The Crossword Centre Clue-Writing Competition

CCCWC May competition voters’ comments
 
Clue no. 13: Demand head of Marie Antoinette reduced to eating slice of cake?

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A clue to MARKET (SPONGE) (Wrong Number).
5 comments refer to this clue (from 4 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the clue
1.Head is singular.
2.Wordplay requires 'heads', 'slice of cake' usually signifies 'c'.
3.You need "headS of .." otherwise wordplay only yields "M". Don't think "KE" is "slice of cake" – maybe half of would be ok
 
Comments on the competition
1.
Not a vintage entry, and I could hardly find a sufficient number of clues deserving of points to award as many as 15.

The rules called for a one-word definition of SPONGE to be incorporated as an integral part of the clue. Three clues (25, 29 and 31) thus immediately ruled themselves out, since “take up” and “take in” are two words, not one, and “type of cake” three. Quite a few of the other definitions of SPONGE offered seemed to me to be inadequate: blot, wipe, absorb, clean, assimilate and mop are indeed all things that a sponge might do or someone might do with a sponge, but they are not, to my mind, synonyms or definitions of sponge. For instance, the Chambers definition is not “to wipe” or “to soak up”, but “to wipe, wipe out, soak up or remove with a sponge”. (I regretted having to rule out 22, which used “assimilate”, since it offered probably the most original and pleasing surface this month.) 32’s “Scour” is surely not even an accurate description of what one does with a sponge. Again, “taker” 41 is surely much to general to define sponge in the sense of “scrounger”. I may be missing something, but I don’t see how “live” 24 is even remotely connected with “sponge”. Even “cake” is slightly suspect, since, although a sponge can be a cake, a cake is not necessarily a sponge, but the Chambers entry probably validates it.

Of the remaining clues, many using the handy anagram indicators “drunk” or “bum” for SPONGE, most were at best unexciting – a lot of limp or unconvincing surfaces – and quite a few unsound. The same applies to the many “cake” clues on offer. For instance, in the otherwise promising 13, to be sound the s.i. would require “heads” rather than “head”, while, in 23, the letters of CAKE do not appear in that order in “Make racket” and an a.i. for “cake” is thus needed to make the subtraction work – cf 11, though, in that clue, the word “cleans”, required for the surface, seems to play no valid part in the s.i.
2.
No picnic this month, but plenty of sponge CAKEs in evidence, being the most popular second definition (10 from 42 clues: 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 15, 23, 31, 34 and 40*). It wasn't a tea-party either, with 9 DRUNKs, 6* doing double duty as anagram indicators in the wordplay (7, 9*, 11*, 16, 17, 18*, 21*, 26*, and 37*) and 4 BUMs (all anagram indicators) (2*, 27, 30 and 35*), and a further 6 clues also using definitions involving cadging of some form (6, 19, 24, 38, 39 and 41*). 7 clues cleaned up in 6 different ways(1, 10, 20, 28, 32, 36 and 42) and another one even squeezed in two of these definitions ! (33) Four clues were simply absorbing (14*, 22*, 25 and 29) and just one was DRAINing (3). All but 3 clues (24, 25 and 29) complied with the request for a single-word definition of SPONGE and in one clue this definition contributed to neither the wordplay nor definition for MARKET (6).

The main clue was marketed in a variety of ways, with DEMAND not surprisingly driving supply (4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17*). FAIR (10, 18* and 30), TRADE (23, 25 and 40), SALE (2*, 5 and 28) and STALLS (26, 34 and 38) were equally represented, with appearances from other variations on buying and selling (20, 24 and 23) and possible venues (BAZAAR (1 and 37), SHOP (7 and 39), STORE (35* and 36)). Four entrants chose to define by example (16, 19, 29 and 32) in addition to 2 clever and lit clues (22* and 41*).