CCCWC August competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 35: Nuclear hydrogen? That might get things off the ground!
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A clue to RELAUNCH.
3 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 1 other)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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Most of the clues that referred to the competition I rejected as unfair because they wouldn’t stand alone. If you put them in a puzzle the solver wouldn’t understand them. I also applied this to #1 because it referred to a previous competition. Others might have been structurally OK but lacked surface – eg 2, 5 15, 23, 40, 42, 45, 47, 48, 53. 5 also didn’t have a homophone indicator for ‘U’. Some had unclear definitions such as 8, 26, 29, 38, 50, 53, 55 or I just didn’t understand at all – 10, 12, 19, 27, 28, 36, 42, 43, 46, 49, 52. I don’t see a hidden word indicator in #20. #35 doesn’t seem to have an anagram indicator and the definition is for LAUNCH rather than RELAUNCH. #45 contains “where there won’t be a clash” for ‘unch’. I don’t think this clearly defines ‘unch’. Checked letters don’t ‘clash’. #51 had the definition in the middle of the clue. #54 read well but I couldn’t verify the definition.
Of the rest, I enjoyed #3. It is structurally sound and there are no superfluous words. It has good surface that sounds revolting but fairly leads the solver to the answer. I don’t think it needs the question mark. #7 & #34 were the best of the ‘nuclear+h’ anagrams. I liked the definition in #9. #22 provides a lovely image of lonely people being lured by the prospect of a fresh start. |
| 2. |
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| Not as much unsoundness as often that I could see and a fair few worthy clues. Some exceptions that I discounted to start with included: 1 (noun indication of anagram?); 35 (no indication of "again" aspect in definition; 41 (no anagram indicator). With a lot of clues showing the same treatments, instead my criteria were originality combined with elegance and relevance. Using this as the yardstick, 5 clues stood out, namely 12 (runaway winner, I suspect), 55, 36, 28 and 19. |
| 3. |
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| I particularly liked 34 and 35 – in each case because of the relevance of the definition part to the nuclear event that they used for their cryptic part. (I thought the H for Hiroshima – clue 34 – with the second bombing) was even more clever than the H for Hydrogen – clue 35. |
