CCCWC October competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 40

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 40: Mental state of many loyal old jockeys

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A clue to DOOLALLY (Misprints).
1 comment refers to this clue (from 1 competitor, 0 others)
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Comments on the competition
1.
As I think someone said last month a good clue should have a sound, credible 'surface'.For this reason I discarded quite a few of this month's offerings. I am also not too keen on a reliance on topical references to recent events (e.g. 3 "as just shown" and 13 "Gordon's grief" etc…). Other comments: 10 A bit contrived in my opinion. B(ritain) is added only to be removed again. This seems to me to be against the principles of good cluewriting and brevity. Why is it there? In this case, in my humble opinion, Britain's inclusion would only be justified to make up the sense, if it were in part retained after the 'removal'. 40 "Mental state of many". Surely this is defining a noun not an adjective? Likewise 15 "Carp fever", although I do have a soft spot for Maddocks' obsessive pursuit. 42 Dopey. Is this a definition of 'doolally'? I don't think so. 45 "John". As with some of the other clues I had this idea. However I decided that to be sound it needed to be at the beginning of the sentence to disguise the fact that john (toilet) does not have a capital J (both my Chambers and OED specify this). As this did not work so well, I dropped the idea. Maybe I am being rather too pedantic. 46 "Round the bend". Have I missed something here? Spelling seems perfect to me! Anyhow I scored 49 – 5 pts. Clever use of words all round. 48 – 4. Simple with a nice surface. Also 35 – 3, & 38 – 3.

Comments on the competition

As I think someone said last month a good clue should have a sound, credible 'surface'.For this reason I discarded quite a few of this month's offerings. I am also not too keen on a reliance on topical references to recent events (e.g. 3 "as just shown" and 13 "Gordon's grief" etc…).

Other comments:

10 A bit contrived in my opinion. B(ritain) is added only to be removed again. This seems to me to be against the principles of good cluewriting and brevity. Why is it there? In this case, in my humble opinion, Britain's inclusion would only be justified to make up the sense, if it were in part retained after the 'removal'.

40 "Mental state of many". Surely this is defining a noun not an adjective? Likewise 15 "Carp fever", although I do have a soft spot for Maddocks' obsessive pursuit.

42 Dopey. Is this a definition of 'doolally'? I don't think so.

45 "John". As with some of the other clues I had this idea. However I decided that to be sound it needed to be at the beginning of the sentence to disguise the fact that john (toilet) does not have a capital J (both my Chambers and OED specify this). As this did not work so well, I dropped the idea. Maybe I am being rather too pedantic.

46 "Round the bend". Have I missed something here? Spelling seems perfect to me!

Anyhow I scored 49 – 5 pts. Clever use of words all round. 48 – 4. Simple with a nice surface. Also 35 – 3, & 38 – 3.

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments Clue no. 40: Mental state of many loyal old jockeys

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 40: Mental state of many loyal old jockeys