| 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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