| Comments on the competition |
|---|
| 1. |
|---|
| Although MCJOB is derived from McDonald's, it doesn't have to be in a fast food outlet, and I preferred clues that allowed for this. Overall I judged 6 to be the best clue – a neat and sound use of the Reggie Perrin idea: could this be from January's winner again? Second place to 16. I thought 2 was the best of the initial letter clues and 38 the best of the Biblical Jobs. Points also to 16, 19 and 24. Some that didn't quite work for me were: 1 Two indirect anagram fragments are too much. 10 CMJ is not a widely recognized set of initials, so this clue has little impact. 28 Using McDonald's in the clue is rather a giveaway! 44 Surely libellous. 46 Doesn't work – MJCOB? 47 Clever idea but a bit too obscure 48 Good clue marred by sloppy punctuation – it needs a capital letter, an apostrophe and arguably a question mark. 52 As in several clues, I thought the definition was too vague. |
| 2. |
|---|
| I decided in advance (a) that any clue based entirely on initial letters would have to be quite exceptional to score and (b) that job = work or the equivalent in the wordplay would disqualify (pity about 25, therefore). The two stand-out definitions were in 43 and 11, but I couldn't understand the MCJ in the former. I think the latter will be a runaway winner. The author of 12 should perhaps look afresh at structures, and see that the splits used are unconventional. |
| 3. |
|---|
| Clue 25 stood out for me because of its pithiness and &lit. nature – none of the fussy complexity of some of the others. |
| 4. |
|---|
| An excellent turnout of 53 entries and a nice mixture of clues with much inventive wordplay, though sometimes perhaps at the expense of an effective definition or fluent surface. 44 was an outstanding & lit., trailed by 25, and 11, 19 and 45 the best of the punning definitions. The main weakness of a lot other clues was a strained surface reading rather than unsoundness (36 for example), but there were a few I thought faulty: 1 is an indirect anagram with 'second digger' only providing a clue to the anagram material; similarly 'compare' in 12 is an indirect homophone; in 46 I don't think m=man is justified (and m=male=man is indirect) and the solution requires 0 in CJB not JCB; finally the author of 48 needs to sort out their apostrophes and capital letters if they're to have any chance in this competition. |
| 5. |
|---|
| Having just one vowel and the letter J in a five-letter word led to many clues (including the best) using initial letters in some way. I always tend to go for a clue that could be solved in a real crossword – in some of the clues in this comp I thought the allusions were somewhat indirect. |
| 6. |
|---|
| A tough bunch of letters to clue cryptically. (I missed entering mine by one minute.) I await the March word! |
| 7. |
|---|
| For the most part, as uninspiring a set of clues as I can remember, almost all being marred by one or more of unsoundness, an unconvincing surface, clumsiness, contorted over-complexity or rather tired predictability. There were, however, a few very honourable exceptions. I found I couldn’t separate 16 and 25 for quality and gave them both 5 points, the latter as neat and economical an &lit as one could ask for and the former offering an excellent anagram and the most original and pleasing surface. 38 – 3 points – is very good too, but slightly spoiled by the rather heavy-handed indication of Job. 19 – 2 points – much the most successful of the many clues using the “first letters” device, melding it with a good and well-disguised definition into an original surface, is let down by the slightly dodgy “to distribute” as an anagram indicator. |
| 8. |
|---|
| 52 clever use of double meanings and requires the lateral thinking I like to see in cryptic clues. Hence the 5 points. |
| 9. |
|---|
| Far too many clues using the initial letters device. 25 is a very nice concise +lit, but after that I went mainly for original definitions – 29's 'lousy service station' is a stretch but I like it, 27 is a good CD and 44 is of course an outrageous slur on the fast-food industry, but will ring a bell with anyone who remembers John Gummer feeding his daughter a burger for the cameras at the height of the BSE crisis! |
| 10. |
|---|
1st (4 pts): 16 (smooth and efficient — the explanation suggests an Azed regular}
2nd= (2.5 points each): 10 (nice image, although I thought the reference in the explanation to CMJ's job was irrelevant) and 25 (neat, but is the exclam really necessary?)
4th= (1 point each): 2, 19, 26, 30, 34, 35 (most of them initial letters clues, all of which were fine although perhaps a bit of a cop-out; but the clue-word was so hard that this is forgiveable) |
