CCCWC May competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 35: Peculiarly vain and initially cocky, lose cash in bar of Rover's Return
Back to competition result |
All the comments |
Other competitions
A clue to VOLCANIC ASHES.
3 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 1 other)
Move your mouse pointer over any bold clue number to see the clue.
Here is the text
| Comments on the competition |
|---|
| 1. |
|---|
| I thought the strain of 13 letters showed in several of these clues, but there were some flashes of inspiration. By far the best, I thought, was clue 42, where 'hols abroad' was particularly neat: 5 points. 4 points for clue 5, a very serviceable &lit. 3 points for clue 28, in which 'Air France flights' was very clever, although the overall construction is a bit ropey. 2 points for clue 12, another respectable attempt at an &lit., and 1 point to clue 35 for the cheeky 'bar of Rover's Return'. |
| 2. |
|---|
| This was much more difficult than GRAVE to clue, so it's good to see so many competitors having a go. The selection of inventive anagrams and definitions is impressive, but only minority of clues combined them with a very fluent and convincing surface reading. All my marks but one in the end went to & lits. or near & lits. 44 is the best example of these, very natural, and got top marks, closely followed by 37 (nicely misleading reference) and 42 (clever anagram indicator), then 28, 32 and 50 (working in the awkward 'can' well). All credit to the competitors who used completely misleading definitions and contexts, like 14, 17, 31, 47 and 51, but unfortunately none of them was quite up to the standard of my top six. 35's definition is inspired but a bit too cryptic for solvability in this context, I think. |
| 3. |
|---|
| Too many clues pointed clearly at the air disruption for my tastes; I gave points mainly to those which created effective misdirection, especially 28 35 and 42. |
