| Comments on the clues |
|---|
| 1. A fresh halter prepared for bull-head (6-6) |
| 1. | Chambers defines 'bullhead' as a stupid person – which rather throws the surface sense of this clue. | | 2. | Fair attempt but surface isn't quite convincing. |
|
| 2. Adopt almost weird pool for swimmer |
| 1. | Why not just ‘adopt weir pool’? That would make more sense in both readings. | | 2. | Not a fan of using swimmer to clue a type of fish. Adopt does not in my view = father. |
|
| 3. All-weather fisher's at sea lacking dodgy wiles — to catch this? |
| 1. | The subtractive anagram is an entertaining challenge for the solver and gives a good surface sense. | | 2. | Surface weak, and what are "dodgy wiles"? |
|
| 4. Around Queenie, Flashheart’s wild as an animal |
| 1. | Animal too vague as a definition. | | 2. | I think #11 is the fairer clue – but I like the story better here! | | 3. | From 'animal' to the fish is a step. Clue 11 possibly improves on the idea. |
|
| 5. Bizarre thief alarms her, not a man, a sea creature (6-6) |
| 1. | Wordplay doesn't quite work (not one man might be accurate). Would a sea-creature be a thief? | | 2. | Difficult to picture this! | | 3. | Findng a synonym of ‘a’, taking that from ‘man’, and then taking the remainder from the anagram is too convoluted. | | 4. | a=i and m=man both inaccurate |
|
| 6. Cast feather's harl for pig fish. |
| 1. | Five consecutive letters in clue repeated in answer! | | 2. | Amusing use of specialist knowledge. | | 3. | Anagram a very nice find. | | 4. | I passed over this on first reading but it's nicely constructed | | 5. | Feather's harl good anagram fodder but doubt this sea fish could be caught with a fly. |
|
| 7. Catch me if you can? Rash hare left embarrassed! |
| 1. | Nice reference to the fable. | | 2. | Definition and justification a little bit stretched, but very good all the same | | 3. | Nice surface, but def. is weak. |
|
| 8. Daddy sculpin falls in pursuit of Abba. |
| 1. | I think the solver would be floundering here in his hunt for the definition | | 2. | Can't parse this, and surface is meaningless. |
|
| 9. Fish flee harsh rat in panic |
| 1. | Anagram a bit dodgy | | 2. | Surface wholly implausible |
|
| 10. Fish thrash frantically with eel in heaps |
| 1. | Heaps better than yours? Don't you believe it. | | 2. | Not all of them, but a fair few. Heaps is a synonym for a lot or even at a push far more, but not far. |
|
| 11. Flashheart, at sea with Queenie and Blackadder, finally gets fish |
| 1. | This uses the idea better than clue 4, I think. | | 2. | Rather weak surface, and I don't think Queenie or Flashheart were ever at sea! |
|
| 12. Fouler weather has undone you ultimately with woe sadly undetected, Fish! |
| 1. | Much too convoluted and contrived a surface for me. | | 2. | Difficult to put together mentally all the elements of this clue to get a surface reading. |
|
| 13. Girl occupying fashionable flatshare – found it after trawling the net? |
| 1. | Good definition, but I don't think "girl" is a fair clue for 'her'. | | 2. | Very nice but not sure about girl=her, or the pun in "fashionable" | | 3. | Can't accept girl = her – what a pity it wasn't "Girl's"! | | 4. | Not convinced by girl=her or ‘fashionable’. A good idea that doesn’t quite achieve its potential. | | 5. | Very nearly — girl's would be better. |
|
| 14. Health fears spread about source of rotten fish |
| 1. | Like the clue below, an excellent surface reading and this one avoids the redundant words. | | 2. | Good idea well executed |
|
| 15. Health fears start to reflect plastic found in fish |
| 1. | Good try and topical surface but let down by the "found in". | | 2. | An impressive surface reading – the link-words 'found in' are perhaps redundant but essential for the clue to work – a shame. | | 3. | Precise and topical. The top clue for me. (edit: Even more so after watching the last episode of Blue Planet 2!) | | 4. | Good idea. I slightly preferred 14’s wording. |
|
| 16. Her farts heal frenzied scorpion |
| 1. | Farts might make a bloater feel better but how do they 'heal' a scorpion? | | 2. | Maybe fairer to have 'fish'instead of 'scorpion'? | | 3. | Mildly scurrilous and the surface reading has little sense. | | 4. | Surface makes little sense. | | 5. | What does it mean? | | 6. | Nonsense surface |
|
| 17. Her sandwiches mostly don’t go bad when topped with greasy fish (6-6) |
| 1. | Rather verbose and ponderous. | | 2. | As unappetising as it sounds… |
|
| 18. Horny whore in Newfoundland providing nearly half rate with fresh tumble |
| 1. | I did a Google search to check that it really was a synonym – then had some explaining to do to my wife. (research, dear!) | | 2. | The solver hunts for the definition (which Chambers doesn't 'yet' include even if it is in Wiki) but the surface reading is amusing. | | 3. | Weak surface. Not keen on a noun as an anagram indicator. |
|
| 19. Losing his head, he exposes himself on the Thames ? Queer fish ! |
| 1. | Rather a step fro Father to Thames but the clue reads well. | | 2. | The Thames is called ‘Father Thames’ but not just ‘Father’ |
|
| 20. Obese woman's left devilled hares for fish |
|
| 21. Old man, sea, marlin? Essentially Hemingway's top novel on fish |
| 1. | The solver would have trouble finding the definition here. | | 2. | I like this apart from the ? separating marlin from essentially. | | 3. | A nice idea if a little too contrived |
|
| 22. One exposing himself around topless swimmer is an odd fish. |
| 1. | Amusing surface reading. |
|
| 23. One of two fish rears half the litter: male parent’s share left abandoned |
| 1. | Rather wordy and 'one of two fish' could be a definition of almost anything fishy. | | 2. | Litter does not work as an anagrind. |
|
| 24. Overweight, the man has a single slice of bacon wrapped around lean pig fish |
| 1. | Myxocephalus scorpius – generic name upper case initial, specific name ALWAYS lower case in Linnaean binomial taxonomy. Everyone knows that. | | 2. | Fourteen words – rather too many, especially as we are being required to cut word length by most publications. | | 3. | I can find no evidence for L = lean | | 4. | Another nonsensical surface. Is "lean" acceptable for 'L'? |
|
| 25. Pervert with twisted heart – a danger to small fry |
| 1. | I think something more is needed for this clue, as it does not currently show that flasher needs to surround ather. | | 2. | From pervert to FLASHER is a big step. Clue 34's 'exhibitionist' is more appropriate but otherwise this clue works better. | | 3. | A horrible image, and technically the containment is not indicated | | 4. | Erroneous definition, and wordplay leads to FLASHERATHER. | | 5. | It would have been a nice clue if 'with' had been replaced by a container like 'admitting' or some such |
|
| 26. Priest abuser in deep waters (6-6) |
| 1. | Surface story good but not wholly convinced about getting to lasher from abuser and in deep waters is perhaps a touch vague as a definition? | | 2. | I don't think 'in deep waters' is sufficient for the definition. | | 3. | No idea how one could solve this |
|
| 27. Priest before cat? Both could put it away. |
| 1. | Lacking any definition – "both could put it away" makes no sense as an attempt at one. |
|
| 28. Priest given, when last here, Manx fish. |
| 1. | Original word play. | | 2. | "When" is superfluous. |
|
| 29. Priest who beats young boys? Dirty old man hiding troubled heart |
| 1. | Quirky indeed, but it earns a wry smile. | | 2. | But there is no definition here, just two lots of wordplay |
|
| 30. Reverend Trasher with horny whore!(6,6) |
| 1. | I am not sure that this works. The solver hunts for the definition (which Chambers doesn't 'yet' include even if it is in Wiki). | | 2. | Unsolvable and unpleasant | | 3. | Impossible to solve |
|
| 31. Sea scorpion female at her weir |
| 1. | I can't see a surface meaning here | | 2. | Probably could have disguised the ‘at’ but otherwise neat |
|
| 32. Something fishy is going on – old man (Hollywood royalty) is keeping quiet (6-6) |
| 1. | Rather ponderous wordplay but the surface sense is coherent. | | 2. | Hollywood is not synonymous with LA | | 3. | Cryptic syntax doesn't work with the two "is"'s. Liberties with punctuation, Hollywood=LA and royalty=ER also questionable. |
|
| 33. Swimmer has left raft here at sea |
| 1. | Stretching it a bit with this anagram. | | 2. | A plausible surface reading – nice! | | 3. | I'm not a fan of using swimmer to mean fish. But otherwise well-constructed. | | 4. | A tidy anagram. Definition could have been made more interesting I think (thrashing swimmer, maybe). |
|
| 34. Swimmer, heart-broken exhibitionist outside |
| 1. | Clue 25 handles the same idea better, I think. | | 2. | Surface makes little sense |
|
| 35. The old man's the one flogging an odd-looking fish. |
| 1. | Rather a prosaic simple definition of each part of the word and the definition but it has good surface sense. |
|
| 36. the rare flash of a sea scorpion |
| 1. | Beautifully succinct. | | 2. | Two sets of four consecutive letters in clue repeated in answer. | | 3. | No anagram indicator, and "of" superfluous. | | 4. | Anagram needs to be indicated | | 5. | Reads beautifully but doesn't follow the basics of cryptic cluing |
|
| 37. The Rev.’s tier later provided a bite after a line-up (6-6) |
| 1. | Rather difficult to see the surface meaning of the clue. | | 2. | Doubt this could be solved | | 3. | Surface makes no sense. |
|
| 38. Writhing after being cut by that woman's whip – it has a sting in the tail (6-6) |
| 1. | Fifteen words in a clue – rather too many, especially as we are being required to cut word length by most publications. | | 2. | Defn a bit vague and in fact incorrect (it's not venomous) |
|
| 39. Zip has broken on fisherman's fly
in rejecting retired miller's thumb. |
| 1. | Rather difficult to make sense of the surface reading here. | | 2. | Yet another nonsense surface. |
|
