CCCWC January competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 38: Sort of rice many Asians like for starters
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A clue to MIRACLE.
3 comments refer to this clue
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| It It seemed to me that this word called for something light and witty, after the torture of TINSEL/BAUBLE. I thought clues 19 and 11 best exemplified this, and I'm giving the nod (5 points) to clue 19, which is lovely. 4 points to clue 11, which also made me smile. Third place and 3 points I give to clue 38, not least for an original theme. Fourth place I give to clue 6, which is very neat, and fifth place to clue 40, which I thought the best of the insurance claim efforts. Well done to the composers of all these. Near misses for clues 2,7,29, 36, 39 and 43. |
| 2. |
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A good lot this month. The word lends itself to many interesting treatments.
1st = (3 points each): 38. "Sort of rice many Asians like for starters" [beautiful; pity the surface couldn't have said "as a starter" not "for starters", which doesn't seem quite grammatical if you think of miracle rice as a "starter"] and 40. "What initiates rapid conclusion to insurance claim? Blooming this!" [great fun] 3rd = (2 points each): 3. "Bush remarkably inflamed, for instance, by Liberal America's endless stirring" [very good, but I don't really like "by"] and 36. "Religious drama? High Carmel's setting for one" ["High Carmel" is a bit unnatural, but otherwise very nice]
5th (1.5 points): 11. "'Hand of God' claim re foul" [the definition perhaps needs a question mark, but the idea is good]
6th (1 point): 19. "LA, crime-free?!" [not strictly Ximenean this, but an amusing idea]
7th = (0.5 points each): 6. "Dodgy claim re bleeding statue?" [I couldn't separate this and 34, so included them both], 13. "In Kashmir a clearly wondrous event" [very simple but nice], 27. "New Year claim to promptness - it could be this, says R.T. Top tip? Omen?" [almost very good and rather fun, but I couldn't understand "Top tip", which doesn't seem to have anything to do with it], 34. "Preposterous claim re supernatural event" [see 6 above] and 48. "What a martyr's original relic might generate" [nice, but miracles tend to be more to do with workaday things so far as I can see, like disease and blindness and death] |
| 3. |
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I eliminated those where I thought the link words or anagram indicators were dodgy, the Smokey Robinson references (too obscure for me; might have been worth doing if we were cluing 'miracles' plural) and a few that I didn't really understand even with the explanations. Given the high submission rate, that still left quite a lot, so plenty of perfectly serviceable clues have gone unscored. Surprised that no-one went for the "Motorway unusually clear..." construction. That aside:
Four pts to no. 3: a nice disguised reference to a specific miracle, and a good surface reading. Three pts to no. 22: most of the &lits seemed strained but this one worked; also 'initials' clues can be very obvious but this one managed not to be. Two points to no. 30: RAC in MILE was a blindingly obvious construction, but this version of it was succinct and joined the def. to the subsidiary neatly. One pt to each of the following: No. 43: a clever use of mathematical notation to make a compound anagram, and didn't suffer (as several other compound anagrams did) from long-windedness. No. 38: 'sort of' nicely used both to indicate 'type of' and as anagram indicator, and the &lit def. was not bad. No. 11: 'claim re' is a bit of a giveaway anagram, but the image of Maradona was nicely conjured. No. 6: much the same reasoning. No. 13: def. was a bit pedestrian but kudos due to the only person to risk a 'hidden', and it works fine. No 8: Another capable compound anagram, not TOO long, and nice construction around the religious subject matter. |
