The Crossword Centre Clue-Writing Competition

CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments
 
Clue no. 29: Perverted, I'll lay 16 year old?

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A clue to A “FIVE GOLD RINGS” word.
6 comments refer to this clue (from 5 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the clue
1.I don't get the "Perverted I'll lay = Islay" bit? Oh, update on my comment – you mean I's ? Still don't work as I'II is a non-word.
2.This is just wrong, on every level.
3.A rather bad clue all round, notwithstanding the incorrect homophone of Islay ('I-la', not 'I-lay')
4.Perhaps 'Sounds like I lay…' would be a better start.
5.don't think the homophone works well – shouldn't it be "I lay" .. plus I don't like the homophone indicator either
 
Comments on the competition
1.
This month 42 entries clued 18 valid words, with a further 3 clueing FIVE GOLD RINGS (6, 21, 24). Appropriately, clue words subdivided neatly into groups of 5. More than half the clues (25) led to the 5 most popular words, or variations thereon: DEJA VU (1, 5, 8, 12, 13, 25, 42*) (7), AVULS/E (9, 19, 31, 36*) /D (18) /ION (3) (6), BRAVURA (7, 37, 40*, 44) (4), NUNAVUT (28, 35*, 38, 39) (4) and SHAVUOT (17, 32, 41, 45*) (4). Another 5 clue words or variations resulted from a further 12 clues: CLAVUS (11, 14*, 27) (3), HELIO/GRAVURE (43, 10, 30*) (3), AVUNCULAR ([20, 33*) (2), CLAVULATE (15, 34*) (2), and FAVUS (22*, 23) (2). There were 5 other singly represented clue words which were generally more obscure (A VUESTRA SALUD (4), CHAVUTTI THIRUMAL (26), DAVUTOGLU (2), GUSTAVUS (16) and LAGAVULIN (29)). The average length of the 18 different clue wards was 8.4 letters, dropping to 7.4 letters when their relative frequencies was taken into account. In general it appeared to be easier to construct a good clue, and thereby score more highly, when a shorter clue word was chosen (the best 5 clues all had answers of 5 or 6 letters).