CCCWC June competition voters’ comments
Clue no. 45: Tricky balls transform set pieces (6)
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A clue to Any “Double” Word (6 or more letters) (A Game of Two Halves).
4 comments refer to this clue (from 4 competitors, 0 others)
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| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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Many of the clues were over long and/or too convoluted for what was quite an easy exercise with the scope offered with the extra word and the short subsidiary part to clue. The use of more than 10 words, in my view, indicated lack of cluemanship, and initial letter devices, centres of words, etc, were a complete cop-out under the circumstances.
One or two words chosen had etymologies which meant that the half word was too similar to the full word for my liking. At the other end of the spectrum, I thought HOTSHOTS and TESTES were interesting choices. There were a few good and topical clues for these (e.g. 43, 45 and 22) which drew most of my votes. Unfortunately 15 seemed to be clued the wrong way round – surely TEES is spurned by E? |
| 2. |
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| This was a fun challenge and it was good to see so much imagination going into creating clues with a World Cup theme. Everyone seems to have stuck to the rules, though I felt that adding a link word between the extra word and the rest of the clue (8 and 31), or other superfluity (26?) was a yellow card offence. My favourite clues combined a recognisable World Cup reference with a fluent surface. The best three were 37, 45 (great definition) and 46, followed by 15 (how come I never thought of TESTES?!), 32 and 48 (any vuvuzela clue had an immediate advantage). I also liked 7, 9, 13, 19, 23 and 40. |
| 3. |
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A dog's dinner, make that two – an impression of both the tournament and this competition – inspired by 19 which features surely the best clue-word used. That entry is one of no fewer than ten clues entered with explanations NOT in the format suggested by the organisers. A smaller number gave the details in the correct order, but without any punctuation. Very few entries reveal any thought given to the solver's first task – to identify the word to be omitted – and so to make it more of a challenge by arranging that any word, or at least most words, when removed, would still leave a readable clue. However, in the end I did not let these misgivings affect my votes.
I selected seven clues :-
10 Elegant, apt, and witty – 5 points
7 Sound construction, straight to the point – 3 points
22 Apt and very well honed – good surface(s) – 2 points
45 The best of the 'testes/balls' clues – 2 points
15 'spurned' is a very classy feature here – 1 point
17 Let's hear it for Germans and Aussies, beautifully disguised def. – 1 point
19 Spoilt by a disjointed 'thrash', but a great attempt – 1 point
Other clues
49 Better than many of those above, but 'with' superfluous content, great pity
11 Brilliantly worked surface and subsidiary, definition needs improving
16 A gem, but I suspect many will judge it to be a bit off-focus, unlike 17
18 "'i" for "in" needs to be flagged by some means for the majority of solvers
30 Reminiscent of Baldrick's riddles, baffling surface & no real definition
46 High quality in every respect. Not a central theme for most, however |
| 4. |
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It is amazing that so many people can't obey simple instructions. After wondering whether or not it really mattered, I eventually discarded all clues that weren't in the correct format (give or take a colon or a semi-colon). My votes eventually (a good lot of clues I felt) were
1st (3.5 points): 20
2nd (2.5 points): 21
3rd (2 points): 37
4th (1.5 points]: 23
5th (1 point): 36
6th= (0.5 points each): 3, 7, 10, 12, 16, 22, 39, 45, 49 |
