| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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Points went to (in no specific order), 6, 11, 12, 24 and 35. I liked those clues that used "Manger" as a definition for CRIB, 11, 33 and 38 being good examples. Others I think deserve a mention are 19, 39 and 41, more for their lack of any Christmassy references at all (which, to me at least, would make them trickier to solve).
22 would seem to flow better without "for example", "Stallone film" is a good enough defintion for RAMBO, and I thought 43's definition could work even with the misprint. |
| 2. |
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| Just a handful of short snappy ones justifying recognition, and an equal handful of long laboured clues (& explanations) serving as an instant turn-off. That apart, I hope you all had a good one and wish you the best for 2010 |
| 3. |
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| Rather a disappointing set of clues. Perhaps it was difficult for other competitors, as it was for me, to decide between a festive clue that didn't sufficiently exploit the misprint, and a misleading clue that wasn't sufficiently festive. Clues 12, 15 and 24 were the wittiest, and 1, 14, 31, 43 and 46 were the best of the rest. |
| 4. |
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| Many clues suffer through lack of disguise. A useful test (failed by a number of entries, in some cases embarrassingly easily) is to offer the clue to someone unaware of the target word and ask them to spot the misprint. On specific clues: I liked the idea in 39 very much, but I think it's unsound – doesn't the second "to" do double duty as part of "resorts to" as well as anagram fodder? I also liked 3 but decided that the leap from Bo to Derek, plus the in-jokiness, left it just outside the running. And finally a happy new year to all regular entrants, especially those who also then pass comment, plus grateful thanks to JT and RT for all the organisational work. |
| 5. |
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| Some lovely ideas in this set of clues and I really enjoyed reading through them. Hard to choose any one top clue, but I got down to a short list of seven and tried to grade as best as I could within those. I tended to give preference to those where the definition included a reference to the informality and/or modern secular context of CRIMBO as a word, e.g. 8, 14, 20, 24 and 41. |
| 6. |
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| Not the most inspiring bunch of clues I've seen in this competition. Lots of hard work leading to little reward by the looks of them! A hard job to find five this time. |
| 7. |
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Tough one for me this. I've never really come across misprint clues before in terms of solving or composing clues, so judging them was always going to be a bit tricky!
The criteria that I set myself was that the best clues would probably try and disguise any reference to Christmas. I also deemed that the fairest clues would indicate that the clue word was a contraction, or slang, or something similar. Not many did this, so perhaps I'm in the minority on this one. Certainly, I had to relax my criteria a bit, and I scored my favourites that did not do it.
Put that together with the usual criteria on general soundness and making sense to me, and I wasn't really blown away by too many this time around. Nothing really pushed every button.
32 was a pretty good effort and 35 also got points, and plaudits also for 14. |
| 8. |
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1 don't equate Advent with Christmas.
2 is good but surface long. Holly and Christmas OK. 3 votes .
3 I associate pantos with period after Christmas. Too many jumps from CRIM to bad boy.
4 surface uneven. Definition like the answer.
5 criminal means blatantly wrong. Don’t understand definition.
6 remedy not a good anagrind. Bromic remedy might kill. Misprint too obvious.
7 misprint too obvious. Wordplay sound
8 too easy. Definition like the answer.
9 interesting surface. How many remember Powell and 1974? 1 vote.
10 I like crudely as CRIMBO is inf. Well concealed misprint. Unsure about smoothness of surface.
11 short which I prefer. Reasonable surface. Sound wordplay. 2 votes.
12 Fanta screams misprint. Santa is out of stock after Christmas, not at it.
13 too big jump from hip people to their use of CRIMBO for Christmas.
14 is dismantled a valid anagrind?
15 wash too obvious as misprint in 15. Wordy.
16 feast too vague as definition. guilty not definition for CRIM.
17 like the surface but feast is too vague definition.
18 short, succinct, but fails on surface, e.g. manger of mule.
19 fest is even vaguer than feast as valid definition.
20 like wordplay but definition too off the wall.
21 don’t understand the use of decorated.
22 is for example necessary? Wordplay good but surface not quite right.
23 wordplay clear but uniting and some guy are odd within the surface.
24 good misprint; different from others. Surface creaks a bit.
25 don’t think CRIMBO is pidgin. Its just informal.
26 don’t understand the last bit of the clue, but see it can’t just stop at 25 Deg.
27 bit long. Misprint well hidden. Initial seizures clumsy indication of first letters.
28 Lory shouts misprint.
29 surface not smooth.
30 equating rhombic array to crossword step too far. Which of resolving or array is the anagrind.
31 unsure whether wing changed means changing L to R rather than L to any letter.
32 like the definition referencing the informal nature of CRIMBO. Chambers supports wordplay. Good surface. 5 votes.
33 misprint and wordplay good but not sure about surface.
34 linking of nineteen to nought at Cribbage step too far.
35 misprint well concealed. Bit of jump from one is to I am.
36 Very clever. Didn’t know The Edge and Bono link until research. Struggled with short festive period as definition, but 4 votes.
37 misprint not in the definition.
38 definition vague. gave birth is not a valid indicator of the first letter of Mary.
39 don’t feel the indication of compound anagram is clear enough. Unsure about surface.
40 like the misprint. Think babes are more intelligent than bimbos.
41 think I know what prozzie means but can’t find it in Chambers.
42 extraordinary compound anagram, but surface doesn’t work for me.
43 equating waits to play now with Christmas is clever, but definition misses the informality of CRIMBO. Think a waits band would be traditional and be appalled by the word CRIMBO.
44 Advent does’nt equate to Christmas.
45 clever clue, but struggle a with U-turn meaning switch L to R.
46 like this. Gives good example of the on/to issue recently debated at Crossword Centre. Surface doesn’t gel. Almost put on ledge doesn’t mean much.
47 tries too hard to link all the Unis and Colleges and doesn’t work for me. |
| 9. |
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In his Crossword Manual, Don Manley states “It is a curious feature of the misprinted clue that it always makes much better sense than the so-called correct version!” This, which must, I suppose, be regarded as the orthodox view, presents me with some difficulty in judging this competition. For, to my mind, the whole exercise is singularly pointless and unsatisfying unless both versions make good sense, while, in a really good misprint clue, the misprint will turn some unremarkable, but entirely credible, statement into something with a totally different, but still coherent, meaning that is, preferably, also witty or absurd or outrageous. Is it reasonable for me to judge the entries against my criteria for a good clue? Or would it be unfair to penalize clues that do not meet those criteria, but are in line with Don Manley’s “orthodox” dictum?
Since it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the entries are from adherents of the Manley school, there seems little point in my seeking to apply my criteria to the full, but I cannot (with one exception –39 for its originality and brilliance of execution) bring myself to give points to clues in which the “original” version makes no sense at all (eg, because the grammatical/syntactical structure is destroyed by substituting the alternative letter) – even if the Manley dictum was intended to include such clues, which I rather doubt. For example, in 10, the misprinted version makes reasonable sense, but, in the original, “everyone gets pressies corrupt relatives…” is simply gibberish. I have looked for contrast between the meanings of the two versions, well-disguised misprints/definitions, originality, convincing and arresting surfaces and, of course, sound wordplay.
3 points:
3 is amusing, has a good original definition/misprint and, above all, achieves a striking contrast between the meanings of the two versions, but “Derek” for BO without a “perhaps” or equiv. is arguably unsound, which was all that prevented this from scoring more highly.
2 points each:
9 I’m far from convinced that “it must be Nowell” can do duty for “it must be Christmas” in the way suggested, but, acc. to the Manley rules, this is otherwise an accomplished clue, with a reasonable degree of contrast.
30 excellent s.i. (surely suggesting antennae rather than crosswords), but surface, in both versions,let down by the rather clumsy way in which definition is expressed and by link-word “causes”.
43 excellent, and excellently disguised, definition, but surface, in either version, is slightly let down by unnaturalness of “overturned objection”
1.5 points each:
20 original and reasonably well-disguised definition & misprint and a degree of contrast.
27 misprinted version indeed makes better sense than “original” and misprint is rather obvious, but s.i. is accomplished and misprinted surface good.
39 I certainly didn’t expect to see a comp. anag. in a Misprint competition, even a variant version with additional definition! And a very neat one too. Unfortunately, however, surface of “original” version makes no sense at all unless one invents a previously unknown character called Simon Nowell.
0.5 point each
11 original version has good semi-&lit surface, but misprinted version rather “flat” in comparison and offers relatively little contrast
18 misprint is rather obvious, but surface is apposite in either version
33 As 18 |
