CCCWC November competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 8: 'Daw' rime includes line about one
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A clue to WILD MARE.
4 comments refer to this clue (from 4 competitors, 0 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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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. |
| 2. |
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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. |
| 3. |
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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). |
| 4. |
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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) |
