CCCWC September competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 19: In short, some American cops seem to begin with heavy blows; once again, cons in Scotland sweat and start to shake. (5)
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A clue to SWATS.
3 comments refer to this clue (from 3 competitors, 0 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| The practice of submitting two clues in one, as in 19 and 54, is dubious, and sticking to a single idea would have improved both. Final choice: 18, 29, 15, 16, 35. |
| 2. |
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| On a first read through, a lot could be discarded immediately (eg the essay at 19 and a number of 'giveaway' swats-hard definitions, along with several clues that had dull surfaces, not to mention all the usual unsound stuff). In fact I found that I had very conveniently singled out five, so it was a matter of putting them in order. I put 13 first, a clever & lit using 'frets', followed by the easy-to-solve-but-elegant 15. With 31,9,51 it was more of a toss-up. |
| 3. |
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SWATS was quite difficult to get to grips with especially if, like me, you missed the 'beer' definition and had to think of something original to do with a plural noun or 3rd person verb, and it was great to see so many competitors up for the challenge. Initial letters clues were plentiful, so something special was needed here, and only no 15 really delivered, with properly grammatical wordplay and a decent & lit. (and despite my aversion to otiose exclamation marks). Likewise double definitions had to produce a convincing surface rather than just stringing two meanings together, and no 46 did this best with the 'hits the buzzers' idea. No 18 (the other 'buzzer') just missed my top 5. Not many misleading definitions considering the number of alternatives for 'hits', but 43 found a good one. 29 was one of the best & lit. clues. 'Rebel' for 'Wat' is just about ok, and while 30's 'Rose Tyler' has very clever wordplay, the definition is a bit of a let-down.
The main faults I found were: i) Not indicating initial letters properly (e.g. 'Primary school with…' in 27), ii) some unconvincing definitions (NUS=swats? – not in my experience), and iii) the usual surplus verbiage: more is almost always less in cryptic clues, so 19's twenty-one words put me off before I even started to read it. |
