CCCWC April competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 34: Order from Al Capone? No one messes with him!
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A clue to MOONSHINE (Letters Latent).
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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| A lot of good ideas were spoiled by unnecessary, and often fatal, flaws. For instance, in 19 and 20, the definition was invalidated by the omission (in the interests of the surface) of a hyphen between “still” and “produced”; at least in 20, the difficulty could have been avoided quite simply by the addition of “Reportedly” or equivalent. Conversely, in 16 the a.i. is invalidated by the addition of the hyphen before “brewed”. In 34, the use of the present “messes” rather than the past tense “messed” fails to achieve the meaning required to make it a valid a.i. In 42, the word “with” plays no part in either definition or subsidiary indication – and contributes to a very awkward surface into the bargain. The excellent idea for an anagram in 18 is spoiled by the clever-clever addition of “and lit!” – which (a nice irony) actually destroys the clue’s claim to be an &lit, since the words “and lit” play no part in the subsidiary indication. 30 is made hopelessly over-elaborate by the eight words after the semi-colon; on their own, the first seven would have made a first-rate clue. However, there were one or two very good and unflawed clues and quite a large number that were sound if unexceptional. Three clues stood out for me (3.5 points each), 17 (though one hopes the NHS is no longer so unenlightened!) and – both admirably succinct – 26 (which would have been even better as “Low’s high…”) and 46. Of the rest, 1 point each to 9, 18 and 25 and 0.5 point each to 6, 7 and 15. |
| 2. |
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There were so many good clues that it was very hard to whittle them down. Several that were I'm sure worth points have been left out, but eventually I decided:
1st= (2 points each): 34, 46, 47
4th= (1 point each): 2, 7, 17, 20, 22, 32, 36, 39
12th= (0.5 points each): 3, 5 |
