CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 30

CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 30: UK entry rocks, leaving Norway an abject failure

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A clue to TURKEY (STONES) (Wrong Number).
4 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 2 others)
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Comments on the clue

1.	Nicely done, though my impression was that UK finished behind Norway
2.	Nice surface reading
3.	what entry is this about?

Comments on the competition
1.
An entertaining variety of approaches to these clues bearing in mind the constraints of providing a definition for 'stones' within the clue framework. Many chose 'rocks' but with a less convincing surface story. I really liked clue 19,despite the use of 'initially' as a (easy) first letter indicator for its topical surface story and its compensating deceptive use of 'island' for 'key'. I gave it 5 points. Clue{4} was a close contender but with a slightly less appealing surface story and I gave it 3 points. Clues 112430and 35 deserve a mention but were discounted by me for perceived minor flaws: Clue 11 because 'rocks' is an awkward fit in the surface story here; Clue 24 because it is a little too straightforward without a strong surface story; Clues 30 and 35 because (to me) the clue construction seemed flawed – Clue 30 the use of 'leaving' on its own as an omission indicator and Clue 35 the positioning of 'When finally released' before rather than after 'UK entry'. This left 7 points to award and I gave 4 points to Clue 32 for originality and it would have been my winner but for the use of the rather contrived and perhaps unnecessary 'ratings-wise'. I gave my remaining 3 points to Clue 26 which ticks most boxes but relies on more easily contrived word play by using inverted commas to find a link to the excellent definitions. One final clue that merits a particular comment is Clue 9: this I was immediately drawn to as a possible winner as a succinct all in one clue which seemed to do the trick; but, on further consideration,I discovered that 'bomb' as a noun meaning 'failure' appears only in American English and,for fairness reasons, needs to be qualified by 'US' or 'American' – pity

Comments on the competition

An entertaining variety of approaches to these clues bearing in mind the constraints of providing a definition for 'stones' within the clue framework. Many chose 'rocks' but with a less convincing surface story.
I really liked clue 19,despite the use of 'initially' as a (easy) first letter indicator for its topical surface story and its compensating deceptive use of 'island' for 'key'. I gave it 5 points.

Clue{4} was a close contender but with a slightly less appealing surface story and I gave it 3 points. Clues 112430and 35 deserve a mention but were discounted by me for perceived minor flaws: Clue 11 because 'rocks' is an awkward fit in the surface story here; Clue 24 because it is a little too straightforward without a strong surface story; Clues 30 and 35 because (to me) the clue construction seemed flawed – Clue 30 the use of 'leaving' on its own as an omission indicator and Clue 35 the positioning of 'When finally released' before rather than after 'UK entry'.

This left 7 points to award and I gave 4 points to Clue 32 for originality and it would have been my winner but for the use of the rather contrived and perhaps unnecessary 'ratings-wise'. I gave my remaining 3 points to Clue 26 which ticks most boxes but relies on more easily contrived word play by using inverted commas to find a link to the excellent definitions.

One final clue that merits a particular comment is Clue 9: this I was immediately drawn to as a possible winner as a succinct all in one clue which seemed to do the trick; but, on further consideration,I discovered that 'bomb' as a noun meaning 'failure' appears only in American English and,for fairness reasons, needs to be qualified by 'US' or 'American' – pity

CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments Clue no. 30: UK entry rocks, leaving Norway an abject failure

CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 30: UK entry rocks, leaving Norway an abject failure