CCCWC February competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 1: A fish to land with half this line
Back to competition result |
All the comments |
Other competitions
A clue to TETRA.
3 comments refer to this clue
Move your mouse pointer over any bold clue number to see the clue.
Here is the text
| Comments on the competition |
|---|
| 1. |
|---|
There were so many quite reasonable clues, that it was difficult to pick out the best , - until I realized that most were of the type that I had already rejected as being too banal when thinking about my own. To be fair, TETRA never was going to produce a good crop of anagrams or hiddens; and what is left but reversals, initials, and the odd variant!
In looking for the out-of-the-ordinary, I strove to force clue 1: 'A fish to land with half this line' to say more than it did. The imaginary solver encountering it, would reasonably have expected to be given the slightest hint that it had something to do with versification, say another line to form a couplet, or even a reference to feet. The clue may well be tetrametric, but it is iambic too....so what follows from that? A pity that it lost the tide, - While starved it floundered, and then died. Hey! Can we have another do, - At the TINSEL/BAUBLE clue! |
| 2. |
|---|
Although TETRA offers many good possibilities for building the word from components, partial anagrams or as a concealed word, I felt that if the clue contained the simple definition 'fish' it made the clue too simple for a five-letter word, however good the surface reading might be. Thus, I ruled out 7-18, 18, 23, 25, 26, 30-33, 40 and 42.
Clue 1 was spared on this score by its clever link to another definition. Similarly, clue 6 with its ambiguous 'fishy' and red nose reference survived the initial trawl.
Clues related to the fish definition that avoided the word 'fish', used oblique references related to tanks, scales, swimming, fishing, small fry, bite and net - with varying degree of success.
Of these, I found clue 5 with its 'chromatic scales', its additional clever 'four' definition reference and entire surface reading the most satisfactory, then clue 34. While clue 28 also had a good misleading surface reading, I found 'one in a tank' a little clumsy.
Of the clues that related solely to the 'four' definition I found clues 4, 20, 17 and 35 the most enjoyable.
I was unfamiliar with the definition used by clue 38, but found the construction somewhat insipid, despite the &lit, while clue 22's surface reading to get to Spenser's plant seemed a little contrived. |
| 3. |
|---|
Am I alone in thinking this was a slightly dull set of clues? Maybe it was because the word itself leaves little to the imagination.
I discounted 'four' unless the fodder made reference to a 'combining form' and not being a great fan of Spenser ... so really not much to do with it other than to use or define 'fish'. Any that did slightly more scored points in my book - without of course, tying themselves in knots. Clue 1 deserves special mention for being 'clever, clever' though the sharpest hook was 'fishy treat' - Simple! Also ran - clue 34. |
