CCCWC January competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 34: Nothing's refused, eg dory, pig's tail and suet rolls for me!
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A clue to GREEDY GUTS.
6 comments refer to this clue (from 3 competitors, 1 other)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
| &lit. As I understand it, the criteria that a clue has to meet to be correctly described as &lit are: a. the definition and the subsidiary indication (s.i.) must be co-terminous; b. every word in the clue must make a valid contribution to both definition and s.i. 34 and 49 both claim &lit, but neither meets these criteria: neither ‘for me” nor “That could be me!” play any part in the s.i. (Furthermore, for 34’s a.i. to work it should read “roll”, since it has a plural subject (whether of words or letters), and 49 has a superfluous “while”, which has no valid role in the s.i.) The peculiarities of composite anagrams (eg, 31, 47) are such that more latitude is usually given with respect to criterion b. Thus, although in another type of clue, one might baulk at “struggle to eat differently” as part of the definition of GREEDY GUTS, in the context of a composite anagram (and given the wording of the other half of the clue), it just about passes muster. And one can just about swallow the notion that the plural of “greedy guts” is “greedy guts”, though I wonder how often the term has actually been used in the plural. However, 47 is surely seriously flawed in another way. It is true that ((THEYDHAVESTRUGGLEDTOEAT) – (th)E – (restrain)T)* = TOHALT + GREEDYGUTS, but there is nothing in the wording of the second “half” of the composite anagram, as surely there needs to be, to indicate the letters of GREEDY GUTS (such as “him”, “this chap” or even a dash). Then again, though a less serious flaw, the use of “finally” to indicate the last letter of more than one of the immediately preceding words strikes me as unsound. (Azed might also quarrel with there being an anagram indicator in both “halves” and with the lack of a natural break between the two halves, but I have never quite understood his reasons for these preferences.) Finally, where 47 is concerned, the very terse explanation leaves the judges an unnecessary amount of work to do in figuring out how the clue is actually supposed to work. How much more helpful is the explanation given for 31! |
| 2. |
| Once again a healthy serving of clues to feast on this month. GREEDY GUTS is one of those cluewords with a relatively tight definition, whilst at the same time being either a singular or plural noun and also offering the option to define by example. Just 4 solvers chose the latter route (Bunter, 2 and 48, Elvis 10 and Henry VIII 27) but only one of these included the essential indication that the person concerned is an example of a gluttonous individual (10). Only one clue chose to define more than one greedy guts with an ingenious &lit. (47). Popular options for the definition included 7 pigs (1, 25, 28, 32, 39, 40 and 41), 3 gluttons (15, 16 and 44), 3 scoffers, (23, 42 and 46), 2 gourmands (14 and 18), 2 fatty/fatsos (7 and 8) and 2 gorgers (21 and 22). Three greedy birds also flew in for an appearance: cormorant (3), gannet (11), raven (33). A variety of more descriptive definitions were offered in half a dozen &lit. clues (4, 12, 20, 30, 31 and 47) and slightly more semi &lit. clues (6, 13, 19, 23, 26, 34 and 49). The wordplay in the latter should provide an enhancement of the definition, but sadly in these examples the non-enhanced definitions are all rather too vague to stand alone. They were, however, preferable to no definition at all – 43. Turning to wordplay, anagrams proved as popular as ever this month. Some of the best clues employed clever compound anagrams (4, 5, 9, 23, 25. 36, 39* and 47), whilst others slipped up with inadequate anagram indicators (8, 16, 18, 22, 26 and 35). A fair anagram indicator clearly indicates a disturbance or rearrangement of the letters or words in question. Having the correct number of anagram indicators is also essential, perennial errors including forgetting to include one at all (30), omitting the second indicator when it is necessary in a compound anagram (10) and over-complicating things with too many indicators (49). A few clues attempted to indicate the clueword cryptically with reference to the guts (contents) of GREEDY, ie REED (43, 44 and 48). However, the guts of greedy doesn't really equate to greedy guts, just as 'big bottom' isn't the same as 'bottom of big' (1). |