Comments on the clues |
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1. A puckish type, student goes out rather often – primarily into drink, full stop |
1. | Not sure a full stop is a point. Both dots but not the same thing. | 2. | Student goes out rather – cryptic reading doesn’t indicate L leaves from FAIRLY |
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2. After work going back home on time is an important thing if Ray is boisterous and a fantastic being |
1. | Too long – “and” as connector doesn’t work . Definition doesn’t gel with the rest of the surface |
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3. Content hippo in the headland; this creature of folklore moving far in the unknown. |
1. | Unfortunately the semi-colon creates a clear break between the two parts | 2. | Cryptic reading is not right – content hippo… isn’t the same as content of hippo… I of Point doesn’t come through |
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5. Cook, excellent in the middle, impish fielder in top form |
1. | A fielder isn't necessarily the same as a fielding position. | 2. | Cook hardly lasts till the middle order nowadays ! |
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6. Cook's enthralling, excellent brownie fudge in top spot (5,5) |
1. | Well constructed | 2. | I wish all the explanations were as enthralling as this one. |
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7. Delicate part of affair – you tentatively opt in for a critical moment |
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8. Delicate with good reason, after losing left pedal and cycling into verge |
1. | Somewhat laboured surface it seems | 2. | Nice surface. I don’t quite agree that because ‘on the verge of’ = ‘on the point of’ that a verge is a point | 3. | Right pedal or left ? |
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9. Elemental, being of air, yet showing power blasting into matter. |
1. | Nice idea, but the definition is somewhat spoilt because of the comma. Think one can accept misleading commas in wordplay but not in def | 2. | The cryptic grammar of FAIRY doesn’t work for me | 3. | Quite an obscure def for fairy. |
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12. Fay's brownie set to cook in pot |
1. | DDs in right & left a tad too easy but legal perhaps. However not convinced that set equals point | 2. | Not keen on double defs that use the same sense of the word twice | 3. | Fay and brownie a bit too close in meaning for a double def. | 4. | A fay and a brownie are words meaning fairy. If only a cookie was a fairy. |
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13. Female and sprightly she's often seen on Christmas tree, set out in top position. |
1. | Nice but for the comma separating the two parts | 2. | Good all round clue with a coherent surface | 3. | Merit but just outside of the points as I'm not sure an Xmas fairy would be sprightly, when she's just sitting there. |
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14. Fine and delicate Moth seen in the field on tip off |
1. | Some indicator to show def by example would have been better. Shouldn't tip-off be hyphenated? | 2. | Def by example needs a ‘perhaps’ or similar |
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15. Fine and light angel finds nothing in measure to show (5)(5) |
1. | 'Finds' used as a linking word, hence the two parts not very seamless |
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16. Folklore creature just unknown in expo in this state! |
1. | Works, but can't make much of the surface |
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17. Fudge in top spot just topped my brownie |
1. | I like the combination of fudge and brownie | 2. | Top marks – an excellent lesson in producing a concise, readable L&R clue. | 3. | Like the correct positioning of topped. “Top”appearing twice in the surface could have been avoided |
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19. Holding in beer gut, aim rather to shed pounds for sylph-like figure |
1. | A quality R&L clue with clever wordplay |
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21. It's mostly nitrogen and oxygen in the empty friendly pixy coalmine containing oxygen and nitrogen. That's a fact. |
1. | Can't make any sense of this surface | 2. | The clever idea rather gets in the way the rest of the clue | 3. | I do not understand and that's a fact. | 4. | I've seen PhD theses shorter than this. |
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22. It's one of the distributor's contacts providing current Dutch fee for an alternative brownie |
1. | Apart from the surface being rather strange, there is nothing cryptic about POINT, or I'm missing the point | 2. | Not really a double def if it uses the same meaning twice |
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23. Mark's top in cooking delicate dish, excellent inside |
1. | Neat double clue. Chambers has persuaded me that fry = dish |
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24. Mr Waugh said, "Just before you start, Mark, it's silly fielding very close to the bat" |
1. | 'You start' is hardly the 'start of you'. Comma between the two parts creates a break | 2. | The indirect definition isn’t very fair on the solver | 3. | Indirect homophone somewhat unfair; in any event it should lead to something like "Oberon, for instance". |
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25. Oberon, for example, justly left out stage issue |
1. | Assuming stage/issue is DD for POINT. DDs always the easy way out, at least different parts of speech would have been more creative |
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26. Perhaps Tinker Bell just has Wendy's ultimate aim – end of Hook? |
1. | A nicely combined pair of clues |
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27. Queen's rightly left out, a measure containing zero purpose. |
1. | Perhaps objectionable from a PC perspective, coupled with the comma that makes the two parts not seamless |
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28. Screw tip on end of jewelry just before ring is made by one (5 5) |
1. | Not a very naturally reading surface | 2. | The two clues shouldn’t overlap | 3. | END should not be doing double duty. |
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29. Spirit expo likely to end with new pinot punch line |
1. | Unfortunately the 'with' becomes a connector for the two parts, not seamless |
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30. Spirit is just an unknown quantity with nothing in beer to indicate quality |
1. | Not seamless due to the 'with' | 2. | ‘With’ doesn’t have a role in either clue that I can see | 3. | WITH feels like it's linking the two parts rather than being part of one of the clues. QUALITY feels like it's there purely for the surface. |
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31. Stir fry some Quebecian Poutine; European take-away with a twist, at the bottom of the garden. |
1. | Some Quebecian = IA is unfair. | 2. | Explanation seems a bit obscure. |
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32. Strong light used in kitchen washes softly into living area |
1. | A nice surface, my only crib being a brand name being used as definition, and not even indicated as an example | 2. | Not sure about the anagram indicator for INTO | 3. | "Used in kitchen" is a bit vague. |
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33. Suggest twist in plot, killing many just before end of gory kind of tale |
1. | Wouldn't suggest be 'point to'? |
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34. Time and place being false and imaginary, as in Cinderella |
1. | 'being' seems extraneous, apart from constituting the not so desirable break between right and left. F/False not in Chambers | 2. | Wikipedia's list of fairies might have assisted here. |
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35. Tinker Bell cracks last smithery (one fine American piece), then repairs pot in question. |
1. | 1)r=piece? anyway individually listing all letters not so elegant; 2) Comma and 'then' being very obvious breaks between R&L | 2. | Not sure where the R in fairy is coming from, and THEN is not part of either clue. |
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36. Top in clueing, object reasonably having got left out, becoming delicate |
1. | Don't see how "clueing" is an anagrind. |
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37. Transcendental figure, small (fairly, not large), not pi surprisingly, in which this follows the first figure |
1. | Pity about using 'fairly', gives just about all the letters in right order; Third comma inserts a break between the right and left parts | 2. | Clever, but the theme is a bit overworked |
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38. Unfair? Yes, it involves slight suspect top spin, spelling dismissal of occasionally silly cricketer |
1. | A bit clunky but just imaginative enough for a couple of points. |
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