CCCWC March competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 48: Reissued Afrit is going to Derek's head? This might reduce the swelling
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A clue to FIRST AID.
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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| This challenge offered plenty of promising material for anagrams. Tardis was “a nice find” (to use Azed’s expression from the last slip) to combine with definitions involving the Doctor, but, although it produced several perfectly acceptable clues, none seems to me to exploit the idea with much élan. The best of them is perhaps 27 – 0.5 point – which had a more imaginative definition than the rest. Of the three composite anagrams, 41 seems to me to rule itself out on several grounds: using a dash to indicate “minus” in this way (though ingenious) is, surely, a bridge too far; even if one winks at two anagram indicators (see John’s blog on a recent Azed on Fifteen Squared), “with” seems to have no role in the wordplay; and, most seriously, the surface makes virtually no sense and is far from being an &lit (how can major replacement surgery be said to “suit” a fracture with first aid?) 53 is much more accomplished – although I personally much dislike the illogical “shred of decency” = D device, it is too widely accepted for it to be reasonable to penalize it – but the clue is unfortunately seriously flawed by the lack of an a.i. in either half, a lack that could so easily have been supplied. 16 – 2 points – is very neat, though slightly spoiled by the fact that it is the friend rather than I who would be in need of first aid. 47 – 3 points – is an admirably succinct and accomplished & lit. The three most original and imaginative clues are, in my view, 48, 54 and 58. The first sentence of 48 – 3 points – reads slightly awkwardly as a question; a full stop or a colon would have been better. The second sentence of 54 (a first-rate idea) – 2 points – falls rather awkwardly between the stools of the two meanings: “reduced” isn’t quite the right word in either context (“diminished” would have been slightly better, at least for the Paxo reference) and “an introductory treatment” doesn’t very happily describe “first aid”. 58 – 3 points – is entirely sound, if one accepts “subsidiary indication IN definition” (as most seem to do), and very neatly done, if a shade less exciting than the other two. Fractionally ahead of the pack of other sound and acceptable clues – 0.5 point each – are, in my view, 5, 33 and 56. |
| 2. |
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A good bunch this month, I suppose because 'first aid' lends itself both to devious wordplay and to cunning definitions.
(3 points) 48 (quite outstanding, if you can accept the anagram indicator, which I can; one hopes Derek won't take it too seriously)
2nd (2 points) 58 (very neat, not 100% happy with the definition, but it does make for an excellent surface)
3rd= (1 point each) 6, 10, 24, 27, 33, 34, 37, 45, 47, 54, all of which are very pleasing. |
