Results: Clue writing contest 1875 Volleyball
Winner
Elizabeth Manning, Malvern, Worcestershire
Shooting party provides game
Shooting = volley
party = ball
provides = linkword between wordplay and definition
game = definition
Looking back at the list of 25 clues which I initially selected as ones to consider, this was one of two that used just four words. That wasn’t a conscious reason for choosing it, but it reinforces the old idea that it’s good to keep clues short. The definition is deceptive because the shooting party context implies a different kind of game. Elizabeth supplied a justification for “party” based on the balls in Jane Austen novels, but the fact that “party” has been used to indicate “disco” in many cryptic clues was enough for me.
Advertisement
Good clues
Ross Harrison, Dechmont, West Lothian
It’s lovely running a good time in Olympic event
After “it’s” meaning “the answer is”, “lovely running” indicates VOLLEY as an anagram, and a ball is a good time in the expression “having a ball”. Again the definition is deceptive from context, this time one suggesting a track event.
Jim Brook, London SW20
Dance after lovely shot - playing this?
The same wordplay with a different presentation, presumably one suggested by exuberant goal-scoring celebrations on football pitches.
RC Teuton, Frampton Cotterell, South Gloucestershire
Game from Oval strewn with edges from lucky Bell
This time the story is about cricket, and I understand that edges can either lead to a boundary or being caught, so the words indicating an anagram of (Oval, L~y, bell) fit very well into the surface reading. It’s a mild shame that the game has to be “from Oval” rather than “at Oval”.
Ciaran Daly, Cork, Ireland
How one might shoot game
A similar story to the winning clue, with “how one might shoot” being “volley ball” when the shooting is by a footballer. There is possible confusion with “volley” as a verb meaning to shoot guns in a volley, but the solver should be able to discount this if they see what the answer is, as that kind of shooting could justify “volley balls” with a ball as a possible projectile shot from a gun, but not “volley ball”, as a volley involves multiple guns.
Advertisement
Joe Rees, Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Olympic event worked out lovely, bravo everyone!
With a touch of generosity from the solver to see the “progress” meaning of “work out” as an anagram indicator, this uses a variation on wordplay already seen, with “bravo” as the B in the Nato radio alphabet and ALL as “everyone”.
Jim Allsopp, Watchfield, Oxfordshire
“Lovely puzzling, bravo everyone – it’s a team game”
The same wordplay, this time presented as possible words from Victoria Cohen at the end of Only Connect, according to Jim. I’m seeing it in a broader game show context, as I’m not quite convinced that she’d feel the need to make the “team game” statement to the sort of people who appear on that show.
Philip Kerridge, Bodmin, Cornwall
Lovely ground and a lovely time for sport
This pleasingly combines two ways to use “lovely” in the VOLLEY+BALL wordplay structure.
Rhidian Llewellyn, London SW14
This game comprises two rounds
“Comprise” is one of those words that can be used incorrectly and is therefore worth checking every time it comes up, but the use here is right. This is a pleasing riddle which makes sense as a statement meaning something else. The riddle that you need to solve is to think of a word for a game that can be divided into two things called “rounds”. A VOLLEY is a round of shots, and a BALL is a round, because “round” as a noun is a “round shape or object, though that meaning is only in one of our two reference dictionaries.
Terry Neale, Orton, Cumbria
It’s usually round after round of shots in this sport
This achieves a similar effect with a statement about “ball” which has “usually” to satisfy anyone who thinks of rugby balls or other ones that aren’t spherical.
Advertisement
David Jarvis, Brokenborough, Wiltshire
Manage lovely pass in game
Another clue starting with an anagram of “lovely”, but with the only use in this contest of “pass” to indicate “ball”, which can mean “(in soccer) a pass of the ball in a specified direction or manner” (Oxford Dictionary of English) or “a ball propelled in a particular way in a sport” (Collins English Dictionary).
Some comments on other clues
Shower before dance, if you put on sand then correct clothing is essential
I’m happy that a volley of shots is a “shower”, so “shower before dance” is a good start to a clue, and completes the wordplay in just three words. But the rest of the clue needs to continue the surface reading convincingly and supply a fair definition. The words used are based on the distinctly arbitrary rules about clothing for beach volleyball. But there’s a missing “it” between “put” and “on”, and whether that’s present or not, there’s no connection with “shower before dance” that I can understand. If we stick to conventional volleyball, we can say “Shower before dance — you may be sweaty after this activity”, which doesn’t tell a hugely exciting story but is a logically sound clue.
The odds of seeing this game are above 50/50? Yes, 50/50!
This clue uses an anagram of “above, LL, Y, LL”. As I’ve said that I’m happy with “yes” indicating Y and “no” indicating N in clues, the anagram fodder is fine, but I can’t see anything here that I’d count as a fair anagram indicator, and as “this game” is the definition, “The odds of seeing” is not indicating anything in the wordplay. A good clue has all the parts it needs in order to be fair, and doesn’t have “padding” which fills out the story but does nothing else.
Screwed lovely first lady albeit no sex and drug-free event
This seems to be an example of what I’ve previously called a “blue mist” clue — one where the chance to write a saucy story seems to prevent the entrant from identifying problems. It’s an anagram of (Lovely, L, alb(e,it)). The problem that requires no crossword knowledge to identify is the contradiction in “Screwed … albeit no sex”. I know there are other possible meanings of “screw”, but if you mention sex later, you can’t expect people to think of them. The more technical points are the fact that as stated many times here, “first lady” counts as nonsense when used to indicate L, because a “first lady” is a whole lady rather than part of one. Less dramatically, if “drug-free” means “without e”, it’s much more convincing if all the e’s involved are removed, rather than one of two. The final point is that “event” is a poor definition compared to the “Olympic event” used above.
Advertisement
5-11, 50-50, 250-150, 300-5, 50-50 and game
This sequence of numbers apparently representing scores is actually representing various letters which include standard Roman numerals which are fair game, but also include a lot of medieval Roman numerals, such as the letter O which apparently represented 11 (presumably in a context where zero was not used). These are listed in Chambers English Dictionary, but not in either of the reference dictionaries for the Sunday Times crossword, so they are completely unsuitable in this contest. I’ve found them a seriously dull aspect of barred grid clue writing, so I stated very early on in my work here that I would prefer them to be avoided in our Mephisto crosswords, and all three setters have done so, with maybe one or two exceptions among the 500+ puzzles since then.
Clue writing contest 1878 Angelica
You are invited to write an original cryptic clue for the word above, in Sunday Times crossword style. Email your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The contest closes on Monday, August 23 and the best entry wins £25