A nice variety of treatments, I thought, with some well-spotted near-anagrams, though rather too many leering punks.
5 points to clue 46, which I thought the better of the two Ken L. refs. – 'deep hole' is very clever. 4 points to clue 49, a brave attempt at an &lit. which, I think, just about works. 3 points to clue 35 for spotting the Kepler + sun anagram and the clever definition 'deep space explorer'. 2 points to clue 30, for managing to make something of the near-anagram 'like prunes'. And 1 point to clue 24, for a neat reference to Fingal's Cave. |
| The wonderfully phrased 14 is the clear winner for me in a set of clues that's rich in misleading definitions. I also like 46's 'incomer in a deep hole', 41's 'whizz in a chamber' and 35's 'deep-space explorer', though I think this last clue is a little flawed structurally ('Orbiting sun, Kelper…' would have been better). 49 is the best of the & lit. clues. 'Knees-up + RL' is a great anagram opportunity that I wish I'd noticed, and 47 exploits it nicely, even though I'm not sure I'd ever describe bats as hanging 'knees-up'. |
Some excellent clues this month. In normal circumstances, both 33 and 47 might well have earned 5 points from me, but 14 I thought outstanding.
5 points:
14 a marvellously apposite surface for a competition involving crosswords, a well disguised definition and a skilful s.i.
3.5 points each:
33 commands admiration for achieving a sound composite anagram &lit with such unpromising letters.
47 sound, economical and amusing (though I prefer to think of the caver rather than the bats having “knees up”).
2 points:
26 skilful, sound and admirably succinct, but “creeps” is rather artificial in the context of the definition, and it is only a matter of opinion (which some potential solvers might hotly dispute) that all spelunkers are fools.
0.5 point each:
12 an entirely acceptable clue with a workmanlike surface, but not a great deal of sparkle.
13 an excellent idea for the definition and surface, quite cleverly exploited, but “half cut” and “right!” – both arguably crossword clichés – weaken the surface and rather spoil the effect.
Prox. ac.:
3 marred by “movement”, which is not really appropriate to the definition.
16 almost an excellent clue, but the surface makes no sense without a hyphen between "Earth" and "burrowing"; if, on the other hand, that hyphen were there, the clue wouldn't work cryptically.
19 much to admire here, but “putting surface” for P is iffy, while “dropping in hole amuses him” without even a question-mark, is quite a stretch as a definition; from the point of view of the golfing surface, something like “delights” would, surely, have been better than “amuses”.
32 although SuperKleen does exist, it appears to be used for purposes such that at any dentist using it for cleaning teeth would be struck off.
37 a generally nice surface, but SuperKen, needed for the anagram, is rather artificial and the capital U of “Underground” is unfortunate from the point of view of the definition.
38 I badly wanted to give points to this highly imaginative clue, but concluded that “ending with whimper” for R simply wouldn’t do, while “One of the ‘hollow men’” as the definition needed at least a question-mark.
43 the surface doesn’t quite convince.
49 almost very good, except that, in my book, “slunk” and “slithered” are not (pace, eg, Chambers Thesaurus sv “slither” – but not “slink”!) synonyms. |
