CCCWC April competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 29

CCCWC April competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 29: Like a little glowing object, shrouded in gases

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A clue to NEBULAR.
8 comments refer to this clue (from 7 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the clue

1.	'Like' is indeed redundant in the wordplay and 'gases' is too vague to indicate Ne and Ar (see clue 43)
2.	I think it really needs neon and argon in the clue for the abbreviations. (I wouldn't like to see element used for FE for example.)
3.	Sadly, like does give it the right part of speech, but in doing so destroys this as an &lit clue as it forms no part of the wordplay.
4.	"Little" seems unnecessary, otherwise I was almost convinced, except for the explanation of "like".
5.	A nice idea and one of the few that work well without resorting to anagrams. 'Little' seems a bit out of place, 'endless' would be better?
6.	I like this one!
7.	Liked this, but nebulae are hardly 'little'… so didn't quite make the final cut

Comments on the competition
1.
An excellent choice of clueword which gave solvers a variety of options for anagrams and containers. Common weaknesses in clues were faulty or absent anagram indicators(9, 19, 32, 35, 36, 44, 50), superfluous words (21, 29, 44, 48, 52) and failure to combine a clear definition with a sensible surface reading (3, 4, 5, 7, 13, 14, 16, 18, 23, 25, 28, 39, 42, 42, 46, 48, 52) . In fact three clues seemed to define 'nebulous' rather than 'nebular' (16, 21, 26). Of the rest, 24 referred in some way to the heavens and another 21 used cloudy/misty in a general sense. Only two clues used the ophthalmological meaning (8 and 45), and just one tackled 'of the nature of a liquid for spraying', which deserved a mark for bravery ! (42) There were 16 variations on straight or simple compound anagrams, with UNABLE + R being the most popular by far (7 in total, clues 15 and 51 were the best of these). Personal favourites were LAUREN + B (6) and LUREXBAN – X (24), which I made joint winners – well done ! In third place was LUNARBASE – AS which conjured up images of Space 1999. Of the container clues, variations on BUL in NEAR or NE+AR were by far the most popular (13). My favourite of the BULKs was 10, and of the BULLs 30.

Comments on the competition

An excellent choice of clueword which gave solvers a variety of options for anagrams and containers. Common weaknesses in clues were faulty or absent anagram indicators(9, 19, 32, 35, 36, 44, 50), superfluous words (21, 29, 44, 48, 52) and failure to combine a clear definition with a sensible surface reading (3, 4, 5, 7, 13, 14, 16, 18, 23, 25, 28, 39, 42, 42, 46, 48, 52) . In fact three clues seemed to define 'nebulous' rather than 'nebular' (16, 21, 26). Of the rest, 24 referred in some way to the heavens and another 21 used cloudy/misty in a general sense. Only two clues used the ophthalmological meaning (8 and 45), and just one tackled 'of the nature of a liquid for spraying', which deserved a mark for bravery ! (42)

There were 16 variations on straight or simple compound anagrams, with UNABLE + R being the most popular by far (7 in total, clues 15 and 51 were the best of these). Personal favourites were LAUREN + B (6) and LUREXBAN – X (24), which I made joint winners – well done ! In third place was
LUNARBASE – AS which conjured up images of Space 1999.

Of the container clues, variations on BUL in NEAR or NE+AR were by far the most popular (13). My favourite of the BULKs was 10, and of the BULLs 30.

CCCWC April competition voters’ comments Clue no. 29: Like a little glowing object, shrouded in gases

CCCWC April competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 29: Like a little glowing object, shrouded in gases