Comments on the clues |
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1. Agreement zero in UN resolution |
1. | Let down by the nounal anagram indicator. |
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2. As a bit of fun I once swallowed a large pearl |
1. | But how is that fun? Have you tried swallowing a golf ball? |
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3. Bard's unique pearl: a remarkable non-u one. |
1. | I doubt many solvers would notice the 'uncultured' pun. | 2. | 'Non-U' surely can't be used to refer to an uncultured pearl? Surface reading doesn't work | 3. | "a remarkable" not really acceptable as an anagram indicator, the "a" being superfluous. |
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4. Bond in antimatter? |
1. | If you could answer this clue without five checking letters you could do the 'Listener' in three seconds | 2. | Clever thought , but is matter = ion ? |
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6. British leave: sore point for alliance |
1. | Nice, but for cryptic grammar it should be 'leaves' rather than 'leave'. 'Left' would have worked. 'Sore point' a bit too generic | 2. | Unfortunately the wordplay here is ungrammatical. |
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7. Cloth buffers taken off bunions. |
1. | I liked this but am not entirely convinced that 'cloth' and 'union' (via 'fabric') are synonyms. |
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8. Club champion returns to face one in France (5) |
1. | I feel 'champion' = NO 1 needs a question mark. |
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9. Combination without British corn (5) |
1. | A corn is not a bunion – ask anyone who’s had a bunion | 2. | Is there a specifically British corn? And what's it got to do with combination? |
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10. Compound noun with one coupling |
1. | 27 is an improvement over this idea. |
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12. Could be Oxford University cricket side |
1. | Disallowed owing to partial definition ("This could be…" or "What could be…" required). |
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13. Endless innuendo destroyed marriage |
1. | Good one, on an equal footing with 14 | 2. | Impossible to choose between this and 14, both with the same great idea. | 3. | I'm in two minds about whether this use of 'endless' is acceptable but the surface is so good I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. |
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14. Endless innuendo wrecked marriage |
1. | Good one, on an equal footing with 13 | 2. | Great anagram spot, as with 13 | 3. | I'm in two minds about whether this use of 'endless' is acceptable but the surface is so good I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. |
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15. Federation match (5) |
1. | The answer to this clue would be a piece of cake even for the Daily Mail |
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16. Federation of countries welcoming contentious region with love |
1. | Contentious region for NI is tricky. | 2. | If a federation of countries can be amatory are they not going a bit over the top? | 3. | Federation appears to do double duty here: 'countries' = UN is too loose. |
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17. Growth painful without British in Europe, say? |
1. | Painful growth acceptable, not the other way around, not unless there was a hyphen or comma after painful | 2. | Europe is a continent; EU is the union, but good surface. | 3. | Lovely. Reminds me of Sabre's 'sounds frightful?' for (I think) EEKS. |
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18. Head's beginning to go putting on uniform for meeting |
1. | Wouldn't he just go and put it on? How do you begin to go putting it on? Can you go to begin putting it on? | 2. | Surface reading is close but a little stilted. |
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19. It's used by plumbers working after leading parts of ugly new instllations |
1. | Spelling mistake, or typo | 2. | 'Leading' is clever but the typo disqualifies the clue. |
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20. Kim Jong's first meeting with heartless US president? |
1. | Nice idea, but 'Kim Jong's first' = U is too indirect | 2. | Is this anachronous or a different Kim Jong? | 3. | Doesn't quite work for me. Kim Jong's first does not equal U in my opinion – but I like the second half of the clue! | 4. | Def dubious?! A meeting but wouldn't call it a union | 5. | A nice idea but 'Kim Jong's first' = U is too indirect. |
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21. Local one regularly disowns bard’s fine, large pearl |
1. | If this were a regular occurrence I think I'd eventually say it was mine just to stop people asking me stupid questions. |
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22. Marriage – anyone can see it might lead to tears if there's no love at the outset (5) |
1. | I think u changed the clue but not the explanation |
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24. Marriage little queen escapes: "No, I run away" |
1. | Wordplay is ungrammatical. |
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25. No fun essentially in arranged marriage (5) |
1. | Great! A Satyen clue? | 2. | Good idea, just pipped by a couple of the other anagrams | 3. | 'Essentially' a bit hackneyed in a crossword clue but good surface reading. | 4. | "Essentially" a bit weak, else really good clue | 5. | Good use of 'arranged marriage'. |
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26. No one in the audience knew about a basic operation in set theory |
1. | I don’t think the NU in NOINU has an accepted pronunciation | 2. | it's amazing just how many of us haven't a scooby about basic operations in set theory. | 3. | Indication of NU is a slight stretch but the rest is excellent. |
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27. Noun I mistake for conjunction. |
1. | The nounal 'mistake' isn't acceptable here as an anagram indicator. |
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28. Noun I work for? (5) |
1. | Slightly strange surface reading. How do you work for a noun? | 2. | A botched &lit, with 'for' superfluous in the cryptic reading. |
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29. Nun worried about perfect marriage (5) |
1. | Why is a nun worrying about marriage? | 2. | 'perfect' = IO is too stretched. |
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30. Order wedding ring |
1. | Can’t see any evidence for union = order | 2. | Nearly brilliant but I can't justify 'Order' except possibly in the same sense as 'ring' which is then effectively a duplicate definition. |
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31. Partnership is swelling when opener is dismissed (5) |
1. | Nice idea but 'swelling' isn't quite good enough for the surface reading. |
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32. Partnership working after Cambridge, say. |
1. | Working AFTER Cambridge? | 2. | The best of the UNI + ON clues but this wordplay was too run-of-the-mill to merit points. |
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33. Peacekeepers keep nothing in the state of wedlock. |
1. | This looks like it needs another 'in' in the wordplay | 2. | What has the UN to do with wedlock, or is 'Wedlock' a country I've not heard of? |
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34. Pearl's a bit of a lump, but less tubby at heart |
1. | How can she be less tubby 'at heart'? bit too obvious as a middle letter indicator. |
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35. Pungent bulb loses head to take the first universal league (5) |
1. | What’s the surface supposed to mean? | 2. | Not sure what's intended by the surface reading here. |
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36. Red problem for Foot putting British off? |
1. | Can't see this as an &lit, sorry | 2. | Nice reference, but a bit weak as a def. of union | 3. | Nice idea, but "red problem" is a very weak definition for "bunion" | 4. | A good effort at an &lit and one of only two in this list (along with 47) that work. |
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37. Reduction of college term lost support of dons after getting together. |
1. | The wordplay is here is incoherent, e.g. 'support of' can't indicate the outer letters and 'after' is superfluous. |
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39. Sex gel court's banned |
1. | Clever and original | 2. | Simple and to the point with good surface reading |
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40. Some employees in university finding deduction from earnings acceptable |
1. | Lovely clue except "finding" a bit weak as a connector |
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41. Suffering ennui? That's ordinary for English marriage |
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42. Topless fun makes leader return for sex (5) |
1. | 'makes' is superfluous to the wordplay here. |
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43. Trinity Bursar reported having a swelling. Term didn't start. |
1. | Not keen on the indirect indication of (b)union | 2. | Who is Trinity Bursar? |
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45. Universal name of invocation and incorporation of federal states |
1. | Awkward surface reading |
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47. What could be reversed in Reno in urgency |
1. | Shouldn't that be WITH urgency or IN emergency? | 2. | Elegant &lit, comfortably the best here. However, I'm not totally convinced by 'could be' in the cryptic reading – it _is_ reversed! |
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