CCCWC January competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 32: Persian carpet left in one's care is divine work
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A clue to MIRACLE.
2 comments refer to this clue
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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I thought this was a deceptively tricky word to clue; the letters seemed promising, but the word was surprisingly difficult to define in any satisfactorily misleading way. As often seems to happen with the stiffer challenges, a fair amount of unsoundness was evident amongst the entry as clue-writers struggled to inject that little bit of extra zest into their clues.
I went with #8 as my winner for a well constructed comp. anag. & lit. even though it failed to adhere to my preference of there being an equal or lower number of extra letters added to make the composite anagram than there are in the clue-word itself. 2nd place went to #48 for a good solid &lit., though the surface is not wholly satisfactory (original relic?). 3rd place went to #32 for one of the more imaginative definitions and a nice, misleading surface. I gave #18 two points - not the greatest surface, but it does hold together as a possible, if unlikely, real-world sentence. I gave #20 5th place - again one of the better definitions (perhaps, even the best), but let down by the lack of a convincing thematic connection between the definition and the wordplay (anyone could be reversing a vehicle, why particularly a law-breaker?)
A couple that came close to the points were #3 and #5, which both displayed some nice wordplay; however, both contained an entirely superfluous word between the definition and wordplay parts. I also thought #41 was a good contender, but, for me, 'club' was far too vague an indication of RAC. |
| 2. |
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Praise: I dumped any ideas that I had already rejected for my own lousy clue, so Claim re, re claim etc was rather too easy but 11's foul was a nicely judged misleading contextually well placed anagram indicator, and made me change my mind.
19 scored because I value brevity and had to figure out how tough it would be if we didn't already know the answer...
22 I liked but thought executed was rather strained to make the initial letters work. (Though what on earth could replace it is anyone's guess.)
30 I thought the gap between this and many was beautifully disguised
40 got on my list even though I felt blooming a slightly dodgy anagram indicator, just beating 24, where 'means' was very clever but I felt streched a point for middle (average, yes, but middle? - isn't that median?)
41 More brevity, but club a little obscure (compared to 'many drivers) and missed chance to incorporate driver.
45 I almost missed the subtle distinction of 'sings' not 'sing'.
Fainter praise:
Well, my own, obviously; then
3 L for Liberal not left?
16 smoky = smokey = too stretched
27 Flattering and deserved but overworked compound?
28 definition?
32 care? why?
36 High may help the biblical context but spoils the cryptic clue
39 should not contain 'a' 'a'? |
