CCCWC February competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 38: Opening for menial pursued by patiently long-suffering individual after college?
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A clue to MCJOB.
2 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 0 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
