CCCWC November competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 10: Diminutive winger departs after Birmingham settled with United for ace
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A clue to HUMMINGBIRD.
5 comments refer to this clue (from 3 competitors, 1 other)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
| Others will probably disagree, but I'm afraid I thought that the use as definitions of the names of various species of hummingbird (Hermit, Jacobin, Inca, etc) required ornithological knowledge that would be unreasonable and unfair to expect in a non-specialist puzzle – I imagine that most of the setters had recourse to Wikipedia etc – while the ubiquitous "flier"/"flyer" was just too humdrum and obvious to merit points, unless part of an otherwise brilliant clue. This left remarkably few clues in the running, of which, for me, 10 was head and shoulders above the rest. |
| 2. |
| I struggled to find clues worth awarding points to. Many of them define the answer with an example (hermit, coquette, etc) without any indication of definition by example. I discounted all these. Predictably, many broke 'humming-bird' into its two components, which is not the best cluing practice unless the result is a stunner. None of the examples here are, but some are perfectly sound, and one shows wit and ingenuity in the definition 21. Because it also has a natural surface I ended up placing it at the top of my selection. An anagram possibly offered the best scope, though one that had the potential to be a very good clue is faulty 25. I thought 1 and 10 were the best of the anagram clues, coincidentally both based on BIRMINGHAM. Some clues contained obscure references that might escape many solvers. A clue that needs the compiler to explain obscure references is not a good clue in my opinion, especially for a clue competition – e.g 7, 12. |