CCCWC Christmas Special competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 32: Tantivy – headlong – being born thusly!
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A clue to NATIVITY (Letters Latent).
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| Comments on the competition |
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1 Definition too wide.
2 Astrological reference is obscure.
3 I like "on the up" to indicate reversal, but the clue is defining a noun by an adjective.
4 This seems to be defining Jesus himself, not his birth.
5 If 'describing birth …' is the definition, this is defining a noun by an adjective. If 'birth …' is the definition, then 'describing' is padding in the cryptic reading.
6 Lovely surface reading, and ingenious wordplay. But not sure about use of "all over" to mean containing.
7 Unconvincing surface reading – relativity is (partly) about length – Fitzgerald contraction etc!
8 Reliance on the OED makes this too obscure for me.
9 Don't like 'birth' to mean first letter.
10 Surface reading rather confused.
11 Good.
12 Can a horoscope be 'clever' about someone? 'Accurate', perhaps, but not 'clever'.
13 Surface reading strained.
14 and 20 You can have a nativity play, but the nativity itself is not a play.
15 Jesus, Mary and Joseph are actors in the nativity, but they are not themselves the nativity, so the definition fails.
16 The cryptic reading seems to be saying: 'Activity will result in C in the answer'. This doesn't work. Nothing is being done to 'activity', so it can't 'result in' anything. If you had said 'Crowning of child in ——— will result in labour, perhaps', that would have worked (in the cryptic reading)..
17 Excellent
18 Good,but being picky, does birth mean 'where one comes from'?
19 Good, but in the cryptic reading, "entails" would be better than "entailed".
20 See comments on 14.
21 Excellent.
22 Brilliant surface reading. But in the cryptic reading, although we are told that we have to omit C from something, we are not actually told that we have to omit it from 'doing'.
23 v.good
24 If if you can't guess the answer directly from 'birth', you aren't given much extra help by being told that a mutilated version of the answer is a shortened version of a synonym of 'birth'.
25 A nativity play is indeed a low budget show; but a nativity itself is not a show.
26 and 32 If the latent letter is I, then all Is have to be deleted. So I can't appear in an anagram.
27 Does 'decorated by' imply 'contains'?
28 Does 'corners' indicate 'contains'? And even if it does, doesn't the dash between 'trees' and 'five' destroy the cryptic reading?
29 C = Conservative, not Conservatives
30 I would have preferred 'power' to be 'power, perhaps' or 'power, for example': this is just one example of bondage by birth. Do we expect the solver to be familiar with the tactics employed in the Yom Kippur war?
31 Why does y = anonymous? In the surface reading, what is the 'it' that is doing the echoing?
32; See 26
33: In the cryptic reading, the second comma hides the fact that 'm' is invalid.
34 Good
35 v.good
36 The definition appears to be 'Christmas, created such a scene'. The punctuation works against the cryptic reading. If only it could have been: '… first. Christmas created such a scene!' Of course, that spoils the surface reading. But why not just stop after 'Christmas'? Then both readings are fine.
37 'Milk' is no good as an anagram indicator. And 'production = birth' is strained.
38 Good
39 First three words are padding in the cryptic reading.
40 Good
41' Was' no good as an anagrind.
42 Don't like 'birth' = first letter. |
