Results: Clue writing contest 1876 Athletics
Winner
Elizabeth Manning, Malvern, Worcestershire
The cat is playing, biting spaniel’s tail in sport
The cat is = anagram fodder
playing = anagram indicator
biting = containment indicator
spaniel’s tail = L – last letter
in = linkword between wordplay and definition
sport = definition
Like a few people at the Tokyo Olympics, Elizabeth has finished in the top spot after winning last time. Possibly because this word coincided with those Olympics, quite a few of the clues had sporting surface stories, which didn’t seem terribly deceptive. Here, “in sport” means much the same as “in jest”, and possibly assisted by the antics of a fairly young kitten here, the surface story seemed very credible to me.
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Good clues
Lynne Davis, London NW7
Primarily loose-limbed competitors excel at this sport
This is an all-in-one/&lit clue using the initial letters of “loosed-limbed competitors excel” as anagram fodder along with “at this”. It’s a very well-made clue and the choice between this and a non-&lit clue with good deception is the same kind of personal taste issue that decides the winners in sports where judges rather than stopwatches or tapes decide whose performance is best. It doesn’t matter, but I think there’s at least one contrasting example. IIRC, Roger Bannister confesses, somewhere in his book The First Four Minutes, that he could never touch his toes.
Jeff Robinson, Epsom, Surrey
Sports articles left inside by jerks
In this clue, most of the wordplay components are very familiar – “a” and “the” as “articles”, with L=left inside the combination of them, followed by the less frequent jerks=TICS. The surface story was convincing to someone who long ago used a club changing room and showers in a pub basement and was keen to get to the bar afterwards.
David Skinner, London SW12
Charlton’s games at London Stadium?
This was my favourite among a fair number of clues which used football clubs whose name includes “Athletic” - to which the clue must add an S in some way. London Stadium was the athletics stadium for the 2012 Olympics (which justifies the “games at …” definition, and is now mainly used as West Ham’s home ground. It’s a mild shame that anyone able to notice the capital S in “Stadium” would probably dismiss the possibility that “Charlton” meant Bobby or Jack.
Cameron Smith, Edinburgh
After regular losses from shelves in store room, salesperson’s heading for the high jump, possibly
A surface story about a suspected inside job indicates HLE inside ATTIC, followed by S, and has “the high jump, possibly” as the definition. We need to see “heading” as meaning “anything that serves as a head”, and that’s only included in one of our two main reference dictionaries.
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Ruth Gray, London SE5
I caught the last running event at the Olympics
This uses an anagram of “I C the last” and (I think) tells a story about watching the TV coverage of (usually) the men’s marathon. As a “functional definition” which suggests the answer to the solver before the logic is worked out, “running event at the Olympics” is possibly helpful and possibly misleading, as athletics includes jumps and throws too. As “running” turns out to be the anagram indicator, “event at the Olympics” is the real definition, and completely accurate – athletics is an “event at the Olympics” even though the 100m, 200m and all the others are also “events at the Olympics”.
RC Teuton, Frampton Cotterell, South Gloucestershire
Running, perhaps a little exhausted, with stitch developing
Another anagram clue, with “running, perhaps” as the accurate definition, (a, L~E, stitch) as the anagram fodder, and “developing” as the anagram indicator.
Jan Dolny, Edinburgh
With agility at its core, the cat is designed for running and jumping
This clue tells a very good story, and although throwers might be disappointed by the definition, “running and jumping” is better than just “running”. As the indication for L in anagram fodder, “agility at its core” is accurate and pleasingly different to some well-worn middle indicators. But as an anagram indicator, I’m not convinced that “designed” is really suitable, and one crossword dictionary fails to include it in a five-page list of anagram indicators. The same list has “adaptable” and “adaptation”, and I would also be happy with “adapted”, which would suit the surface story here.
Some comments on other clues
The short elastic pants worn for sport
This uses “th(e)” inside an anagram of “elastic”. The surface story is very good, but I can’t see that “A B worn” is really fair indication of “A in B”, which is “B worn by A”, or “A wore B”. I think I would accept “A with B worn” as an alternative, but in this case it would ruin the surface reading.
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Lapsed ethical saint could be shot
This uses an anagram of (ethical, St.), in which I’m happy with the abbreviation, and “shot” (which at least among athletes can mean “shot put”). But if you remember that becoming a saint is a posthumous event, the surface reading becomes doubly nonsensical — the dead cannot lapse, and are very unlikely to be shot.
The Latics trained for track and field
I might not be very keen on “trained” as an anagram indicator, but “train” is on that 5-page list. The objection to this clue is that “the Latics” is a term like “the Rovers” for a football team, except that “Latics” is a slightly garbled or dialect form of “Athletics”, so we’ve practically speaking got the entire answer in the clue and a very plain definition. You might put a clue like this into a cryptic crossword for beginners, but elsewhere, it would be disappointingly easy.
No pressure to start route and allow International Committees to form this Olympic sport
The wordplay here is (p)ATH, LET, ICs. It’s fairly indicated for the first part, but I can find no dictionary support for IC meaning “International Committees”, and although “international” is OK for I, “committee” can’t indicate C for the same reason. Less crucially, but still importantly in a contest like this, the connection between starting a route and committees “forming” a sport is not strong enough.
His cattle destroyed track and field
There is good surface story here, and “his cattle” is a deceptive start. But for me at least, there is only one thing that “track and field” can mean, and it’s the answer, so what’s really destroyed here is the chance to make the solver think a bit.
The man initially living rough in top floor rooms gets running and jumping
This uses an anagram of (he, L~) inside “attics”. I think we could expect the solver to understand that the running and jumping probably took place in local parks rather than attics, but I don’t think we can expect them not to raise their eyebrows about “living rough” indoors.
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Followed in Wigan, Charlton and Alloa, among others
This is a clue like “Word that can follow skinny, lucky and sheep (3)”, for which the answer was DIP in one of our general knowledge crosswords earlier this year. I think the GK clue was more of a challenge to be honest, and our GK clues are hardly ever cryptic, so not suitable for this contest. The only difference here is the “Word than can follow” is replaced by “followed in”, which may be deceptive but is also wrong – it’s the words like Wigan that are “followed”.
Sports let itch change in vacant areas
It doesn’t really matter what the clue says in this case, as the message to the entrant is that their apparent attempt to get round our limit of three entries by sending six clues split between two emails did not succeed.
Clue writing contest 1879 Barnacle goose
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 30 and the best entry wins £25