CCCWC March competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 25

CCCWC March competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 25: Mine-ridden time for beginner of diet? Awfully

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A clue to DINNER-TIME.
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Comments on the competition
1.
o) Despite the number of entries, it was easy to reduce it to a third considering the normal criteria of soundness, natural surface reading, misleading context, etc. Beyond this, although not the over-riding consideration, I looked for a clear differentiation of 'dinner-time' from simply 'dinner'. Some otherwise good clues (e.g. 36) I marked down compared to some others for this. I always like clues that amuse or interest me and can forgive a little unsoundness with this as compensation. 43, 45 and 48 all made me laugh, but only 48 was close enough to sound to be forgiven. Although I would not submit this myself because of the convention that 'for' as a link word only works one way, personally I've never agreed with this anyway. Clue 25 made the short-list, but I considered use of 'time' from the answer in the clue word to be too much of a weakness for it to score points. Clues 23 and 44 were other near-contenders, but fell down on the definition compared to my final choices. Although not my first choice, I thought clue 37 was a unique and interesting idea.

Comments on the competition

o) Despite the number of entries, it was easy to reduce it to a third considering the normal criteria of soundness, natural surface reading, misleading context, etc. Beyond this, although not the over-riding consideration, I looked for a clear differentiation of 'dinner-time' from simply 'dinner'. Some otherwise good clues (e.g. 36) I marked down compared to some others for this. I always like clues that amuse or interest me and can forgive a little unsoundness with this as compensation. 43, 45 and 48 all made me laugh, but only 48 was close enough to sound to be forgiven. Although I would not submit this myself because of the convention that 'for' as a link word only works one way, personally I've never agreed with this anyway. Clue 25 made the short-list, but I considered use of 'time' from the answer in the clue word to be too much of a weakness for it to score points. Clues 23 and 44 were other near-contenders, but fell down on the definition compared to my final choices. Although not my first choice, I thought clue 37 was a unique and interesting idea.

CCCWC March competition voters’ comments Clue no. 25: Mine-ridden time for beginner of diet? Awfully

CCCWC March competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 25: Mine-ridden time for beginner of diet? Awfully