CCCWC February competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 12: Book claims a recent president agreed to suppress desire for Yeltsin's old lady
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A clue to BABUSHKA.
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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| Good to see a record turnout of competitors having a go at a difficult clue word, and delivering a pretty sound set of clues overall. The main difficulty seemed to be putting the elements of definition and wordplay togther in a coherent and convincing whole. Some clues veered too far towards absurdity, such as 13, 16, 40 and 64, and others towards improbability, such as 12, 19, 30 and 51. The clues that appealed most were ones that painted a plausible picture with interesting wordplay. 2 has a whole string of goaty elements to fit with the 'nanny' definition. 7 avoids complexities with its straight anagram (though hijabs might be more the norm in Baku than babushkas). 20 is a neat little pen-picture, and 49 and 50 both find a political angle with misleading definitions. |
| 2. |
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| My short list was very short this month. The clues on the list were 12 (like "agreed to suppress desire", but surface reading not so believable), 28 (1 point, a bit convoluted construction, but neat sound idea), 29 (surface reading a little uninspiring), 30 (3 points, like the consistent theme using presidents' names), 33 (5 points, lovely "story" in the surface reading with cryptic elements neatly arranged), 42 (4 points, simple and convincing surface reading), 50 (2 points, like the cryptic definition "top-level cover-up job?") |
