The Crossword Centre Clue-Writing Competition

CCCWC July competition voters’ comments
 
Clue no. 35: Rarest of the parliamentarians, Tory of the year!

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A clue to PEAR (Printer’s Devilry).
3 comments refer to this clue (from 3 competitors, 0 others)
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Here is the text

Comments on the clue
1.'the' seems superfluous and might be better with a '?'
2.Brilliant. If mine doesn't win ( ;-) ), I hope yours does.
 
Comments on the competition
1.
The challenge in Printer's Devilry clue is not merely to get two sensible surface readings for the two versions. It is also important that the individual readings are interesting in themselves and more importantly there is a good/amusing contrast between the two readings. Not many clues meet this requirement though practically all are technically in order. The clues with sufficiently contrasted readings are 49,47,46,35,29,23,18,12,11,9,7,5 and 2 of which 49 is the pick.