CCCWC April competition voters’ comments

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A clue to LIVELONG.
57 comments were received for this competition (from 10 competitors, 3 others)
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Here is the text

Comments on the competition
1.
Nasty word to define, nasty lot of letters, and (with a few exceptions) a fairly nasty set of clues!
2.
Some of them were too wordy.
3.
I am enjoying – much more than I expected – reading all the clues, but am finding it very hard to rate some very different ideas. Some – quite clever – clues might work well taken with grid feedback but don't seem complete in themselves. Interesting that few chose the 'purple flower' definition. Myself, I tried an anagram of NILE and VOLG(a) – "without a" and a play on flower meaning river but couldn't quite make it work.
4.
Too many competitors do not seem to have a clear idea of livelong's defintion, or even that it's an adjective.
5.
I commend the clue writers who attempted to indicate the 'poetic' qualification in Chambers (and those who got round it by defining the plant), but a few of the others were too good to pass up.

Comments on the clues

2. Bad backache is going on and on.

1.	I don't like backache for back ache. The surface reading is improved but I think the cost a little high.
2.	"Backache" might tip the scales as fair if ache were to be reversed. "Back ache", as per other clues, would be better.
3.	Backache is an aching back, not a backing ache!
4.	This doesn't work if backache is one word

3. Bewitched but unwed, divided or whole

1.	There are too many steps required here that make it quite unfair on the solver. Conventional clues would not use techniques like this.

5. Complete name in register not recorded initially

1.	"initially" is superfluous

7. Complete Tour de France racer in lingerie avoids lake

1.	Interesting surface but a little too nonsensical!
2.	Surface not entirely convincing.

8. Endure marathon from start to finish

1.	I don't think I would understand this even when I had the answer
2.	"Enduring", rather than "endure", should be the definition.

9. Enduring bad back ache

1.	As commented elsewhere, back ache is 'correct' but loses the surface reading that backache provides. Nice idea but doesn't quite work.
2.	Neat, but a less imaginative treatment of the idea than 28

10. Enduring itch after burning

1.	Short and sweet!

14. Entire song's so lacking after Olivia briefly joined ELO

1.	Excellent idea but not quite as smooth a surface as some of the others.

17. Fish surprisingly, love to be eaten whole (8)

1.	I like this, but it needs a comma after "Fish" to read correctly – am I being too picky?

18. For eternity orpine is a given, lol!

1.	What's the anagram indicator here?
2.	No anagram indicator – and "For eternity" isn't an accurate definition.
3.	There is no anagram indicator here.

19. Forever foolishly falling over? Far from it! (8)

1.	Doesn't there need to be an indication that FAR is also split?
2.	Livelong is an adjective, forever an adverb. A pity. This is otherwise very neat.

21. From here to eternity

1.	A bit more explanation of how this is supposed to work would have been helpful.
2.	Don't see how the explanation applies – not a correct def anyway.

22. Gonville prepared for term for the whole length of the day.

1.	"Term" appears superfluous.

23. Harry novel described by one girl, at length, as tedious

1.	Love the idea, but I can't see how g=girl.

24. Having really bad back ache, can be a really tiresome time.

1.	A pity that 'really' is in there twice.
2.	"A really tiresome time" defines a noun not an adjective. Just "tiresome" would have been both sound and crisper

25. I love Nigel to play around with – not, that is, "till death us do part"

1.	I don't like the instruction to subtract ie where these letters do not appear consecutively in the anagram fodder

26. In snowfall, I've longjohns stretched out! (8)

1.	An amusing, if somewhat implausible surface reading

28. It's difficult to get out of bed with bad back ache

1.	Great surface and definition.
2.	Spot on, the best of the back aches

29. It's hard to put down cracking novel set in local situation

1.	I wouldn't associate plants with being put down when they're killed.
2.	The definition is much too vague to be fair, lacking an equivalent of 28's "bed".

30. Lively song, beginning without ending and ending without beginning, seems to go on forever.

1.	long-winded but original
2.	I can't envisage how a song could do that

33. O Nigella! Not a cook concealing neckline that's whole

1.	Nice idea but the definition is rather forced in

34. On reflection, the ending of "Enduring Love" is about love somehow enduring!

1.	The reference is perhaps a little obscure, but a clever idea skilfully executed.

41. Poet's staying the course, hopelessly in love with heartless girl

1.	Best of the heartless girls

42. Poet's tedious and protracted, revoltingly bad – try this for a change?

1.	I am not sure 'try this for a change' works as a subtraction indicator

44. Tedious grovelling leaves king uneasy

1.	Shouldn't it lose king, rather than leave king?

45. Utter last wish

1.	Nice and concise!
2.	Original and concise
3.	Succinct. 3 points.

47. Very long North Atlantic fish swallows French bike.

1.	Not keen on "long" being in both the clue and the answer.
2.	Difficult to picture this surface reading!
3.	…like a fish needs a bicycle
4.	Shame 'long' appears in both definition and the answer. Surface a little strange

48. Vivid abstruse word, 'nychthemeral'

1.	Wittily tongue-in-cheek. Brilliant. Best of the bunch.

49. Volleying out, Murray finally lost in epic marathon?

1.	Miles the best clue, in my opinion.
2.	An excellent and (fairly) misleading surface; "in epic" for "poetic" a little weak, however.

51. Whole Methuselah did famously

1.	I like this … but I have difficulty with "whole" as sufficient definition
2.	It took me a while to work out the surface reading – very good!
3.	Excellent clue, I'm concerned about the entrant's alcohol intake though!