| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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Plenty of conference pears / Rod (& Pa) Lavers / carry ons / lap dancers and lav papers, but some accommodated within clumsy surfaces – so marks have been awarded to the cleanest, snappiest clues.
I had problems with – 1 did not seem to make sense – was Pal used twice in wordplay friend/lap dancing? 6 Gram. error in wordplay (should maybe be 'appearing'?) 7 R is 'first of rate', not 'first rate' 15 over-tortuous attempt to generate current commentary 16 did not quite work – might have been better without 'core'? 17 did not quite get the jam bit 18 Gram. uses multiple senses 21 a little unfair, P&L don't appear together 27 O&S are separated so OS not really fair 29 Def & wordplay should not overlap 47 'sarah' does not mean 'palin' any more than 'michael' does.('e.g. sarah' might). Also, 'out' is unfair, why not just use 'not in'? 50 Did not really get it – is 'state' really a synonym for 'palaver'
Most others were ok, some rather good but I suppose the word encouraged a lot of sameness |
| 2. |
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A great turnout of 62 clues making the most of a friendly clue word. I hope we get a correspondingly high number of votes and comments. With so many decent clues I had reluctantly to give zeros to some quite acceptable entries, such as 5, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18 and 37. I particularly liked the LAV for P in PAPER idea and the PAVER synonyms. Clue 8 handled the LAV idea best with an amusing surface. The work of an experienced clue-writer, I'm sure. 23 and 61 also used it effectively. 28's flags and 35's ground crew were the best of the PAVERs – the latter edged it thanks to its fully worked-out theme and 'carry-on' pun. The other clue that appealed to me was 14's succinct charade.
Rod Laver was a little too popular, and some clue-writers used 'Rod' to define 'Laver', not acknowledging with a question mark or a 'perhaps' that Laver is just one of many possible Rods (Stewart, Steiger…).
The two best punning definitions in the competition for me were 62's 'yak' and 29's 'how's your father', but sadly both clues were flawed. I couldn't accept 'possible exodus' as a hidden indicator, and 29's writer committed the cardinal sin of merging part but not all of the wordplay into the definition, leaving their Rod dangling cryptically.
A few other clues failed to exploit good ideas well: 11 and 53 stretch the meanings of their components too far in order to create a surface reading, hence the long explanations; 21 creates a very implausible scenario – surreality in its own right isn't necessarily entertaining; 32 really needs 'Lap dances! Rave parties!' – each word may change but the letters stay the same; in 38 and 39, 'parley' and 'palaver' for me are too close etymologically to make the clue interesting; 47, even Ms Palin would spell her name with an initial capital, surely; 50 uses a clever idea but puts it out of the solver's reach – there are just too many possible state names and abbreviations; and in 58 'utter' won't stand as a definition – without it this would have been a good & lit. |
| 3. |
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My favourites, with good, misleading surfaces, were 61 and 35
Several clues just missed points:
14 seemed to define PALSAVER
18 "chopped pear" could be PE-AR, but PA-ER is more like "chopped and shaken pear"
27 what a pity O and S weren't adjacent in OPALSAVER
36 "precious stone" is needed only for the surface
50 A great spot, but too difficult for me to solve (without the hints) |
| 4. |
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A clue word ofering many possibilities has produced the best of the 4 competitions I have entered so far. I usually award marks to only the top 5, but because of the high standard of the clues I've stretched it to 9.
Top mark to no 8, 4 points, a cracking idea exploited by two others, 23(2 points) and 61 (3 points). Top marks went to 8 because it was specific about which pee (p) was replaced. Looks to me like the work of one T.M.
25 and 38 (2 points each) are both excellent clues which I would have marked higher if more points were available. I awarded 0.5 points each to clues 14, 16, 18 and 20. Again, all would have received more had the competition not been so intense. |
| 5. |
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What a word! Such range of defs and variety of wordplay – great choice by our examiner rewarded by fine turnout. After dismissing poor surfaces (my key criterion) I removed inadequate definitions and over-obscure wordplay. All left scored something and get a comment below:
2 nice but I found the ': to engage' part good for the surface but bad for the wordplay
5 lengthy clue but good surface – I liked 'brave talk' definition and its double meaning
8 lovely wordplay, decent surface eclipsed by some other clues though
14 such neat concise and coherent clues always get a mark from me
18 best of the conference pears but I don't like them 'chopped' – this would have scored a point with a better anagrind('stewed' I would suggest)
20 beautiful example of & lit comp anagram, probably many hours in the making – surface conjures up a perfect image of a palaver! My favourite clue this month.
28 smooth surface, I like paver = flag arranger and LA not to be French article or sun drenched city!
37 some regard acronyms as a cop out, but when they read as well as this one they are works of art. I admired the Shakespearian definition!
38 nice & lit effort with non-clumsy surface, I would have awarded it more if it started with "A" rather than "One" for even better surface |
| 6. |
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PALAVER was a friendly clue-word, offering numerous possibilities. This was reflected in the size of the entry, but it was disappointing that so few of the clues offered much originality or flair and that some of those that did were unsound. Many of the surfaces were rather feeble or even, in a few cases, perverse. “Rod” to indicate LAVER without any reference to tennis seems unsatisfactory to me: there are lots of other Rods, and it’s half a century since Laver was at his peak.
4 points each: 2 and 38 – two neat &lits, though “engage in” sails a bit close to the wind.
3 points: 18 – simple and economical.
1 point each:
15 – a clever idea quite skilfully executed, but rather too long.
37 – an excellent idea for the definition. A pity that the words chosen for their first letters weren’t a bit pithier and less vacuous – “long and very extensive”? Also, “starting” isn’t quite right as an indicator; some approach like “starts to pall…” would have been sounder. Much Ado would have been quite adequate, thereby shortening the clue to good effect.
0.5 point each
28 – “One who might arrange the flags…” would have been sounder
34
51 – the simplest and best of the lap-dancing clues.
61
Prox. ac.:
13 – sounder and/or less contorted than the other Carry On entries, but suffers from the fact that the film is imaginary.
20 – the surface of a promising comp. anag, spoiled by the inappropriate word “Convoluted”, which doesn’t suit the surface.
43 – quite neat wordplay, but the surface is unconvincing. |
| 7. |
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One or two very good clues this month. My suspicion is that the author of 16 made a slip: it seems that the word 'core' is not meant to be there. Without it it's an excellent clue and would probably have got 2 points.
1st (3pts): 25 (beautiful)
2nd= (2 pts each): 2, 8, 18
5th= (1 pt each): 23 ('Employ' is a bit cumbersome in the surface, and the comma for 'and' is also a bit weak I think), 37, 38 (not a totally natural surface), 44 (I don't like 'detailed' for 'de-tailed', and the surface meaning is perhaps a rather loose definition of 'palaver'), 56 (rather wacky and fun, but I felt the semicolon should have been either a colon or a dash), 62. |
| 8. |
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Most clues 'worked', I think. I cut down the choice by eliminating the ones that were all on similar themes (ie including those invoking Rod Laver's dad!) and I wasn't aware before the competition that palaver = conference, so I decided to leave those out as well. A bit unfair I guess as there were some good ones on those lines – 18 was certainly one.
37 was the stand-out for me as a very original treatment. Points also for 2,8 and 56. |
