CCCWC January competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 39: Turning a stormy sea into a calmer one, possibly?
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A clue to MIRACLE.
5 comments refer to this clue
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| It It seemed to me that this word called for something light and witty, after the torture of TINSEL/BAUBLE. I thought clues 19 and 11 best exemplified this, and I'm giving the nod (5 points) to clue 19, which is lovely. 4 points to clue 11, which also made me smile. Third place and 3 points I give to clue 38, not least for an original theme. Fourth place I give to clue 6, which is very neat, and fifth place to clue 40, which I thought the best of the insurance claim efforts. Well done to the composers of all these. Near misses for clues 2,7,29, 36, 39 and 43. |
| 2. |
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From a very high standard of clues to MIRACLE I had ticked a dozen before selecting these five:
29 - May be slightly easy to solve but I found this best of the & lits
24 - Another clever & lit with nice use of 'means' 39 - This would have been improved without the two 'a' words but appealed nevertheless 19 - Short but has a lot to say 21 - Probably deserves more for such a 'wonderful' idea |
| 3. |
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I'm afraid I found most of what was offered to be either uninspiring or unacceptable for one reason or another. Many clues seemed cumbersome, which I thought wrong for a reasonably friendly word. Some of those I discarded were #2, #19, #24, #25, #40 and #44; although Chambers suggests that any surprising or unexpected event qualifies, clarity surely requires that what's described breaks natural law rather than merely being a pessimist's response to what isn't physically impossible. #24 has the additional weakness (sorry!) that the wordplay seemingly uses medians, not means. There were several entries containing padding or sections doing double duty (#17 - a shame because I liked "turbulent mill race", and #39) and some that required a change in word from wordplay to definition (such as #12 - artists or artists'?). #43 contained an attractive idea that I thought wasn't fully exploited.
My favourites (top to bottom) are
#11 "Re" is of course contrived, but worth it for the succinctness. Very elegant.
#7 Convincing surface and unambiguous definition.
#3 Although it reads clumsily, the picture is an attractive one
#30 I like the superficial blandness of the statement - the solver has no obvious way in.
#45 Very obvious solution - but then we're judging ideas, not simplicity! |
| 4. |
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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'? |
| 5. |
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I thought clue 11 was the stand-out from a reasonable list of clues, so my voting is:
Clue 11 5 points
Clue 39 4 points (I like this sort of partial and lit, even though I'm not sure it's strictly Ximenean)
Clue 30 3 points (slightly neater working of a good idea than the next one...)
Clue 2 2 points
Clue 6 1 point (humorous if somewhat irreverent) |
