Comments on the clues |
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1. 80s pop song from original 'in/out shake it all about' |
1. | Clever and brought a smile to my face! |
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6. A girl on the run without love |
1. | The best example of this type of clue, in my opinion, with proper respect showed for Branigan! |
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8. A girl upset without love? (6) |
1. | My favourite of the “girl” clues for its simplicity |
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17. De Janeiro gal mixed-up woman |
1. | Crossword convention would advise againt having an anagram of letters not actually in your clue. |
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18. Ecclesiastical praise from church is shunned by unorthodox oligarch |
1. | I feel the 'is' is unnecessary, hence no points awarded. | 2. | Good anagram, but the cryptic reading spoilt by ‘is’ |
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19. Even bigger length of a woven material |
1. | Even does not mean evenly |
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20. Extraordinary girl with halo seen ocasionally (6) |
1. | I like the fact this works on two levels. However, the surface isn't amazing, hence no points. |
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21. Famous song a girl composed about love |
1. | Simple and straightforward but best of the song and a girl + o anagram entries. |
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22. Fashionable cut from original woven fabric |
1. | Neat and concise surface – very nice. | 2. | Lovely smooth surface | 3. | Smooth surface | 4. | Not the only 'original' anagram but excellent wordplay and surface story make it stand out. |
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24. Flying Loganair, one essentially is masked for Corona |
1. | The 'essentially' could have been totally avoided for a much better surface | 2. | Clever and topical | 3. | Clue elements cleverly combined. | 4. | Good attempt . Didn’t see the relevance of “one” | 5. | Essentially doesn't fit neatly into the surface |
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25. Girl with a ring, perhaps? |
1. | I thought this was the neatest girl/ring clue. I personally feel there's probably even a more subtle/satisfying way of indicating the anagra |
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30. I may interrupt examination when bottom lifted by Gynaecology's head woman |
1. | Thanks for making me chuckle! | 2. | Original and challenging wordplay with original surface story. |
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31. Inside the ice house hot air is a blessing (6) |
1. | This is a nice idea. I personally feel it would have been OK to say 'igloo' outright. I also wonder whether there's a better anagram indicat | 2. | Like the idea but not entirely convinced by “inside the ice house” for GLO | 3. | Would prefer "inside of the ice house" for the cryptic reading |
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32. Largo Ibert first composed for part of Mass |
1. | Would have been a good clue if written "Ibert's first largo composed for part of mass".
"Ibert first" is not an acceptable indication of I. |
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33. Latin original lost in translation. |
1. | If there was a more specific definition, I think this would be wonderful. Unless I'm missing something, 'latin' is too vague a def for me. |
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34. Log tossed into turbulent air in this hurricane |
1. | It’s not ‘into’ but next to |
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36. Mass number of unstable atom is large, team's worked out (6) |
1. | Clever misleading def, strong surface and impeccable grammar – everything I look for in a clue. A clear standout for me! | 2. | Great deception and clever wordplay – my favourite clue | 3. | Nice surface reading. |
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37. Matt Hancock's trackers all starting to abandon faulty algorithm – Hallelujah! |
1. | Not quite convinced by ‘all starting’, but a great topical surface. |
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39. Object of philosophical musing while passing noisy ailing van (6) |
1. | A bit too indirect! Needs a ? at least. |
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40. Oil and rag needed for restoring part of saintly image |
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43. Rain galore might be scattered near this. |
1. | Clever! Only reservation is the obscure definition but very good | 2. | Good comp. anag. |
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44. Revolutionary broadcast on Labour's goals starts mass movement |
1. | It took a while for me to appreciate this one but when I did it felt satisfying rather than over-wrought. And what a great surface! |
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50. Song – often lauding God’s advents – in crescendo (6) |
1. | I feel like there could be a better word than 'advents'. Still a nice clue though. | 2. | Liked this clue for originality. But advent is just an arrival, for a 'first coming' (of Christ really) it would also need capitalisation |
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51. Sorting marigold borders out forms part of the service |
1. | Good surface and the only use of marigold | 2. | Excellent anagram idea | 3. | Well-disguised, original wordplay and surface story. |
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52. Suppression of church by oligarch disrupted Christian praise |
1. | My favourite of the “oligarch”s but not sure that “by” works in the wordplay |
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55. This song starts to ostensibly laud God heavenwards |
1. | I think the clue might be better without 'this' at the start – I'm not sure though – great clue either way. | 2. | Cleverly constructed | 3. | The ‘this’ doesn’t quite work here. Maybe ‘Song … heavenwards – this one?’ |
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56. Two-thirds of algorithm revised as it goes over one's head |
1. | A dash or other punctuation would be better than ‘as’ |
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57. Van originally delivered this in pieces. It was something out of the ordinary (6) |
1. | I really like the first sentence – not so much the second. | 2. | As the long explanation shows, the clue needs rather detailed knowledge to solve |
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59. What goes with the power? Sounds like a halo! |
1. | Another clue that needs a tweak to the wording, e.g. ‘Sounds like what goes …: a halo?’ |
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