CCCWC January competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 34

CCCWC January competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 34: Ray of sunshine? New Dad, yet to take it in, granted time off

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A clue to DUVET DAY.
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Comments on the competition
1.
Dave was a frequent visitor, but clearly he was there only to make the anagrams come out right. This sort of thing usually leads to a rather arbitrary-sounding surface reading, in which Dave (or whatever the name is) can equally well be replaced by Tom, or Dick, or Harry. Acceptable as one clue in a complete puzzle perhaps, but not neat enough for a competition. Many appearances, too, by down/bedding/blankets/bunks. Of these, my favourite was 3, though strictly speaking, Chambers says 'downtime' is one word. Out of the ten 'evade duty' clues, the best was 23. But the two most original anagrams and most satisfying surfaces were 28 and 34; the latter giving way to the former only because of a pedantic doubt as to whether the fact that a ray is a type of radiation, and UV is a type of radiation implies that UV is a type of ray. So: 28 5 points; 34 4 points; 3 and 23 3 points each.

Comments on the competition

Dave was a frequent visitor, but clearly he was there only to make the anagrams come out right. This sort of thing usually leads to a rather arbitrary-sounding surface reading, in which Dave (or whatever the name is) can equally well be replaced by Tom, or Dick, or Harry. Acceptable as one clue in a complete puzzle perhaps, but not neat enough for a competition.

Many appearances, too, by down/bedding/blankets/bunks. Of these, my favourite was 3, though strictly speaking, Chambers says 'downtime' is one word.

Out of the ten 'evade duty' clues, the best was 23. But the two most original anagrams and most satisfying surfaces were 28 and 34; the latter giving way to the former only because of a pedantic doubt as to whether the fact that a ray is a type of radiation, and UV is a type of radiation implies that UV is a type of ray.

So: 28 5 points; 34 4 points; 3 and 23 3 points each.

CCCWC January competition voters’ comments Clue no. 34: Ray of sunshine? New Dad, yet to take it in, granted time off

CCCWC January competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 34: Ray of sunshine? New Dad, yet to take it in, granted time off