A good lot this month. The word lends itself to many interesting treatments.
1st = (3 points each): 38. "Sort of rice many Asians like for starters" [beautiful; pity the surface couldn't have said "as a starter" not "for starters", which doesn't seem quite grammatical if you think of miracle rice as a "starter"] and 40. "What initiates rapid conclusion to insurance claim? Blooming this!" [great fun] 3rd = (2 points each): 3. "Bush remarkably inflamed, for instance, by Liberal America's endless stirring" [very good, but I don't really like "by"] and 36. "Religious drama? High Carmel's setting for one" ["High Carmel" is a bit unnatural, but otherwise very nice]
5th (1.5 points): 11. "'Hand of God' claim re foul" [the definition perhaps needs a question mark, but the idea is good]
6th (1 point): 19. "LA, crime-free?!" [not strictly Ximenean this, but an amusing idea]
7th = (0.5 points each): 6. "Dodgy claim re bleeding statue?" [I couldn't separate this and 34, so included them both], 13. "In Kashmir a clearly wondrous event" [very simple but nice], 27. "New Year claim to promptness - it could be this, says R.T. Top tip? Omen?" [almost very good and rather fun, but I couldn't understand "Top tip", which doesn't seem to have anything to do with it], 34. "Preposterous claim re supernatural event" [see 6 above] and 48. "What a martyr's original relic might generate" [nice, but miracles tend to be more to do with workaday things so far as I can see, like disease and blindness and death] |
I eliminated those where I thought the link words or anagram indicators were dodgy, the Smokey Robinson references (too obscure for me; might have been worth doing if we were cluing 'miracles' plural) and a few that I didn't really understand even with the explanations. Given the high submission rate, that still left quite a lot, so plenty of perfectly serviceable clues have gone unscored. Surprised that no-one went for the "Motorway unusually clear..." construction. That aside:
Four pts to no. 3: a nice disguised reference to a specific miracle, and a good surface reading. Three pts to no. 22: most of the &lits seemed strained but this one worked; also 'initials' clues can be very obvious but this one managed not to be. Two points to no. 30: RAC in MILE was a blindingly obvious construction, but this version of it was succinct and joined the def. to the subsidiary neatly. One pt to each of the following: No. 43: a clever use of mathematical notation to make a compound anagram, and didn't suffer (as several other compound anagrams did) from long-windedness. No. 38: 'sort of' nicely used both to indicate 'type of' and as anagram indicator, and the &lit def. was not bad. No. 11: 'claim re' is a bit of a giveaway anagram, but the image of Maradona was nicely conjured. No. 6: much the same reasoning. No. 13: def. was a bit pedestrian but kudos due to the only person to risk a 'hidden', and it works fine. No 8: Another capable compound anagram, not TOO long, and nice construction around the religious subject matter. |
Generally, a better crop of clues, I thought, than last month and, despite there being twice as many entries, easier to judge, especially as there is, in my view, a very clear winner. Several perfectly acceptable clues (eg, 2, 13, 34) missed out on the points only because they struck me as a little bland.
5 points: 48. What a martyr's original relic might generate? A superbly crafted and completely natural-sounding &lit.
2 points each: 6. Dodgy claim re bleeding statue? Neat and economical, and, although it is not in fact claimed as an &lit in the explanation, it surely has a much better claim to be one (or at least a semi-&lit) than many others in these competitions that make that assertion. Some Catholics might, I suppose, find the suggestion mildly offensive, but, set beside Clue 10, it is mild indeed in that respect!
24. Means of achieving insurance claim, after accident? 40. What initiates rapid conclusion to insurance claim? Blooming this! I find it difficult to separate these two seemingly heart-felt side-swipes at the insurance industry. Clue 24 is punchier, has a more natural-sounding surface and marginally smoother wordplay, while Clue 40's surface meaning for the &lit is more accurate and more precise. The comma in Clue 24 is perplexing.
1.5 points each: 29. One darner ultimately stopping monstrous camel achieving this? This original, intricately constructed and daring attempt seems to me to fall short of complete success as an &lit, but it is, I think, the most interesting approach on offer. Although it would indeed be a miracle were a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, it isn't really accurate to say that it is the needle that prevents the camel from achieving that miracle; what's more, unlike the wedding at Cana, the calming of the storm, etc used by others, the episode of the camel and the eye of the needle is not a miracle, but a parable. The surface reading is also a little strained.
42. Wonder drug seized by porter on remote station The definition is straightforward and only very lightly disguised, but the subsidiary indicator has rather more to it, offering a convincing surface (fairly) leading the solver well away from any idea of miracles. However, "porter" = ALE is a case of defining the general by the particular, which is a weakness, if not a very serious one in this case. (I don't feel competent to take sides over the contentious issue of whether, technically, porter is in fact an ale; Chambers seems to suggest that an ale is a beer that does not contain hops, but this is clearly not the view of most beer aficionados on the web.)
0.5 point each:
11. 'Hand of God' claim re foul This is very neat and has an immediately recognizable reference, but I am a little uncomfortable, for all that the overtones are right, with "Hand of God" as a DEFINITION of "miracle".
18. It's no small wonder Michael's confused: Henry's out and Ray's first in An acceptable definition and accomplished wordplay, but, although the surface makes sense, it has no obvious reference to anything - why should it be confusing that "Henry's out and Ray's first in"? |
