| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| Clue 11 does not match the explanation!! |
| 2. |
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| Voting was easier this time than last: there weren't as many good clues. Some setters seemed not to understand the definition, while others omitted it altogether. Mind you, Chambers isn't all that verbose about it either. My shorlist this time was rather short. |
| 3. |
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I thought clue 26 was a clear winner, succinct and witty, 5 points. Clue 11 is a clever &lit. based on the other meaning of WILD MARE, 4 points. Clue 32 is a little bit stretched, but just about holds together , 3 points. Clue 8 isn't quite as pithy as 11, but works pretty well; 2 points. I struggled to award the last point, but in the end went for the faintly outrageous clue 35.
Overall, I thought the standard was lower than for DOOLALLY, which perhaps reflects the limited scope for oblique definitions. |
| 4. |
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| There was less scope for inventive definitions and wordplay this month, and I felt the overall standard wasn't that high. The top five of a dozen or so honorable exceptions were 8 and 41 with good & lit. treatments, 19 (though saddled=mounted is dubious) and 42 for misleading definitions, and 25 for the disguised Wilde reference. Some tortuous wordplay was evident, e.g. in 1 and 37 where the definition was obscured by a homophone, and more so 15 with the multi-step anagram of (HE=MALE=MAIL + MARRIED=WED + 18th=R). Unsolvable I think. I wasn't keen on 16's lack of capitals and punctuation. |
| 5. |
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It seemed to me that unsoundness abounded this month, including several indirect anagrams (e.g. 15,17) and inadequate definitions. On top of this there were many clues with wordplay using related definitions of "wild", which made the clues rather weak, and some unnatural surface readings.
I chose 19 and 25 as my top two clues, although both could also be considered flawed. "From" in 25 is used in the opposite way from convention – i.e. it states "wordplay" from "definition" rather than the other way round. In 19 the definition is a little weak, I think, and "one" superfluous to the wordplay, unless I've missed something. But I liked the surface readings and construction of these two above any of the other clues. |
| 6. |
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| I thought this was the poorest bunch we've had for a long time. As for an indirect homophone (ewe for you) in a definition — do some people never learn?! |
| 7. |
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| A limited range of treatments, with many clues lacking a coherent surface. I thought 12 by far the best of the Custer treatments (and it taught me something – now I see that Little Big Horn, as I've seen it written, makes sense), and my other favourites used the Daw connection. Regrettably there were several clues that lacked soundness, some with what I suppose must be called clued definitions and others lacking grammar in the cryptic reading. The equivalent of "clue first" to indicate C is still very popular. A rueful thank-you to the author of 9 for the elucidation – information that perhaps I could have managed without. |
| 8. |
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| Maybe it was a difficult phrase to clue, but, some entries were a bit far-fetched and difficult, maybe impossible. to solve. I found it hard to find five which did not have some weakness or another. But I liked my top two 18 and 38 a lot, both taking a simple approach, with 33 and 36 appealing also. |
| 9. |
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| This seems to have been tough, and I haven't given any clue more than 3 points. The many possible definitions make voting tricky. 30 is ingenious, but the surface reading doesn't make much sense, and Boris -> mayor -> mare is a bit of a stretch. Similarly 15's he -> male -> mail as anagram fodder. I'm doubtful about the intended homophone in 10. I'm afraid I can't see what 44 is getting at. I feel 26 doesn't quite work. 3 is amusing, but it could do with a definition as well. 41 is cleverly constructed, although a bit laboured. I feel this and 19 are about the best, although "with unwanted war" doesn't convince. |
| 10. |
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| Not very many strong candidates for the points this month – too many unconvincing surfaces, inadequate definitions and examples of iffy wordplay – but a small handful of good and very good ones, among which 26 (5 points) stood out. The very similar and otherwise accomplished 8 (2.5 points) suffered from the artificiality of the archaism "rime". 11 (4 points) was a neat &lit. 19 (2.5)and 32 (1 point), my other two selections for points, both exploited good ideas (whether or not you agree with "lie" in 19!), but WILD MARE ought really, I think, to have been defined in terms of one of the meanings given in the dictionary rather than as a random phrase. I can, however, well understand the temptation to go with the ambiguity of "reluctantly saddled" in 19 once that excellent idea had presented itself (which is what got it a higher rating than 32). |
| 11. |
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1st (4 points) 11 (I took some time to appreciate this, but it fits together better and better the more I look at it)
2nd (2.5 points) 3 (utterly silly and disobeys the normal rules, but strikingly clever)
3rd= (1.5 points each): a number of clues all of which were almost good but each of which had what seemed to be some blemish): 8 (artificial use of 'rime' not 'rhyme'], 13 (a bit flat), 19 (I had doubts about the soundness of the def.), 34 (rather vague def.), [36} (also a bit flat)
8th (1 point) 32 (I wasn't sure about the way the anagram indicator worked) |
