CCCWC May competition voters’ comments

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A clue to IRELAND.
80 comments were received for this competition (from 10 competitors, 4 others)
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Comments on the competition
1.
I automatically disqualified any clues using LAND as part of the cryptic treeatment; similarly ISLAND and, by extension, ISLE. Also eliminated at sight were the two or three containing spelling errors. Some entrants need schooling in the art of explanations. Long ones (see 3, 26 and 52 above) are an admission of weakness and tend to be in inverse proportion to the quality of the clue.
2.
I thought that it was a fairly poor batch of clues. Very few showed any degree of ingenuity or wit. Defining the composer rather than the country was promising, though most sounded a bit contrived. I discounted any clue that clued LAND as a discrete element. Such an obvious and dull breakdown of a word into syllabic or semantic components rarely holds interest. I placed 17,37, 44 and 58at the top of my list because they demonstrated some originality and the surface readings were natural and coherent.

Comments on the clues

1. A blight here affected large acreage with dire and extreme starvation.

1.	Only clue to mention potato famine.

2. A country flat where one's gone for style

1.	Clever wordplay

3. A Dubliner upset, not oddly, about leaving this country (7)

1.	Dubliner gives away too much, too soon
2.	Like the idea but the clue's quite clunky.

4. Airman pays for his whiskey, not us.

1.	Bit complicated!
2.	Airman for a composer is simply unfair, as is lower-case 'us' for US. I fail to see anything in the clue that leads a solver to the answer.

5. An idler is getting mellow — they love their crack here

1.	I don't think that Crack = Craic without a qualifier – sound, broadcast, radio etc
2.	'is getting mellow' is pretty dubious as an anagram indicator, even allowing for the meaning of 'mellow' as slightly drunk.

6. An idler loafing in Hibernia

1.	Loafing an anagrind?
2.	How is a word meaning 'loiter' suitable as an anagram indicator?

7. Angry country?

1.	Not very cryptic
2.	Very bland, and cluing LAND as a separate component is not good practice in my opinion

8. Angry neighbour? (7)

1.	Dull
2.	Cluing LAND as a separate component is not good practice, and if it's intended as a CD it's pretty insulting, not to say inaccurate

9. Are high hopes for Brexit solution fading here? That could make one come down to earth again

1.	Nice wordplay but a bit too long
2.	Nice idea but I don't see the function of 'could make' in the cryptic syntax. Normally the wordplay 'makes' the definition.

10. Composer’s alight with rage at first

1.	Composer could be anyone. Too vague

11. Composing Preludes for Piano might have been purpose of him.

1.	Clever anagram
2.	An anagram of the standard of 'genuine class' = 'alec guinness'! :)
3.	John Ireland seems a bit obscure, but this clue works so wonderfully well that I can overlook that. 5 points.
4.	Remarkable! What a wonderful discovery.
5.	Surely the composite anagram formulation requires AB jumbled might be XY jumbled. 'Might have been' doesn't really represent the equivalence

12. Cook ran deli in Cork's country

1.	Wordplay in defintion ?

13. Country I learn about, with the capital of Dublin?

1.	Too much of a giveaway to be a satisfying solve
2.	Although Dublin's capital (D) is valid, Dublin gives away too much
3.	Very nice clue but answer too obvious.

17. Daniel Radcliffe's first fancy? Erin!

1.	Clever construction
2.	Clever bit of research/knowledge
3.	Well spotted!
4.	Must confess I hadn't heard of this lady but a lovely original clue.
5.	Lovely clue. Second place behind only Clue 11.
6.	Neat and original anagram clue

18. Delta follows linear arrangement leading to Emerald Isle

1.	Emerald Isle without wordplay gives away too much
2.	The surface doesn't make a lot of sense.

19. Emerald Isle – fanciful name for me

1.	Emerald Isle without wordplay gives away too much
2.	This and 32 tied for max points – despite being rather obvious

20. Emerald Isle formed Erin lad

1.	Emerald Isle without wordplay gives away too much

21. End rail trip in the country (7)

1.	Neat anagram

22. Erin spread around darn lie (7)

1.	Erin needs wordplay
2.	The surface doesn't mean much.

24. First signs of impala repopulating antelope country

1.	The only clue to use eland, but not the most interesting surface

25. Fled rain touring here, after rejecting France?

1.	This and 41 are both appealing clues using the rain anagram

26. Foolishly, to read French and here?

1.	Over-contrived, and the surface doesn't mean much

28. He composed a pointless telegram to European city-state.

1.	Perhaps expecting a lot of solver to find (and then manipulate) wire from telegram?
2.	The hyphen linking city-state is unfairly misleading. Three sets of abbreviations prefaced by the middle two letters of a word is excessive.

32. Idiotic hardliner wants borders here

1.	"wanting" would make it clearer that the fodder is topped and tailed before anagramming – but a winning clue all the same
2.	Neat construction and brilliantly topical
3.	Best of the Brexit clues. Lovely anagram.
4.	This is great apart from the choice of anagrind

34. Impediment retarding EU leavers' agenda? No deal initially . . .

1.	Difficult to see this as & lit. It looks promising up to "No deal" then it fails.

35. Iran led revolution to build a nation.

1.	A nounal anagram indicator followed by another word that looks like an anagram indicator (build)

36. Irate country? (7)

1.	Clever & concise.
2.	'Ire' is a noun; 'irate' is an adjective.

37. Is divided about dire article 5O ?

1.	Is is a valid abbreviation for Island?’
2.	This one had great potential – needed a aharper definition eg reference to the border issue.
3.	Clever, though 'Is' to mean island requires a full stop according to Chambers. Without the full stop it just means 'Is' or the plural of I.

38. Island nation rejects Cnservative for Republican (7)

1.	A bit obvious, and it's a slight weakness that 'nation' could be part of the definition.

39. Island where religious teaching takes over society?

1.	Nice surface but not as true as it once was, I think

40. Kerry's here, dancing in a red lace top

1.	Satisfyingly different definition

41. Led rain dancing? It's not usually necessary here!

1.	I like this and 25 equally

44. One would briefly take in Larne when moving here?

1.	An elegant clue.
2.	Neat clue with a natural surface.

45. Our neighbour is flying Aer Lingus – 50% off to Germany!

1.	Very classy construction and surface reading

46. Paddy field

1.	Good idea but there’s no def. of Ireland the country or the island
2.	With a ? would be a cryptic defintion for me
3.	Beautifully simple

48. Place of anger, we hear, becomes a colder, more remote island after RC conversion

1.	This seems to clue ICELAND. Needs to be 'would become'.

49. Real freedom in independent European nation

1.	'Real freedom' does not indicate a jumbling of REAL>

53. Rocks realigned to form, e.g., this isle? (7)

1.	A nice idea but 'Rocks realigned' doesn't tell the solver to jumble REALIGNED. 'Rocks' needs to follow 'realigned'.

54. Sadly board liner after Rob left – for a Tir na nOg neighbour apparently

1.	The letters of ROB are not in order in BOARD, so a separate jumbler of ROB is needed.

56. 'Two Nations' is forgotten name Disraeli coined

1.	Original idea, but a rather imperfect definition.
2.	The syntax is a bit clunky, and the definition is inaccurate.

57. Where one might encounter lots of paddys?

1.	Paddies, surely?

58. Where tipsy islander wanting last drop of Guinness might be?

1.	Clever but too easy to solve.
2.	Nice
3.	Nicely constructed, possibly just the simplicity of the solve stopped me awarding points.
4.	Best of the island/islander clues.
5.	Neat clue with a natural surface