The Crossword Centre Clue-Writing Competition

CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments
 
Clue no. 4: A US star, valued after transforming “Cheers” (1,7,5)

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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.Nice clue but the answer isn't found in English dictionaries.
2.'after' is a non-op in this instance as you need a qualifier to what it becomes; "…after transforming {equals/makes/becomes/is} cheers.
3.A good anagram. Many stars were valued for their performances in Cheers, but did anyone transform it?
4.Surface reading seems a little strained and definition could be a little more precise ("Cheers" in ……)
 
Comments on the competition
1.
I'm afraid I was not very impressed by most of the entries. Only two 4 and 21 struck me as worthy of points. Admittedly 21 did not really make sense, but it conjured up an amusing image.
2.
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).