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Scotsman playing old fiddle loud and noisy. Playing up to the audience, but of no consequence (9)

gu = old fiddle

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Scotsman playing old fiddle loud and noisy. Playing to the audience, but of no consequence (9)

Thank you all for your submissions. There were 11 participants providing 36 separate clues – one third of which were compiled by Raffles. Need to get out more Raffles!

Although some of the usual clueing mechanisms were employed, most seemed to focus on finding actual examples of the definition, which was interesting for us to follow up and check the plot lines, so well done everyone. In particular, we liked Raffles’ lion trapping apparatus and Paul’s Scotsman’s home full of garbage including the briefcase from Pulp Fiction.

We liked Chrise’s “Deus ex machina” @2/3 but felt this didn’t define a macguffin. We had thought of offering the phrase as a second alternative clue to compile.

We liked the nod to the Maltese Falcon @5 and Ronin’s briefcase @6.

It was nice to be reminded of Chekhov’s rifle by Amej @7.

We liked Tyke’s “Rosebud” @11, Amej’s “air biscuit” @11 – haven’t heard that for a long time, and Buddy’s “McMuffin” @40 – and, sadly, Buddy we do have the Golden Arches over here.

Nice to see the reference to Muffin the Mule – which is still a sexual offence in the UK.

It’s always difficult to choose a favourite from such a good selection, but the final shortlist came down to:

Jono’s @9: Nonsense amidst manic mayhem is a device often seen in thrillers (9)

Paul’s @16: ‘Nuff magic brews for Harry Potter’s stone perhaps (9)

Jono’s @17: Fun magic potion grips fellow and provides his motivation for what follows (9)

Despite being a Jono sandwich above, we slightly favoured Paul’s @16

‘Nuff magic brews for Harry Potter’s stone perhaps (9)

Succinct, smooth surface, taut anagram and meets the definition.

Well done Paul – prizes below.

https://theoldhollywoodgarden.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/alfred-hitchcock-blogathon-the-brilliance-of-the-macguffin/

https://youtu.be/mNkPLuBjZRM?si=mk9VRzJTAsYP60sG

https://youtu.be/K_2BAEKry0k?si=TWk7aEMcAl9NY2kx

https://youtu.be/Jf7usYtOAMc?si=ssejqUXD0RfIXezY

https://youtu.be/vd38lhfJQwk?si=271JaxYv1H2atsTc

https://youtu.be/VYGGO5pyUjw?si=OF237kMBSd_AuzEt

Hope you all enjoy the music - some of our favourite artists and fortunate enough to have sen most of them

Congratulations Paul and thanks SS for an intriguing challenge. I admit it’s a term I hadn’t come across before. Happy to be the makings of a sandwich (I think!).
Cheers all.

Congrats Paul and thanks SS.

The Pentangle clip looks a bit odd as they are mostly sitting down. This is because Jacqui McShee suffered from such debilitating stage fright that she couldn't stand up to sing!

Well done Paul -- cheers SS!

Thanks Chris and Sue! Honoured to be chosen. Great prizes too!

Congratulations paul and thanks to simplesimon for hosting.

Nice, paul. Thanks for officiating, ss.

Congrats Paul. Thanks SS for hosting and the mentions. But no mention of the delectable Tippi. Or moules marinière (hard to believe Peter Cook is 25 years dead!) - can a clue have a MacGuffin in the form of word association football boots the chemist shop keeper goal……?