CCCWC April competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 3

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CCCWC April competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 3: Author! Author! Vital selection of letters from a friend is bound to enthral.

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A clue to MESMERISE (Letters Latent).
7 comments refer to this clue (from 5 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the clue

1.	Surface didn't make a great impact.
2.	'Essential' might be fairer to the solver than 'vital', though strictly either would indicate 'frien'.
3.	Are there some letters in a word that aren't vital? I don't see it meaning 'core' in the same way 'essential' does.
4.	Use of "vital selection of letters from a friend" doen't help solver pick RIE. Surface seems to be meaningless.
5.	The collection is better known in the UK as "Performing Flea", but an imaginative idea

Comments on the competition
1.
Perhaps not surprisingly the frequency of the appearances of the 5 possible latent letters within the clueword was reflected in the frequency of the respective clues, with M and E being the most popular choices (15 clues each) followed by S (10 clues), R (6 clues) and I (4 clues). 'Letters Latent’ clues must avoid linking words, i.e. those suggesting that the full and the mutilated versions of the clue word are the same, which they clearly are not. Eleven of the clues submitted fell foul of this requirement (6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 24, 28, 34, 45, 49 and 50. ‘& lit.’ clues are of course acceptable in that they refer in their entirety to both mutilated and unmutilated versions of the clue word, though surprisingly there was only one example this month (clue 42). Appearing in one third (16) of the clues, 'entrance' was by far the most popular definition, with its ability to act as a noun in the wordplay, though only one of this latter group (20) tried to use it as a first letter indicator (7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 35, 43, 46 and 47). Other popular definitions were 'charm' (5, 6, 30, 33 and 50), 'hypnotise' (15, 16, 17 and 42), 'enthral' (3, 9 and 25) and 'fascinate' (13* and 40). There were also a few quite imaginative variations including 'guile' (14), rivet (36), spellbind (41) and witch (49). Regarding wordplay, a number of anagram combinations were favoured: MISS + MR (latent E) (5, 19, 25 and 28), SEEMS + (latent I) (12, 20 and 36) and E + SERIES (latent M) (9* and 11). A couple of latent M clues wrapped letters 'in essence' (2 and 42*) and there was one hidden reversal (clue 17). There was certainly a good selection of candidates for points this month (9), though perhaps none were mesmerising and it was therefore difficult to pick an outright winner.
2.
A rather dull bunch with many instances of an unconvincing or tired surface and/or of questionable wordplay (eg, "Redhead" for R – 34 – "her head" for H – 49). Only 3, 48 and the sadly flawed 49 stood out for imaginative ingenuity – and aspects of the wordplay in 3 are what Sir Humphrey might call "brave" or "courageous".