CCCWC March competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 10: Bill ends it with shockingly dim interne
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A clue to DINNER-TIME.
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| a) Reading through the clues, I have the impression that DINNER-TIME proved a tougher challenge than might have been expected. I think there are a few near-misses, but no clue which works on all levels. This has made it difficult to fix the order for my chosen five. However:- First place, 5 points, to clue 2. The surface sense isn't perfect, and the capital letter is awkward, but 'lapses' is very nice and 'announcement of a gong?' is probably the best definition among the 48 clues. Second place, 4 points, I award to clue 44. Probably the best use of 'indeterminate', but a rather stretched definition (as so often with &lits.) and regrettable anacoluthon. In third place, for 3 points, I put clue 21. I'm not very keen on composite anagrams, but 'Rennie' is entertaining in the context of 'dodgy naan'. Anacoluthon again, I'm afraid. In fourth place, for 2 points, I put clue 10. This dares to be different, but 'with' is awkward, the spelling of 'interne' is a give-away and the definition is weak - better for DINNER than DINNER-TIME. One point for fifth place to clue 5; 'peak fare period' is very good, and I wonder whether 'Afternoon and...' could simply have been omitted. I hope this doesn't seem too churlish; there are some fine ideas in these clues, but, in my opinion, none of them fully comes off. |
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e) Some excellent entries here. I tended to favour those that concealed the context of the definition well.
In reverse order, 5th (1 pt) No. 4, 4th (2pts) 36 and, then, the three that stood out , 3rd (3 pts) 10 tho you could nit-pick and say there would not necessarily be a bill and than the interne was maybe not dim but we'll let it go 2nd (4 pts) 47, 1st 5 pts 19 - I thought this was really excellent with the surface context very convincing. |
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| h) Not as good a set of clues as I'd expected, given the friendliness of the word. The main problem seems to have been too many competitors spotting an '& lit.' opportunity, and then delivering either an unconvincing clue or a very obvious one (though I was well-disposed to 36 for its nice wording). I'd have liked to see more misleading definitions and contexts, like 10 and 2. |
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| j) A tougher challenge than it looked. Sometimes when you see poorish clues (including your own) you can almost see brains struggling to produec a worthy effort, but when you see good clues all the brain machinery has beenn hidden behind the scenes, as it has in my first choice here : No 9. These others tag along behind and the jangling brains becomes very evident in places: Nos 10, 14, 21, 46. No 2 was nice at first sight but I couldn't quite persude myself to make dinnertime synonymous with an announcement |
