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Fewer than a thousand present in blow to early success (10)

Peter - pls ignore my 17 I messed up!

Instead;

Having shown early promise, sadly drunk wine until dead (10)

I need to go out shortly and I don't foresee any more activity, so I'll take the liberty of wrapping things up early.

It looks like the choice of word may have caused a little more angst than I had envisaged so thanks to all for rising to the challenge. What was missing in quantity was more than made up in quality. Some lovely anagrams, subtractive anagrams and hybrids from PaulH, fieryjack, Paul and Dorrien; the clever wordplay that is the trademark of Paul, PaulH, aristo and tyke51; and a brave homophone from Chrise. A special mention goes to Buddy@14, which was excellent and made me smile.

But the stand-out clue for me was jono@7, with:
Orchestral section embraces lesser work by Mozart in A-sharp minor?
It reads so well, and the definition is impeccable. I rate this as one of the best clues I’ve seen in this competition for many a moon.

So well done, jono, wunderbar. The prize is:
A mini Mozart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybU09RQUTs
A mini Monet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo6imnb08R0
And a mini Maradonna:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSZn2e69R5Q

As a postscript, following Paul’s recommendation last week, we saw Les Visiteurs over the weekend. Completely bonkers in a Pythonesque way and very funny.

congrats, jono - I seriously considered not bothering to enter after reading your clue, as it was so obviously going to be the best one entered. So quite content with a special mention.

Thanks for hosting and the clips peter. As I recall I was just mastering shoe-tying at that age.

I must confess I had to check the Mozart reference.
Excellent clue. Well done Jono!
A tough word Peter thanks for hosting and adjudicating. Some pretty good attempts, I thought.
I too watched Les Visiteurs 😂 Barmy! Thanks Paul

Totally agree about Jon. A masterclass in -err- clue composition - Brilliant, Jon!
Thanls for setting Peter and for the kind mentions. Glad you and Dorroen enjoyed les Visiteurs!

Oh forgot to say also really liked Buddy's 14!

Bravo Jono! Thanks Peterm

Congrats jono - great clue! Thanks, peterm, and for the clips.

My false start reminded me of the riddle:
If the answer is 9W, what is the question?













Do you spell your name with a V, Mr. Wagner?

Thanks Peter for the challenge and kind words. I enjoyed the clips.
Cheers all and see you next week, if not before ;-)