The Crossword Centre Clue-Writing Competition

CCCWC January competition voters’ comments
 
Clue no. 56: The French lay flags around before mid-March; a seemingly pointless exercise.

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A clue to PALAVER.
2 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 0 others)
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Here is the text

 
Comments on the competition
1.
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.
2.
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.