CCCWC September competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 21

You’re not logged in

Login

Register and join

Crossword Centre

Azed Slip Archive

CCCWC September competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 21: Greens are happy to see we cycled

Back to competition result | All the comments | Other competitions

A clue to ASTER (Printer’s Devilry).
7 comments refer to this clue (from 5 competitors, 0 others)
Move your mouse pointer over any bold clue number to see the clue.

Here is the text

Comments on the clue

1.	Great scan in both devilled and undevilled versions; outright winner for me.
2.	Reads well in both versions – simple and effective – excellent.
3.	Nice that both versions make sense.

Comments on the competition
1.
My clue 40 was actually: "The ship has no rumpled sail or speed of fare, kept from the port" -> "The ship has no rum; plastered sailors, peed off, are kept from the port" but an internet problem near the deadline meant what was submitted was a mid-edit combo of two drafts. Apologies to the judges for the screw up. It wouldn't have troubled the excellent 21, 37, and 8 anyway.
2.
The ‘baste roast’ and ‘waste recycled’ clues took all my points, these were the best ideas (of the ones I could vote for!), especially 21, 42 and 8.
3.
I very much enjoyed attempting this month's challenge which brought home how very difficult it is to come up with two sentences making sense in both versions, especially if (following the advice of the organisers) you attempt to make 'aster' straddle two or more words. As this was my basis for judging,I discounted entries in which 'aster' was contained within a single word and focused on entries taking the more difficult route. This narrowed the field considerably and, of these, I liked clue 21 the best.
4.
A lot of entries don't seem to get the point of PD clues, which is that the undevilled version should make sense in a way that convinces the solver that the answer is correct. It's good if the devilled version makes sense too, but that is a secondary consideration. 32, 33 and 46 are examples where the undevilled version makes less sense than the devilled; 2, although it "works", doesn't give the solver enough information. Several clues used "b/aste roast", but most of them, didn't make it clear enough _why_ basting is a good thing. 21, which I gave my best score to, successfully makes both versions make sense, with a nice change of meaning between them.