CCCWC September competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 27: Primary school with a tough syllabus produces hardworking pupils.
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A clue to SWATS.
2 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 0 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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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. |
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Lots of clues to study – Thank you all.
5 points to clue 16, this was the most topical of the informal acronym clues, 12, 15, 27, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 while 11 used a very clever reversed informal acronym, this would have got top marks but personally I don't like the &lit clues.
4 points to clue 24 a very funny simple alternative letters clue.
3 points to clue 40, LOL this was funny AND I missed the anagram with the positioning so it was very good in misleading.
2 points to clue 37, I went back over the informal acronym clues and picked it because of the clever use of words.
1 point to clue 17, this for me was an unusual clue and I voted for it because this is the clue I learnt the most from and will go and study the letter substitution method. |
