CCCWC October competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 9

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 9: Block quiet road near the end

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A clue to CLOSE.
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Comments on the clue

1.	One of the more successful attempts at a multiple definition clue.

Comments on the competition
1.
A short word with 2 main meanings this month. Derived meanings within these groups tempted exactly one third of setters to offer multiple definition clues, but these were fraught with dangers and rarely successful in the case of the higher multiples. There were 12 double definition clues (2, 4, 17, 21, 27, 41, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50*), 1 triple (51), 3 quadruple (3, 9 and 11), 1 quintuple (16), 1 septuple (37) and even 1 octuplet (5), a whacking total of 19 clues comprising 59 definitions ! 33 of these related to 'near' or 'enclosed', 23 to 'end' and 3 to famous people. One of the main hazards turned out to be the use of link words. When a solver is faced with what looks like a link word, it's reasonable to assume that the clue structure might be one of the following: (a) Definition from wordplay (b) Wordplay for definition (c) Definition equals definition When a clue contains more than two definitions it therefore seems illogical to have an arbitrary number of link words, for example the 'in' and 'of' in clue 5, the 'of' in clue 3 and the 'for' in clue 51. It's also vital that the surface reading justifies the inclusion of so many different definitions, rather than reading as a string of words telling an improbable or uninteresting tale. In this respect clue 5 was more successful than others (11, 16 and 37). Finally, mixing wordplay with multiple definitions is a definite no-no – clues 2, 3 and 17 illustrate how difficult this can make the solver's task.

Comments on the competition

A short word with 2 main meanings this month. Derived meanings within these groups tempted exactly one third of setters to offer multiple definition clues, but these were fraught with dangers and rarely successful in the case of the higher multiples. There were 12 double definition clues (2, 4, 17, 21, 27, 41, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50*), 1 triple (51), 3 quadruple (3, 9 and 11), 1 quintuple (16), 1 septuple (37) and even 1 octuplet (5), a whacking total of 19 clues comprising 59 definitions ! 33 of these related to 'near' or 'enclosed', 23 to 'end' and 3 to famous people. One of the main hazards turned out to be the use of link words. When a solver is faced with what looks like a link word, it's reasonable to assume that the clue structure might be one of the following:

(a) Definition from wordplay

(b) Wordplay for definition

(c) Definition equals definition

When a clue contains more than two definitions it therefore seems illogical to have an arbitrary number of link words, for example the 'in' and 'of' in clue 5, the 'of' in clue 3 and the 'for' in clue 51. It's also vital that the surface reading justifies the inclusion of so many different definitions, rather than reading as a string of words telling an improbable or uninteresting tale. In this respect clue 5 was more successful than others (11, 16 and 37). Finally, mixing wordplay with multiple definitions is a definite no-no – clues 2, 3 and 17 illustrate how difficult this can make the solver's task.

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments Clue no. 9: Block quiet road near the end

CCCWC October competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 9: Block quiet road near the end