CCCWC January 2018 competition results
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46 clues entered. 37 votes cast (32 competitors, 5 others).
ARGENT
Congratulations to Tom Borland who kicks off 2018 with a victory – his first success for a while after a "barren" 2017. Neat wordplay with a nice surface.
Satyen has established a routine of regular visits to the podium and starts off the year with a second place – again some nice natural wording in the surface.
Toby regains his excellent form from the first half of last year and snaffles third spot – and once again a natural surface reading.
Hearty congratulations to Dhirendra who can celebrate a debut podium finish! Discovered wasn't to everyone's taste but it found enough fans to push it into 4th place.
Final podium spot went to Simon Shaw – good to see him back in the fray and could be one to watch for 2018!
Well done to all – on to the February challenge!
| Pos | No. | Name | Clue | Explanation | Points | Merits | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41 | Tom Borland | Vintage silver car's back in 007's possession? | R (car's back) in AGENT (007); def. Vintage silver, ref. Bond's Aston Martin DB7 | 53 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 30 | Satyen Nabar | Silver ring lost? No great shakes | (nogreat)* – o | 34 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 46 | Toby Robertson | White pawn checks king | R in AGENT (checks=contains), def. white (Chambers) | 34 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | Dhirendra Tripathi | Curious stranger discovered silver (6) | Definition: silver (as an adjective) Wordplay: [(-s)TRANGE(-r)]* (which is stranger "dis-covered"); anagram indicator curious | 32 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 24 | Simon Shaw | Shield designed with this displays herald's tinge | Composite anagram & lit.; ref. heraldic tincture | 31 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | 20 | Steve Randall | Regret unevenly donning fake tan seeing colour on arms | ReGrEt in tan*; def as heraldic colour | 30.5 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 | 31 | Jeffery Robinson | Silver surfer's terminal seized by spook | [A<R>GENT] | 26.5 | 0 | |
| 8 | 28 | Pete Milne | Silver in Great North Run | Anag of GREAT+N. RUN as adjective. | 24 | 0 | |
| 9 | 16 | David McKie | Nice money to be had from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"? | French word for money, hidden in guitAR GENTly | 19.5 | 1 | 3 |
| 10 | 6 | Colin Thomas | Doctor Strange – not initially white? | Anag. [s]TRANGE. Reference to the Marvel comics character, who is now Caucasian but was originally drawn as having Asian ethnicity. | 18 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | 9 | Rod Beards | Fed seizes last of poor poet's silver | AGENT seizes R | 18 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | 11 | Garnet changes colour (6) | Garnet and argent are both colours – and are anagrams. | 17.5 | 3 | 2 | |
| 13 | 45 | White knight's great move | *N(knight)+GREAT | 16 | 1 | 2 | |
| 14 | 7 | Dope dressed up by painting white on arms | GEN inside ART : Argent = white in heraldry | 14 | 2 | 3 | |
| 14 | 37 | That particular gentleman is partial to French bread. | Hidden/def ("French bread" [money]). | 14 | 3 | 1 | |
| 16 | 32 | Silver trout ? (6) | Def: SILVER. Tout = AGENT around R. A(R)GENT. The “?” is to indicate unusual parsing | 12 | 1 | 2 | |
| 17 | 35 | Sun returning, bloke reveals white part of arms | Ra rev. + gent; coat of arms | 11.5 | 3 | 1 | |
| 18 | 44 | White alpha male capturing power at last (6) | White = definition. Alpha = A, Male = GENT, power at last = R, capturing = surrroundicator. A GENT around R. Maybe Trump and his base view his presidency as such. | 11 | 4 | 2 | |
| 19 | 25 | Silver and garnet design | Anag.garnet | 10 | 2 | 1 | |
| 20 | 1 | A red knight is white on his escutcheon. | a(A) red(R) knight(GENT) = heraldic white | 9 | 0 | 1 | |
| 21 | 8 | Every other hair on nice man’s head is silvery | Every other hair = (h)a(I)r, nice man = gent, head suggests the ar is at the head (front) of gent and silvery is definition | 8.5 | 0 | 1 | |
| 21 | 26 | Silver dollar finally found in bureau | a-(dolla)r-gent | 8.5 | 1 | 2 | |
| 23 | 43 | What's vital for silversmith – granted when struggling and penniless? | Grante(d)..anag… less..d = penny. | 8 | 2 | ||
| 24 | 17 | Not oddly, hair on man's top becomes silvery (6) | Not oddly hair = AR; on man's top = on top of GENT; becomes = connector; silvery = def | 5 | 1 | 1 | |
| 25 | 3 | Blue garnet or white (6) | Garnet* | 4.5 | 1 | 5 | |
| 25 | 38 | The 'Lone' Ranger? Not he, no loner, going out with Silver! | anag less he, loner, name of his horse in TV series | 4.5 | 0 | ||
| 25 | 42 | What field sports regularly featured game tenants? | Def: WHAT FIELD SPORTS (vb). Regularly fe A tu R ed G am E te N an T s. ('Field' = surface of shield. 'Field sports' = hunting, shooting and fishing. 'Game tenants' = those who hire shooting or fishing rights) | 4.5 | 1 | 1 | |
| 28 | 4 | Colour-sergeant parading south-east off ground | [se]RGEANT* | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| 28 | 22 | Sailor's head chopped off – by mostly John Silver? | Sailor – TAR, John – GENTS, (-T)AR+GENT(-S), Ref to Treasure Island | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
| 30 | 14 | Information welcomed in the application of skill producing silver | ART around GEN | 3.5 | 1 | 1 | |
| 31 | 18 | Old silver found in two thirds of country. Don't shed tears for it! (6) | Don't cry for me Argent(ina). Old silver= definition | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| 31 | 19 | Old silver piece of Ancient Roman origin found by short chap | Old silver – def (listed as archaic in C.); A (piece of Ancient) + R (Roman origin) + gent (gent[leman]) | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| 31 | 21 | Retired bank manager pocketing a bit of René's money in Paris | AGENT containing R(ene) def argent = money in French | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| 34 | 2 | Artist returns with the following information for a heraldic colour. | Definition: 'a heraldic colour'. 'Artist returns = RA becomes AR + 'the' = T which follows 'information' = GEN. | 2.5 | 1 | 2 | |
| 34 | 15 | It's silver for La Albiceleste, in a departure from the norm | ARGENTina | 2.5 | 1 | 1 | |
| 36 | 13 | Half-cut Lone Ranger and Tonto heading drunkenly for Silver | ([loner]ANGER + T[onto])*; Ref. to the TV series characters. | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 37 | 23 | Say mole having subdued colour, marginally white on arms | AGENT(mole) around R(margin in colouR); def: white on arms (heraldry/Chambers, arms=coat of arms) | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | |
| 38 | 10 | Force enters row having lost face over old silver | Ar(g)[-gum]ent | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 38 | 34 | Stranger, without right, brings the shilling out but is tortured for the heraldic silver | Stranger without right is STRANGER minus R = STRANGE; brings the shilling out is STRANGE minus S = TRANGE; tortured is anagram of TRANGE = ARGENT or the heraldic silver | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 38 | 39 | This term in heraldry might lead you to 'grey' (and 'tan', mistakenly) | ARGENT and end (term) in heraldr(Y) = GREY & TAN anag ('mistakenly'); silver in Chambers = whitish-grey | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 41 | 33 | Singer for one – no soprano! – gets fat in Paris | (S)ARGENT. “fat” = money (Chambers) or, in French, argent. Ref. Singer Sargent, portrait painter. | 0.5 | 0 | 1 | |
| 41 | 36 | Surprisingly The Lone Ranger shot with one in each hand. He fired silver (6) | anag of (THELONERANGER) minus (shot) LONER (ONE in LR) and minus (fired=dismissed) HE. NB Confusingly The Lone Ranger fired silver bullets but also his horse was called Silver – "fired silver" indicates the former – not that he sacked (or shot) his horse. The def is of course "silver". | 0.5 | 2 | ||
| 43 | 12 | Guitar gently weeps both old and new money | Hidden word 'guitAR GENTly'; hidden word indicator = weeps; def = both old and new money; ref: Argent is both an old silver coin and a type of Bitcoin. | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 43 | 27 | Silver found in cracked Red Rock(6) | Silver (ARGENT) is to be found in an anagram (indicated by cracked) of a red rock (where rock can mean precious stone – a red rock is GARNET) | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 43 | 29 | Silver is smuggled in a criminal gentleman's right (not left) pocket. | Defn: silver; hidden word indicator: smuggled in; criminALGENTleman, but R replaces L. | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 43 | 40 | Upcoming article recalled The Clash, without doubt 70s rock legends | 'Upcoming article' is the 'The', 'recalled' = taken back, i.e. removed; 'Clash' minus 'doubt' = ARG[um]ENT; def: the band 'Argent' feature on this DVD: https://www.discogs.com/Various-70S-Rock-Legends-/release/9166898 | 0 | 0 | 1 |