Many thanks to all those who entered this week’s Clueless. We had 13 setters and 32 great clues which have made it extremely hard to judge. Anyway, here goes…
Penda kicked things off with a neat four part construction and was the only one to use side/team for XI as far as I can see. Of the other constructions I liked Mathprof@12’s Lex Luther, Buddy@8’s ‘ex con’ and Patrich@14 for achieving a clue with no link/joining words, very efficient. I also liked Fiona’s Mexico idea, just wasn’t sure about ‘east’ as an indicator, perhaps a first letter removal would have worked. Favourite here was Patrich@24 with a very smooth surface (I did have to look up ‘ilex’ but it’s perfectly fair).
Enjoyed the pencil-based anagram-of-parts both from Spike@23 and Mattrom@30. Loved ‘lead-free’ and ‘no ferrule’. Hard to separate these two great clues.
In the subby category Rosalind’s Emily Dickinson reference was nice and informed one of the prizes (see below). Geeker@11’s ‘Wilcoxon’ was clever and although indirect, the word play is clear so it really couldn’t be anything else. My favourites here were Fiery@29’s ‘Colin Dexter’, Buddy@21’s ‘Chambers omission’ and Mattrom@28’s ‘neologism collection’.
Surprised so many hiddens were on offer. Favourites were Geeker@9’s Xi clue and Tyke@27’s dyslexic.
I liked many of the cryptic definitions too, Mattrom@5’s ‘under the covers’ and Tyke@25’s ‘dicky bird’.
I should also give honourable mentions to Mathprof@10 for achieving a reverse construction (with numbers naturally) and Geeker@34 for pulling off a great alternate letters clue.
My final shortlist came down to Spike@23, Patrich@24, Mattrom@28, Mattrom@30 and Aristo@31.
Runner-up is Mattrom@28 for clever wordplay and a surface which embraces, I think, “sprachgefühl” (see prize two for this word and Chambers of course)
Elide, go over, and get cross editing neologic collection (7)
Winner is Aristo@31 which I haven’t even mentioned yet as it’s a first letter replacement clue, clever construction, well disguised definition and made me laugh…
A lot of terms for porn star, upsizing right at the start (7)
Bra jobbat Aristofanes, här är priserna!
Dr Johnson
https://youtu.be/PuDquo76490
A modern day lexicographer
https://youtu.be/uLgn3geod9Q
And inspired by Rosalind’s clue a piece on Emily Dickinson from one of my favourite YouTube channels
https://youtu.be/55kqNg88JqI
Happy New Year to all and here’s to more setting fun in 2022!