Results: Clue writing contest 1514 Bad blood
Winner
Martin Leonard, Otford, Kent
Depraved humour causes offence
Depraved = BAD
humour = BLOOD (one of the four humours in mediaeval medicine)
causes = link word
offence = definition
The form of deception I liked most was “humour”, and its combination with “Depraved” in the surface reading.
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Good clues
Anthony Nannini, Northampton
Inferior claret causes ill feeling
This uses the same structure, but a different indicator for blood, with another meaning to exploit.
Ian Gray, Todwick, South Yorkshire
Poor captain causes ill-feeling
This time the story is probably about sport, and there’s a reference to the book or film Captain Blood.
Jim Allsopp, Swindon
Resentment from poor relations
This clue gives us a story about simple envy. Equating blood with relations seems a bit of a stretch, but feels to me less so than “race” for example. On the other hand, there’s a bit more going on …
Several entrants
Poor relations
… as this clue shows. It’s an additive all-in-one. Apart from a nagging concern that this idea may have been used in a published puzzle, it’s one of those all-in-ones that seems “too good” – the definition from the whole clue is so clear that the real solving challenge is to work out what else is going on. Rightly or wrongly, I normally prefer clues where the hardest work is in finding the answer.
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Michael Hartley, Colne, Lancashire
Doblo, but no Accord
This clue connects two car names, from Fiat and Honda respectively. It’s a “wordplay in the answer” clue as “bad blood” could be interpreted as an anagram indicator and fodder. The combination with “no Accord” is pleasing, but one car being a people carrier and the other a saloon weakens the plausibility for “but no”.
Stuart Miller, Swanley, Kent
Not good to initiate ill feeling
This additive clue produces a nice piece of advice, with blood=”to initiate, esp by real-life experience” as a useful and fairly difficult meaning, combined with “Not good” which should be much easier.
Fiona Jackson, York
It’s expressed through one’s spleen
This is intended to be a definition that can be read in two ways, one with spleen meaning ill humour, and one describing the function of this organ. I don’t think the second one is accurate enough – the spleen acts as a blood filter, so the idea of it expressing “good blood” makes sense, but (as a non-medic) I can’t see that you would describe the things filtered out as “bad blood”. This is based on filtering processes I understand better — I’d be happy to see filtered wine or coffee as “good”, but I can’t imagine anyone calling the filtered-out material “bad coffee” or “bad wine”.
Nicola Thorp, Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex
Septicaemia perhaps causing ill feeling?
This clue is less spectacular, but seems medically accurate — septicaemia is what can also be called “blood poisoning”.
Richard Saunders, Dagenham, Essex
Captain eating fish that’s partly turned gets ill feeling
This uses Captain Blood again, but this time as a container for ADB, a “partly turned” version of dab=fish. With “turned” as “gone bad”, this gives us a good story, presumably about a ship’s captain.
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Jon Naughton, Harrogate
Shakespeare pulls Romeo in front of family. Problems with the Capulets perhaps?
This is a charade of BA(r)D and BLOOD. As the idea of a word deleting part of itself seems a shade odd, I’d prefer “pulling” to “pulls”. I enjoyed the combination of Romeo and the Capulets, but the idea of a relevant family being present was less plausible.
Paul Taylor, Manchester
A surprisingly bold chap describes feelings of antipathy
This is a cunningly-worded sandwich/additive/anagram clue. (A,DBLO) is “described” by BOD=chap.
Peter Carey
Troubadour’s song not appreciated, notes removed and thrown out leaving ill-feeling
There’s an imaginative idea here – start with “BALLAD BOOED” and do what’s required to get to BAD BLOOD. It’s done in two steps – first we remove the notes LA and E, then we anagram the remaining BALD BOOD. Historically, ballads may have been sung by troubadours, but for the 21st century plain “song” seems enough. The phrase “removed and thrown out” seems repetitive in the surface reading. As we can also get from BALD BOOD to BAD BLOOD by moving the L, I’d have investigated whether I could get letter-moving instructions into the story instead. Peter gets this week’s reminder to include your full postal address in each email so that we can contact you easily if you win.
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Comments on some other clues
Transfusion of groups AB, O and B left odd ill feeling
This is an anagram of “AB, O, B, L, ODD”. It’s an ingenious idea, but has another medical accuracy issue, if the recipient of all the transfusions is one person. Again, my medical understanding is far from complete, but my understanding is that receiving multiple groups could be a very bad thing indeed.
Old BO leads to ill feeling
This is intended to be a “wordplay in the answer” clue. The logic works, but for me, “old” isn’t a quality of BO that matters in the surface context.
Bishops hide plug — penalty for pool depth conflict?
The wordplay here is B(AD)B from “Bishops hide plug”, LOO=penalty, D=depth. The justification for the “penalty” is that a loo is a penalty in the card game called Loo. I don’t mind some card-game knowledge in clues that goes a bit further than bridge partners, but this meaning isn’t in single-volume dictionaries and Loo as a card game is pretty much extinct, so very few solvers will have come across it. I also struggled a bit with the notion of episcopal supervision of swimming pools.
In “The Adventures of Sinbad”, bloodcurdling part causes ill-feeling
This is a hidden word clue, but of a kind you will no longer see in most broadsheet cryptics. The first reason is the extra words (“adventures of”) in the “hiding place”. The second is the fact that the break between Sinbad and bloodcurdling is in the same place in clue and answer, and “bloodcurdling” should really be hyphenated, so the end of the answer would also be matched.
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No love lost as crazy dodo blabs endlessly
This anagram clue is fine in terms of the wordplay logic, but is a good illustration of a point made in the first of these reports, just over three years ago:
The best surface readings are convincing as a phrase or sentence you could see or hear in everyday life – quote from John Grant, a former Times Crossword editor: “The most damning thing you can say about a crossword clue is that it could only be a crossword clue”.
In this case, we have to believe in a dodo that’s both crazy and capable of blabbing.
Clue writing contest 1517: Celebrity
Readers are invited to compose their own clues for the word above. Clues must be original and cryptic, of a standard similar to those in the Sunday Times Crossword.
Email your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The contest closes on Monday, September 15, and the best entry wins £20.
Previous articles in this series
1355: ABDOMINAL CRUNCH – Introduction to the series
1356: APERY - Structure of cryptic clues
1357: AULD REEKIE - Definitions in cryptic clues
1358: BLANK - Anagram and sandwich clues
1359: BROAD ARROW - Homophone and double definition clues
1360: CATCH
1361: COLD SHOULDER
1362: CRANKY - Additive and cryptic definition clues
1363: DARBY AND JOAN - Hidden and takeaway clues
1364: DEPONE - Reversal and letter switch clues
1365: EMPTY-NESTER – All-in-one and novelty clues
1366: FADDY - Hybrid clues
1367: FLASH DRIVE
1368: GEODUCK
1369: GREEN-WELLIE
1370: HONESTY
1371: IDIOT BOARD
1372: JIGSAW
1373: LIFE TABLE
1374: MANGONEL
1375: MINIMUM WAGE
1376: NOWELL
1377: ORIGINALLY
1378: PHRASAL VERB
1379: PREACHIFY
1380: PROBLEM PAGE
1381: SABRE
1382: REFERENCE BOOK
1383: SAMOVAR
1384: SELF-ABSORBED
1385: BUTTERFLY
1386: SHIRK
1387: SPARKLING WINE
1388: SUPERIOR
1389: ASYMMETRIC BARS
1390: APRIL FOOL
1391: TERRA FIRMA
1392: TOOTLE
1393: MARATHON
1394: URBAN MYTH
1395: VEGGIE
1396: WIENER SCHNITZEL
1397: ABSENTLY
1398: REPECHAGE
1399: DIAMOND JUBILEE
1400: ANTIQUARIAN
1401: BATIK
1402: STARTING BLOCKS
1403: BELAYING PIN
1404: BRAZIL
1405: CHEEKBONES
1406: CLICHE
1407: SLOW MOTION
1408: CRAMPED
1409: CROWN DERBY
1410: DIVIDERS
1411: EMBARRASSINGLY
1412: ENTRAILS
1413: FELLOWSHIP
1414: GIRDLE
1415: AGINCOURT
1416: GLOTTAL STOP
1417: HOSEPIPE BAN
1418: HUMBLE
1419: INTIMIDATED
1420: LAMBRUSCO
1421: LOOSE END
1422: MEDICINE BALL
1423: MOLTEN
1424: NEGOTIATE
1425: PALLADIAN
1426: PERFORMANCE ART
1427: PLATFORM
1428: PRESENT
1429: STARK RAVING MAD
1430: TWELFTH DAY
1431: ROMAN HOLIDAY
1432: SALIVATING
1433: SLIDE RULE
1434: SMOOTHLY
1435: STREAM
1436: SWORN ENEMY
1437: TOMATO SOUP
1438: UNIVERSAL
1439: VOLTAIRE
1440: WITH PLEASURE
1441: POMEGRANATE
1442: ALICE BAND
1443: BAFFLEGAB
1444: BEER BELLY
1445: BRADSHAW
1446: CARRY ONE'S BAT
1447: CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
1448: CROQUE-MONSIEUR
1449: DOC MARTENS
1450: DRUM MAJORETTE
1451: FEDORA
1452: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
1453: GOLDEN DELICIOUS
1454: HEADS WILL ROLL
1455: HOPPING MAD
1456: KNOWLEDGE
1457: LITTLE RED BOOK
1458: LOSE FACE
1459: MORAL HIGH GROUND
1460: NO-BRAINER
1461: OPEN SEASON
1462: PICKING OAKUM
1463: QUICKSILVER
1464: ROUGH DIAMOND
1465: SEPTEMBER
1466: SHUT YOUR FACE
1467: STUMBLE
1468: TIN LIZZIE
1469: UNMENTIONABLES
1470: WINKLE-PICKERS
1471: AFTERSUN
1472: ARMAGNAC
1473: BARBARIZE
1474: BOMBER-JACKET
1475: BURLESQUE
1476: CENTRAL POWERS
1477: CLOUDSCAPE
1478: CONTEMPLATE
1479: CROWDIE
1480: CENTENARY
1481: DING AN SICH
1482: EDMONTON
1483: FALLACIOUS
1484: FLUGELHORN
1485: FURROW
1486: GRISSINI
1487: HOLDING PATTERN
1488: INFORMATICS
1489: JOIN UP
1490: KILDERKIN
1491: MACHAIR
1492: MATRICULATE
1493: NAPIER’S BONES
1494: NETTLESOME
1495: OXTAIL
1496: PERNICKETY
1497: PISCICULTURE
1498: PUPPY LOVE
1499: REALLOCATE
1500: SEBASTIAN COE
1501: ROWDYISM
1502: SCULPTURE
1503: SIPHON
1504: SPECTATOR SPORT
1505: STYROFOAM
1506: TAIKONAUT
1507: SARAJEVO
1508: TRADITIONALLY
1509: UNDERSHOOT
1510: VIBIST
1511: ZORBING
1512: AIR SHOT
1513: ANACRUSIS