| Comments on the clues |
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| 1. A couple of workers get wound up on leaving this tool |
| 1. | 'of' is superfluous so the clue gives the non-word DIOFSTAFF | | 2. | di= a couple is too much of a stretch |
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| 2. A few backward characters scoff at sides representing women (7) |
| 1. | Nice backwards hidden but not sure about the definition. | | 2. | The wordplay needs ‘in’ or ‘from’ | | 3. | The clue needs "…characters of/in"
- which of course would mess up the surface. | | 4. | Nicely done! |
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| 3. Aid to spinning fast if beginning to dance waltzes |
| 1. | Nice deceptive surface. I think 'waltz' (letters / words 'waltz') would be more accurate in the actual clue (arguable?). | | 2. | Excellent clue with misleading surface story – my winner. |
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| 4. Almost all ladies with this work out could get fit as a fiddle (7) |
| 1. | "Work out" should be a single word. How does "fit as a fiddle" mean "distaff"? | | 2. | The def. sseems to be 'this work' which is vague to say the least. | | 3. | So close. It doesn't quite work. Work out =/= workout. | | 4. | These multiletter comp anagrams are a pain in the backside! By adding enough letters you can make almost any phrase. Does anyone like them? |
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| 5. Angharad is Taffy's squeeze, dashing away with a smoothing iron, perhaps |
| 1. | Definition is too remote from actual meaning | | 2. | Huh? |
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| 6. Beloved princess blubbers over tip of finger in girls' work of fiction (7) |
| 1. | Original surface and definition | | 2. | Not beloved by me…. |
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| 7. Bum fat is extremely feared by women |
| 1. | No it isn't – rather the contrary if modern trends are any indication | | 2. | My Chambers dictionary gives distaff as a noun only. | | 3. | I like it, but is "by women" precise enough? | | 4. | good humorous surface; a little uneasy about distaff as a noun = women |
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| 8. Conveyor of yarn set up Minoan myth in Metamorphoses, having set out cursed mountain nymph Echo being captivated by Narcissus |
| 1. | Too long and complicated for such a relatively short word | | 2. | Extraordinary clue, sound and factually accurate! Drops a point only for the falsely capitalized verbal anagrind. | | 3. | Clever, but too clever. I wouldn’t have had a hope solving cold. | | 4. | This might be an an accurate account, but the compounded anagram is OTT | | 5. | The complex and somehwat indirect wordplay I think would be excessively unfair on any potential solver. | | 6. | Too long. | | 7. | Come on that's ridiculous! Try clues of 8 words or less! |
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| 9. Detective beginning to search Welsh river for tow vehicle |
| 1. | Very misleading Def. Nice surface. | | 2. | Creative definition | | 3. | Clever def. | | 4. | Good deception | | 5. | Like the definition | | 6. | Nicely disguised definition (I'll forgive the nounal adjective!). | | 7. | I didn't give points but enjoyed being reminded of a bike ride down the Taff | | 8. | Good misleading definition |
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| 10. Detective thanks fellows after charges finally stick |
| 1. | Nicely constructed surface | | 2. | Nice surface reading but 'stick' is a weak (very non-specific) definition. |
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| 11. Detectives with terriers – they made it work for women |
| 1. | It's unclear what the surface is trying to convey | | 2. | Sound clue; the surface is not so convincing. | | 3. | I didn't understand the FF |
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| 12. Diana comes briefly before the personnel to discuss matters concerning women. |
| 1. | Not clear about the role of 'to discuss matters', doesn't appear necessary to indicate 'staff' | | 2. | Potentially a good clue, but too many extraneous words: "the" and "to discuss matters". | | 3. | Just a bit pedestrian |
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| 13. Editing staid folios is women’s work |
| 1. | Rather objectionable surface | | 2. | Should be 'edited staid' for an anagram. | | 3. | Simple but sound. | | 4. | Surface needs to be good in this competition! |
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| 14. Employees supporting Welshman – it's the work of women |
| 1. | Di=Welshman? Can't see how this clue is meant to work | | 2. | It's unclear what the surface is trying to convey | | 3. | Don’t you mean Dai? | | 4. | Sound clue but the surface could be better. The best clues often disguise the join between wordplay and definition. | | 5. | The surface doesn't make a lot of sense – should women always support Welshmen? |
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| 15. Ending of Gone With the Wind is thanks to female going to face future: typical of her |
| 1. | Letter picking for 'D' and 'face future' for F not convincing | | 2. | Six words to indicate the letter "D" is too many | | 3. | f = 'face of future' but surely not 'face future' | | 4. | I hated Gone With the Wind |
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| 16. Essentially cylindrical, one short pole holds flax at first (7) |
| 1. | Cutting the pole and then adding that back to try and force an &lit seems a bit contrived | | 2. | Needs to be "holding" for the &lit, and clueing part of the word (STAFF) separately doesn't really work. | | 3. | Nice try at an & lit., but surface rather forced | | 4. | Lovely clue except that 'holds' needs to be 'holding' to make the whole a nounal definition. | | 5. | Nice try at &lit. | | 6. | 'Essentially' and 'at first' are both obvious indicators to be avoided if possible. Two in the same clue? Two too many! | | 7. | Novel wordplay and well-disguised clue producing &lit. |
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| 17. Fat Sid returns with female, concerning women! |
| 1. | Nonsensical surface | | 2. | Nice humour but a pity you had to use Sid…. |
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| 18. Female employee I had promoted is on top (7) |
| 1. | Vague definition, and "promoted" means "moved up" not "reversed" | | 2. | I'm afraid lots of clues used 'staff' it's a bit lazy |
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| 20. Female royal's female attributes – doubly female |
| 1. | T&A is an unpleasant abbreviation | | 2. | Maybe I'm slow but I don't get the T&A bit |
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| 21. Female showing as man on passport got rejected (7) |
| 1. | I don't understand this wordplay | | 2. | I did not understand this. |
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| 22. Female workers on the payroll for this? |
| 1. | Not an &lit | | 2. | Very neat | | 3. | Female = DI ? Didn’t quite get the wordplay |
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| 23. Find dandruff at side and back of women (7) |
| 1. | The hidden indication doesn't work well | | 2. | Nonsensical surface | | 3. | Brave attempt but hidden clues need to have a natural-sounding surface |
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| 24. Five hundred one hired hands! For women's work? |
| 1. | Nothing very convincing about the surface unfortunately | | 2. | Five hundred (and) one? | | 3. | Perhaps “five hundred and one…”? | | 4. | Why not insert the 'and' to make the surface smoother? |
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| 25. Fossilized rock: compressed stone with a filling difference? |
| 1. | I don't think anyone could solve this | | 2. | Too obscure for me! |
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| 26. Gendered domain is stick that's associated originally with females (7) |
| 1. | Definitely not &lit | | 2. | Not an &lit, and "gendered" has no role in the wordplay | | 3. | IMO acrostics only work if they sound entirely natural. |
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| 27. Half a mile, for instance, in front of a very strong female |
| 1. | Couldn't make much sense of the surface | | 2. | Reasonable attempt, but not an &lit. The definition is "female" | | 3. | Seems you have misunderstood the meaning of an 'AND lit' clue (= the WHOLE clue is both the wordplay AND the (literal) definition. | | 4. | The wordplay works well but the surface doesn't make sense |
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| 28. I'd set up a workforce of women (6) |
| 1. | Works fine as a down clue. The enumeration is both unnecessary and wrong, but I will ignore that when awarding points | | 2. | Could be tightened by dropping "a". | | 3. | Neat and simple – but is the surface reading gripping enough to outshine the other clues? | | 4. | DI + STAFF were too obvious and thus overused |
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| 29. In style, it's raucous; a very loud classic rock (7) |
| 1. | I don't see how anyone could solve this | | 2. | I don't see how 'raucous' signifies an anagram (of 'it's' – which BTW you omitted to explain). Would have been good otherwise. | | 3. | The def and the DA are both too obscure |
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| 30. Insult a guy from Cardiff made referring to females |
| 1. | Needs "perhaps" after Cardiff, but I don't think you can get away with Taff as a generic Welshman these days | | 2. | Why the past tense? The link word 'made' here should be 'makes'. |
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| 31. It's used to stop tops of flax fibres and end of thread twisting |
| 1. | The def is properly '& lit.' (as some entrants should note). But 'used' isn't an anagrind for me – 'somehow used' would do. | | 2. | The surface just doesn't sound natural | | 3. | Anagram inside anagram but the wordplay works for &lit. | | 4. | Not sure about "used" as an anagram indicator |
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| 32. Just over five hundred staff use this to spin a yarn. |
| 1. | staff clued as staff? That may not fly | | 2. | Having so much of the solution (STAFF) in plain sight in the clue is a bit of a giveaway! | | 3. | Oh no not another DI + STAFF |
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| 33. Ladies' man pursues baser instincts when retired (7) |
| 1. | Pleasingly subtle use of the Freudian concept of the ID | | 2. | Amusing surface | | 3. | Nice – neat surface |
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| 34. Ladies wondered: "Is taffeta revealing?" |
| 1. | I don't believe 'ladies' defines the word appropriately | | 2. | Meaningless surface. | | 3. | My sort of clue, which has a good story and a hint of spice |
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| 35. Leaders of Denmark, Iceland, Serbia: they are female, female and female |
| 1. | Very forced surface | | 2. | Ingenious but "female" is rather a vague definition. | | 3. | Good spot | | 4. | Very nice. | | 5. | Impeccable surface. Minor quibble: is 'female' by itself sufficient for defn? But happy to accept it given the quality of the clue overall. | | 6. | Top clue for me. Must have taken some research or v good GK to make the connections. |
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| 36. Loud obese man rejected "women's work". |
| 1. | Not sure what the surface is trying to convey | | 2. | This has the makings of a good clue but Sid lets the side down |
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| 37. No heathen left one unravelled in the hands of Fate. |
| 1. | Very obscure, and I don't think the wordplay works | | 2. | Life is too short to disentangle clues like this |
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| 38. Nudist affably shows rod |
| 1. | The mind boggles | | 2. | Best of the hidden clues for the lol factor! | | 3. | This one produced a smile | | 4. | Nice surface but I think the 'rod' is too weak for a definition. | | 5. | naughty! worth a point… |
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| 39. Nudist affectedly masks his feminine side |
| 1. | Would be better without "his" | | 2. | The 'his' is redundant in the real clue (presumably it's there for the surface reading). | | 3. | Did he wear a bikini top to hide his moobs? |
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| 40. Nudist affects clothing for women |
| 1. | The clothed nudist creates a confusing surface | | 2. | Sound enough but the surface read is not special enough to win | | 3. | Well then he's not a nudist, is he? | | 4. | "clothing" sounds more like a containment indicator than a hidden word indicator |
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| 41. Old man admits it's unsettling to stand beside very loud female |
| 1. | "Da" is rather obscure | | 2. | 'unsettling' should be 'unsettled' | | 3. | I know the feeling |
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| 42. Old-fashioned, rock & roll is daft – and LOUD! |
| 1. | Better without the comma? |
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| 43. Papers, having turned against workers, getting stick for spinning |
| 1. | Good misleading def. | | 2. | Good surface but too many people have used STAFF |
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| 44. Policewomen (7) |
| 1. | From "Police" to "DI staff" is a leap too far | | 2. | Clever |
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| 45. Princess and her aides involved in spinning yarns |
| 1. | Like the deception. “Her” feels superfluous | | 2. | This clues an adjective rather than a noun | | 3. | Nice idea on the surface, but too many clues use STAFF |
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| 46. Regarding women in engineering shedding initial aversion, data is very strong (7) |
| 1. | "Initial aversion" is not "a" | | 2. | Surface needs work to make it sound natural | | 3. | Nice try but doesn't work accurately: a = 'aversion's initial' , and the words / letters have been or are 'engineered'. |
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| 47. Rod is awfully daft about sex (7) |
| 1. | Good attempt, but rather vague definition | | 2. | I think 'rod' is too weak a definition of 'distaff', otherwise a nice clue. . |
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| 48. Rod to produce American whiskey, has no trouble with one very strong |
| 1. | Surface isn't convincing |
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| 49. Sadist afflicts hiding with this stick. |
| 1. | Meaningless surface, "with" is superfluous | | 2. | Surface reading doesn’t quite get there IMHO. Inflicts maybe, but not afflicts. Otherwise would’ve been good with nice use of indicator | | 3. | Good idea but wordplay doesn’t quite work | | 4. | 'with' looks redundant | | 5. | Hidden word clues need to sound natural |
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| 50. Scoff at Siddhartha's returning to mother's side, perhaps? |
| 1. | No containment indicator | | 2. | ..but what signifies your 'within it' |
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| 51. Show disrespect to short Welshman – this is literally never done |
| 1. | Brilliant definition | | 2. | TAFF would be just as good (or bad) as TAFFY. Defines a synonym instead of the actual word | | 3. | Did you mean 'literarily'? | | 4. | I gave this some points in spite of literally and literarily being different things…. |
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| 52. Shun banker with spinning stick (7) |
| 1. | "Dis" stands for "disrespect", which is not really "shun" | | 2. | Wordplay works fine but what does the surface mean? |
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| 53. Side female nudist affably displays? |
| 1. | Another affable nudist – aren't any of them affectionate? Better without "female" | | 2. | So no full frontal then? |
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| 54. Sissy Sid wears a very loud shirt. Wild! |
| 1. | Unacceptable definition |
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| 55. Spinning device fad's fit to be wound up |
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| 56. Term for stiff fellow pursuing staid living? A stick! |
| 1. | A synonym of an anagram indicator is too indirect |
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| 57. Terribly staid females or female (7) |
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| 58. This working, could be 'tis female fad |
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| 59. Underworld volunteers very loud for women (7) |
| 1. | Not sure what this means |
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| 60. Upsetting to men where this form of women's work becomes somewhat different |
| 1. | What does this mean? | | 2. | Comp. anags usually work best as '& lit' clues. The surface reading here is not a good enough story to justify the convolutions. |
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| 61. Warring states differ. No reset for women's work. |
| 1. | Unconvincing anagram indicator and surface | | 2. | The surface has two unconnected parts. And subtractive anagrams are the worst! |
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| 62. Welshman is fourth in line, on his mother's side (7) |
| 1. | Wordplay results in TAFFISD | | 2. | The wordplay seems indicate ‘Taff is D’ | | 3. | Wordplay would be a fairer indication of Taff is D |
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| 63. Welshman on the pick-up meets hands-on woman (7) |
| 1. | Not keen on the "hands-on" split | | 2. | The 'on' here is not a word (it's part of another word). Clues must be grammatically accurate to be fair to the solver. |
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| 64. What I'd turn fast to spin a bit of flax? |
| 1. | Both of the anagram indicators are weak | | 2. | The wordplay needs ‘I’d turns’ | | 3. | Almost my winner, but turn (rather than turns) spoils the wordplay slightly | | 4. | Good attempt | | 5. | This clue would be even better without the word "What " at the beginning | | 6. | Not sure, but think the spindle is turned rather than the distaff |
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| 65. Woman democrat wins regularly thanks to female following |
| 1. | Vague definition | | 2. | Very good surface story and wordplay which I liked a lot but the def seems to be archaic American. | | 3. | "to" is padding in the wordplay |
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| 66. Woman with man after her job? |
| 1. | Not convinced by this definition |
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| 67. Woman's engaged in nudist affair. |
| 1. | Best of the hidden words |
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| 68. Women showing up in stiff, fat sideburns (7) |
| 1. | Rather odd surface and weak definition (presumably adjectival) | | 2. | Not a very convincing surface! |
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| 69. Women's work carried out by princess's team belowstairs |
| 1. | Wordplay gives DISSTAFF |
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| 70. Women’s work: cooking, for starters, then dusting furniture – as if! (7) |
| 1. | One of my favourite clues here (presumably satirical) | | 2. | Very nice surface. | | 3. | Complicated but a nice surface reading | | 4. | Nice. However the def/wordplay break is obvious rather than disguised, as in the best clues. |
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| 71. Women's work, mostly performed by men (7) |
| 1. | Staff = man but not men. | | 2. | Very tidy. | | 3. | Nice surface | | 4. | Great surface and would have been much better without the comma! The best clues usually disguise the def / wordplay break. | | 5. | Straightforward but sufficiently different wordplay to make a good clue. |
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| 72. Women's work shift had hours chopped and changed by force |
| 1. | Novel anagram fodder and wordplay. |
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