CCCWC May competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 20: Eruption in Iceland? So? Such vast spewing of dust!
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A clue to VOLCANIC ASHES.
3 comments refer to this clue (from 1 competitor, 2 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| Few entries managed to convince in both definition and surface reading. My winner 32 may not attract the wider support it merits for lack of (say) 'loss(2) = loess' in the explanation. My top five are 32,12,46,20,26 |
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1 A faultless construction and (probably) one from a regular AZED contributor; however the blanks are, to my mind, merely a contrivance favoured by Mr Crowther and the clue lacks the surface misdirection of a truly witty composition. Nul points, sorry
8 Naughty but very nice ! 5 points
17 Absolutely inspired – merci beaucoup. 4 points
20 Concise and topical. 3 points
32 Very good economy but a slightly weak definition. 2 points
53 Slightly let down by a surfeit of apostrophes. 1 point |
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Head and shoulders above the competition was 42, which combined sound and deft wordplay with an excellent surface – 5 points.
So many of the other promising clues were at least slightly unsound, inaccurate (eg, in 6, tuff is not the same thing as volcanic ashes for all that it is formed from them) or had forced and/or unconvincing surfaces. In my book, the best of the rest were
20, 50 – 1.5 points each
1, 4, 7, 15, 22, 23, 46 – 1 point each
30 had a clever basic idea, but was carelessly executed. Volcanic ashes are plural and thus can’t validly be represented by “this” – something like “owing to these” would have been accurate and conveyed the same sense. See also 33. 43 was also nearly very good, but the anagram is fatally flawed by the little word “to” – “They vanish ultimately into calces when dispersed”? |
