| Comments on the clues |
|---|
| 1. Bit of manifesto Tories lop off to motivate the City |
| 1. | Not sure about 'bit of', nor 'motivate' | | 2. | Is "to motivate" the wordplay-definition link? | | 3. | Role of to motivate” is unclear |
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| 2. Bonn? Berlin? Or Fritz's masterpiece? |
| 1. | No chance of misdirection just with 3 cities |
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| 3. Caddy, carry them back to the city. |
| 1. | I suppose it's possible. |
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| 4. Can we describe Lazio’s capital? “Sì, potremo!” |
| 1. | Lazio may be a capital, but not Lazio's capital! |
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| 5. City beaten 1-0, prem lost |
| 1. | Would anyone actually say prem for Premier League? |
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| 6. City close to pandemonium with poorest and ill almost rioting |
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| 7. City in Middle East erected storage for food and wine (10) |
| 1. | Very nicely constructed |
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| 8. City is unfortunately more spoilt (9) |
| 1. | Simple but seen before; hence no wow! factor |
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| 9. City is withdrawing missile store and dock after early stages of meeting |
| 1. | I can see how a missile store might be withdrawn, but not a dock. |
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| 10. City playing opener at Manchester United with Oriel tops |
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| 11. City police or blended Glaswegian police |
| 1. | MET is from metropolitan and POLIS is from police, shared etymology with metropolis | | 2. | Blended police?? |
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| 12. City's public transit incomplete, like Warsaw |
| 1. | Surface reading needs like Warsaw's. |
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| 13. Crowded city spoilt Rome unfortunately |
| 1. | The anagram is familiar; lacks wow! factor |
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| 14. Early brace from Messi – Arsenal left needing a comeback in London? |
| 1. | I really liked this idea and would have scored more except silo and arsenal do not seem to me to be very similar |
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| 17. Fiery character facing mortal peril, Superman's heading over to ——— |
| 1. | A nice subsidiary part to this clue. |
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| 18. First show of movie spoiler to ruin science fiction film |
| 1. | Clever with a good misleading surface. | | 2. | How does the anag indicator work? It looks to me like a noun, with no relationship established between it and the fodder |
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| 21. I’m poor .. let’s move to a big city
(10) |
| 1. | Not entirely happy with 'move', though I'm still giving points to this one. | | 2. | Move doesn’t seem to work as anagrind after the fodder | | 3. | My favourite, a smooth convincing surface |
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| 22. Implores top doctor to remove head of pustule to get at sprawling area of growth |
| 1. | Doctor [fodder] or [fodder] doctored? | | 2. | Doctor, as an imperative, needs to come before the words to be doctored in order to work as an anag indicator. |
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| 23. Lane assignment or milepost arrangement |
| 1. | Very nice misdirection. |
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| 24. Large settlement secured after more pilots came out |
| 1. | Great definition | | 2. | I'll take the elaborate causal link. Anag indicator is weird though. Almost as though you're trying to find a passive for to come. |
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| 25. Maybe Paris Hilton stripped as part of some PR stunt (10) |
| 1. | Love the surface! Not sure about the wordplay though. | | 2. | Nounal anagrind ? | | 3. | Likeable clue but not entirely convinced that 'stunt' as an anagrind works here. | | 4. | As part of seems to have only a decorative role in the clue. |
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| 27. Middle Eastern port sent back crude oil to southern city |
| 1. | Not sure about 'to' | | 2. | ME is not Middle Eastern – just Middle East |
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| 28. Motors pile up, and so I'm petrol hybrid in London eg |
| 1. | eg at the end is quite clumsy. And you don't really get good surface mileage out of the double wordplay idea. |
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| 31. Poms loiter about in Melbourne, Sydney etc |
| 1. | Shouldn't the definition be 'Melbourne or Sydney etc'? | | 2. | To me, etc implies a plural "Sydney, perhaps" would have been fine |
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| 33. Promise to treat large investment as capital? |
| 1. | Treat [fodder] or [fodder] treated? Nice definition. | | 2. | I think it would need to be 'treated'? | | 3. | Treat doesn't work after the fodder |
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| 34. Promise to wander around large city (10) |
| 1. | would need to be wanders / wandering |
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| 35. Put away drink then dash back to London for one (10) |
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| 38. Rome – its people periodically rebuilt the ancient city (10) |
| 1. | A nice classical touch. | | 2. | replacing "the ancient city" with "it?" (referring back to Rome) would make this a nice semi-&lit |
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| 41. See list with poor cluing, yours truly coming first? |
| 1. | This took some time to crack, but when the penny (eventually) dropped I liked it a lot. Beaming grin here! | | 2. | where's the definition? | | 3. | Chancy anag indicator. You'll have to get there without my help |
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| 42. Setter managing solo trip to Superman's hometown |
| 1. | To doesn't really work as a link does it? |
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| 44. Shot pistol more to produce the smoke? (10) |
| 1. | Nice unusual definition |
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| 45. Spatiotemporal rules run amok to make this mother country supernatural. |
| 1. | Please tell me that a computer helps find these compound anagrams. | | 2. | That's some anagram! | | 3. | ! | | 4. | By adding enough letters anything can be an anagram of anything, but is it fun to solve? |
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| 48. Superman's heart to melt with Lois here? |
| 1. | He's got a big heart, that Superman |
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