicality and was rewarded with his 6th podium of the year in 3rd place – another excellent year for JT!
 
The PD challenge often throws some different names into the mix and Nick Smith makes his first appearance since 2008 (more topicality!) – congratulations Nick!
 
Michael Kindred squeezed out the last mention of the year with his 3rd top 5 finish in 5th place – well done Michael!
 
ANNUAL COMPETITION
 
That 1st place cemented the top spot for Steve Randall in this year's annual honours list. Hearty congratulations to Steve for an excellent year of cluemanship. He's your man to beat in 2018!
 
John Tozer ensured he hung on to 2nd place for yet another year of solid performance – well done John!
 
David McKie and Toby Robertson shared 3rd place. Toby was second overall last year so really good effort to maintain this level, whilst David has risen from the ranks – can he improve further in 2018?
 
Colin Thomas and Satyen Nabar complete the Annual podium places – Colin repeats his excellent showing of 2016, Satyen makes a debut appearance in the upper echelons

Voting Information

Voting is open until Midnight UK time on Wednesday 17th January.
 
Please award FIVE points maximum to the clue you judge best: FOUR points for second, THREE for third, TWO for fourth, down to ONE point for fifth; but otherwise you may distribute your votes as you see fit including ½ marks for split voting – as long as you award no more than 15 points IN TOTAL and no more than 5 points to any one clue…
 
…and of course you may NOT VOTE for your own clue!
 
COMMENTS:
 
Your comments in general and on individual clues, however much or little you write, are always most welcome! Please remember that if any particular clue or clues do not find favour with you, it is more helpful to offer constructive criticism – many of our members are keen to learn and hone their clue writing skills through our competition – feedback may be useful for their future efforts!

Entry Information

Some festive fun for you this Christmastide! Your task for December is a Printer's Devilry (PD) clue to ARCHER (6).

A Printer's Devilry clue is a passage from which the printer has removed a hidden answer, closing the gap and sometimes taking liberties with the punctuation and spacing, but not disturbing the order of the remaining letters. There is no need to include a definition of ARCHER in your clue, but there is nothing to stop you if you so wish. However, from past experience, few judges give any extra merit for this unnecessary hard work!
 
A previous Azed winner will provide as an example:
 
Vaulting above tunnel entrance appears inane, scary
Answer: PESTO.
Undevilled version: Vaulting above tunnel entrance appears in an escape story
 
Every passage, when complete, should make sense. NB Many "judges" will normally give preference to PD clues in which the breaks before and after the word omitted (before and after omission) do not occur at the ends or beginnings of words in the clue.
 
Please give the full undevilled version of your clue as the EXPLANATION – plus any additional notes required.