Comments on the clues |
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1. A flier — Birmingham Airport's first going off, due shortly to fly |
1. | Good idea. Weakened slightly by the use of "fly" twice. | 2. | The deletion of A results in some rather stilted cryptic syntax, but this is one of the better clues avoiding the obvious HUMMING + BIRD |
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2. American flier buzzing at four o'clock |
1. | 'Four o'clock' to indicate BIRD is definition by example, with no indication as such |
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3. Anna's a high-flier |
1. | A definition that doesn't appear in Chambers or Collins seems unfair | 2. | I liked the simplicity of this clue | 3. | Incomplete definition by example, with no indication as such |
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4. Around 2001, suspended prison sentence for flyer |
1. | 'Suspended prison sentence' for HUNG BIRD is neat. A modified definition might have been possible to suit the surface image better |
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5. Ava is a girl who doesn't know the words to a song. (11) |
1. | A definition that doesn't appear in Chambers or Collins seems unfair | 2. | Definition by example, with no indication as such |
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6. Avian singing bride distraught after losing voice in the end (11) |
1. | 'Avian singing bride' doesn't mean a lot |
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7. Bring him Mud to remake into a cake |
1. | This doesn’t really hang together cryptically, and the bakery chain is unfamiliar. | 2. | While the anagram works, the surface sense and the definition depend on obscurities that few would get without the writer's explanation. |
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8. Colourful flyer, based on very little of substance, raised twice the stink |
1. | What is the function of 'the'? It's a struggle to see the correct order of elements |
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9. Coquette possibly coming up to tease after smelling blood at last |
1. | Coquette was a nice find & this clue weaves it into a consistent picture for the surface while correctly indicating definition by example. | 2. | Indication of D cold be better, but otherwise a sound clue. |
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10. Diminutive winger departs after Birmingham settled with United for ace |
1. | A little clunky but gets points for imagination in both definition and wordplay. | 2. | Nice use of the Birmingham anagram | 3. | Nice definition though the last part of the clue weakens the surface a bit |
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11. Droning on a little about frilled coquette, perhaps |
1. | "Droning" is too close a definition to the use of "humming" in the word itself | 2. | 'Frilled' in the sense of 'ruffled' is indicated as archaic in Chambers, so really should have some qualification |
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12. Drunken bearded mountaineer, initially hiding rum for himself? |
1. | Nice idea, but it depends on an example of a humming-bird that is not in the main dictionaries |
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13. Dynasty taken over by awfully dumb heir loses state ultimately to a Hermit, say (11) |
1. | 'Taken over' doesn't work as a container, and 'to' is a weak link. I don't see the point of an upper-case H for 'hermit'. |
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14. Flier for Sound of Music? |
1. | Seems to be missing a definition. | 2. | Not sure how this is supposed to work. Some sort of cryptic definition? If not, 'for' is wrong as a link. |
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15. Flier's busy attempt to catch rat's head (11) |
1. | very good surface meaning in this clue | 2. | The surface would have been better with a different indication of R |
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16. Frequent flyer is kind of dumb! Ring him! |
1. | I don’t think ‘kind of’ indicates an anagram in the way that ‘sort of’ does. | 2. | 'Kind of' doesn't really work as an anagram indicator. 'Sort of' might do. The surface isn't all that good. |
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17. Having hovered around, I'm back to sip a taste of mellifluousness…back for a tiny amount |
1. | Quite a feat to come up with an &lit clue to this! | 2. | The last five words are superfluous to the definition, so not &lit. 'Back for X' does not indicate the reversal of 'X'. |
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18. Hermit perhaps killed time in cell around 2001 |
1. | Surface reading doesn't quite have it ("2001" a bit weak) buy I liked "killed time in cell" = "hung bird" | 2. | The clue is sound though the arbitrary '2001' isn't great for the surface. |
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19. Hermit, perhaps, that flies rapidly from Spooner's begging rabble. |
1. | I wondered if anyone would dare take on the spoonerism – and thankfully, done in perfectly good taste! | 2. | The best of the 'Spooner' clues, though I wonder if 'coquette' wouldn't have suited the surface better. |
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20. Hi mum. Bring a penny to design this flyer. |
1. | 'To design' is transitive, so it doesn't work as an anagram indicator (unlike 'change' for example). Not a great surface. |
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21. High time for in-flight refuelling expert (11) |
1. | Original definition and I like "high time" for the word play | 2. | Deserves recognition for an imaginative cryptic definition, though it's a bit liberal so a question mark would be better. |
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22. High time to become a hermit? |
1. | Small but perfectly formed! | 2. | Concise. |
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24. Hmm, during short bit working one is seen buzzing around |
1. | Sound clue but 'Hmm' is a bit contrived. |
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25. Humid days bring out tiny hovering creature |
1. | Original idea, but a faulty anagram. Humid months (m) would have worked. | 2. | The anag fodder is incorrect. Missing an M, extra D | 3. | Unfortunately, HUMIDDBRING* gives HUMDINGBIRD, not HUMMINGBIRD, while D = day, not days. | 4. | Good surface meaning; clever anagram | 5. | Would have been nice if it worked. The anagram omits an M and has too many D's. |
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27. In swift order flyer appeared – high time too (11) |
1. | Past tense, 'appeared' is inappropriate to describe the structure of the word |
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28. Inca beating big drum starts to make noise inside harem (7,4) |
1. | A definition that doesn't appear in Chambers or Collins seems unfair | 2. | Definition by example, with no indication as such. Image of an Inca inside a harem is a bit odd |
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29. Jacobin's prison sentence received after agitating |
1. | Definition by example, with no indication as such. I don't regard 'agitating' as a close synonym of 'humming'. |
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30. Nectar drinker's busy knocking back a wee dram? |
1. | Intransitive present participle after 'busy' isn't right for reversal. 'Drib' isn't Scottish, but 'wee dram' is still valid for the clue |
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31. Nectarivore, hoverer and can also fly backwards |
1. | Hardly cryptic. | 2. | This isn’t really a cryptic clue, more a general knowledge one. | 3. | This is not a triple definition as normally understood, i.e. 3 different meanings. It's one definition indicated in three different ways. |
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32. One hovering in prison after fixing husband for good |
1. | Nice surface, but do you hover in prison? | 2. | "One hovering" is perhaps a slightly weak definition, but I like the wordplay and consistent surface | 3. | Cryptic structure is weakened by the lack of any punctuation after 'fixing', but quite a nice surface |
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33. Petite exotic beauty – but even her best friends daren't tell her "B..O.."! |
1. | The secondary indication is entirely inadequate. "- but even her best friends daren't tell her" contributes nothing to the wordplay. |
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34. Raising a stink next to cell one has two wings abuzz. |
1. | cell = prison, prison = bird, but that doesn’t justify cell = bird | 2. | 'Bird' is prison or a prison sentence, but neither Chambers nor Oxford defines it as a cell. |
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35. Small flier might be regularly drumming mysteriously |
1. | A different anagram indicator could have improved the surface. |
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36. Small flyer is dry: bring him mud! (11) |
1. | Dry as anagram indicator; how does that work? | 2. | Unnatural surface, and 'dry' is a poor anagram indicator. |
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37. Smell space villain – that's a stretch for American flyer |
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38. Spooner's begging picked up a bright little chick. |
1. | A clue to a clue – i.e. unsound | 2. | A chick is the young of a fowl. I don't see it's apt for a humming-bird. |
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39. Spoooner's scrounging scrum is a hoverer |
1. | A clue to a clue – i.e. unsound | 2. | This made me smile – points for originality | 3. | The surface doesn't mean a lot, and 'Spooner' is misspelled |
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40. Was really active doing jail time, busy on the wing, we hear? |
1. | 'Was' is superfluous and it's hard to see what is the definition |
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41. White-bearded hermit drumming and hibernating a bit erratically |
1. | On what basis does 'a bit' indicate selection of first 3 letters of Hibernating? | 2. | Definition by example, with no indication as such; 'hibernating a bit' is unsatisfactory for HIB. |
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