CCCWC February competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 44

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CCCWC February competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 44: Serving up sources of Creutzfeldt-Jakob in a cap?

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A clue to MCJOB.
3 comments refer to this clue (from 3 competitors, 0 others)
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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.
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.
3.
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!