Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Path: bryson.demon.co.uk!demon!news!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!uunet.ca!wildcan!sq!msb
From: mdm@usna.navy.MIL (Mark D. Meyerson)
Subject: PCWC 16 results
Message-ID: <1993Jul8.195055.19271@sq.sq.com>
Sender: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Reply-To: mdm@usna.navy.MIL (Mark D. Meyerson)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
References: <1993Jun30.205708.18280@sq.sq.com> <1993Jun21.152744.20251@sq.sq.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 19:50:55 GMT
Lines: 306

[Posted by Mark Brader for Mark Meyerson; apologies if duplicate.]




                       PCWC 16 RESULTS
                       ---------------

The winner is Beacon (BEACON@CCIT.ARIZONA,EDU) who is unable to moderate.
Congratulations!  The winning clue for PREHISTORIC was:

          10)  Very old rectorship I mismanaged (11)
  
          RECTORSHIP + I anagrammed = PREHISTORIC


A strong second was Brian C. Spollen (bsc@sc.harris.com) who is the next
moderator.  Congratulations to you also.  The runner-up clue was:

           14) Priest and choir squabbled before recordings were made (11)
  
          "Squabbled" = anag. indicator (using the printers'
          sense of the word, to disarrange set type)
          "Priest choir" anagrammed = "prehistoric"
          "Before recordings were made" = "prehistoric"


--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
                        Detailed statistics
---------------------------------------------------------------------

There were 15 clues and 8 voters; maximum total 112.0

Scores:

	Clue	total	 %max	rank	  mean	 st.dev	 median
	----	-----	 ----	----	  ----	 ------	 ------
	  1	 62.5	 55.8	  7	  7.81	  3.18	  7.00
	  2	 42.0	 37.5	 11	  5.25	  3.17	  4.75
	  3	 59.0	 52.7	  9	  7.38	  0.96	  7.00
	  4	 53.0	 47.3	 10	  6.62	  2.60	  6.25
	  5	 72.5	 64.7	  4	  9.06	  3.48	  8.75
	  6	 75.0	 67.0	  3	  9.38	  4.20	  9.75
	  7	 14.0	 12.5	 15	  1.75	  2.14	  1.25
	  8	 23.5	 21.0	 14	  2.94	  2.30	  2.25
	  9	 63.0	 56.2	  6	  7.88	  3.00	  8.75
	 10	 92.0	 82.1	  1	 11.50	  1.94	 12.25
	 11	 71.5	 63.8	  5	  8.94	  2.01	  8.50
	 12	 39.0	 34.8	 12	  4.88	  3.04	  4.00
	 13	 27.0	 24.1	 13	  3.38	  2.62	  2.00
	 14	 86.0	 76.8	  2	 10.75	  2.63	 12.25
	 15	 60.0	 53.6	  8	  7.50	  2.11	  7.00

Vote distribution histograms:

           3 |                             
           2 |              X      X       
           1 |       X X  X X      X     X 
Clue #1      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |                             
           1 |   XXX X    X X   X  X       
Clue #2      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |              X              
           2 |              X              
           1 |            XXX XXX          
Clue #3      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |         X                   
           1 |       X X  XXX   X     X    
Clue #4      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |              X              
           1 |     X        X X  X    X XX 
Clue #5      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |            X               X
           1 |     X      X X          XX X
Clue #6      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |X  X                         
           1 |XXXX X        X              
Clue #7      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |     X                       
           1 | XXXXX       XX              
Clue #8      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |                  X          
           1 |   X        X X  XXX     X   
Clue #9      |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |                         X   
           1 |              X      XX XXXX 
Clue #10     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |              X       X      
           1 |             XX X X   X X    
Clue #11     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |              X              
           1 |   XXX X X    X       X      
Clue #12     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |  XX                         
           1 |  XX X   X    X X            
Clue #13     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |                         X   
           1 |             XX   X     XXXX 
Clue #14     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

           3 |                             
           2 |              X              
           1 |         X  XXX X X     X    
Clue #15     |_____________________________
                                  1 1 1 1 1
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4


  
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Comments received for all clues          
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  1) Clearly this was an object word that lent itself to plain anagram
  1) clues.  This being the case, ranking them must be based mostly on
  1) the surface readings and the absence of flaws.  I find two flaws
  1) here: "destroyer" suggests that something is destroyING, rather than
  1) being destroyed (i.e. anagrammed); and while the surface reading is
  1) smooth, one wonders what it is supposed to be able -- crops as agents
  1) of destruction?  I give this clue a middling ranking.
  
  2) Is "Tropic heirs" supposed to be a play on "tropic(al) airs"?
  2) It doesn't work for me.  And "prehistoric" would be better defined
  2) as "*at* the end of the last ice age, for example".  A low ranking.
  
  3) A good, simple clue gets an above average ranking.
  4) I'm still rather proud of my own clue here, and am tempted to rank
  4) it first.  But there are other good ones, and I'll rank them all equal.
  5) "Before logs" is a brilliant definition, but the surface reading is
  5) jerky -- logs aren't cultivated, and if that isn't the intended
  5) reading, then what does "cultivated before logs" mean?  This one
  5) goes in the first-place group.
  
  6) Again a flawed surface reading -- why would a rite be immemorial?
  6) A middling ranking.
  7) Too verbose; uses a contracted word; and reads as though the cryptic
  7) interpretation is calling for the letters IRISH to occur scrambled
  7) but together in the middle of the solution.  In a generally decent
  7) set of clues, that adds up to last place.
  8) A low ranking for a very weak surface reading.
  9) Basically a good clue, but marred by the insertion of "found in",
  9) which does not contribute to the cryptic reading.  Above average.
  
  10) Not only priests and choirs but rectorships  A high ranking for
  10) a nice simple clue.  Incientally, did everyone notice that
  10) "anagrammed" and "mismanaged" have 8 out of 10 letters in common?
  10) There might be a cryptic clue in that...
  11) Well, it's certainly topical, but that cryptic reading is rather
  11) complicated.  A middling ranking.
  12) Locutions like "initially hopeful left" are hideous.  A low ranking,
  12) despite the nice surface reading.
  13) Intercourse, whores, scandals -- are there young children reading
  13) these clues? :-)  This one isn't bad, but doesn't really turn me on.
  13) A middling ranking.
  14) One more for the first-place tie.  The straight definition is
  14) another nice one, in particular.
  15) And again a first-place tie.
     
  1) No antecedent for "their" weakens the surface reading.
  
  2) I don't understand "heirs" in the surface reading.  Also,
  2) this definition is quite wordy.
  
  3) "about" is very awkward in the surface reading, and doesn't
  3)"Neanderthal" refer to a culture and a subgroup of *homo* rather
  3) than a time period?
  
  4) This is an inventive anagram indicator, but it doesn't work for me
  4) in the sense that it suggests "joining" but not also "complete mixing
  4) around".
  
  5) Does one really say one "cultivates" logs?  Hurts the surface reading.
  
  6) Great job, surface reading very plausible.
  
  7) "flew around in their" would be better if much shorter, and there's
  7) also a problem with the unmotivated shortening of "helicopter".
  
  8) "ciphers or it" has extra words in its anagram-indicator sense, so
  8) this experiment needs more work.  I don't understand the surface
  8) reading at all.
  
  9) This clue would be better if the suffix "toric" hadn't been so
  9) brazenly unconcealed.
  
  10) Is this an invented word? "Rectorate" is what my dictionaries have.
  
  12) Some demerits for using initials and subtraction where they could
  12) have been avoided.  And if Christopher was already at sea, how
  12) could he then leave?
  
  13) The definition is a bit askew ("is", not "was"?).  The surface reading
  13) doesn't seem to hang together following "whore".
  
  14) Great surface reading, surely the best of the "priest/choir"
  14) contingent.
  
  15) Like cluer (4), you didn't quite solve the difficulty of an
  15) appropriate anagram indicator, "scandal" seems to dangle and if it
  15) is the main indicator, then "priest" and "choir" are too far
  15) separated.
  
    
  1) I don't get much out of this clue's surface reading; it sort of sounds
  1) like "they" were destroyed by some old bird's stomach, somehow.
  
  2) The "tropic heirs" doesn't read well, surface wise ("anagram fodder"),
  2) and I don't regard "spelled" as a good anagram indicator.
  
  3) "About" is weak as an anagram indicator, I think, and the surface
  3) is okay but not great.
  
  4) I think that "had intercourse" is only a so-so anagram indicator;
  4) the straight and cryptic parts of the clue are too obviously 
  4) separated.
  
  5) Good cryptic and straight definition, but in the surface, either 
  5) "logs" is used in the sense of the straight definition (which I
  5) think isn't tricky enough) or is to mean "pieces of trees" (or 
  5) logarithms), which wouldn't make much sense. 
  
  6) Good clue, although the use of "orphic" immediately signals that
  6) an anagram is at hand.
  
  7) A bit too long, and a few too many "indicator" words between the 
  7) letters to be anagrammed, in my view; surface-wise, an anachronism
  7) (surely the helicopter was developed after writing).
  
  8) "Ciphers" is doing double duty as both the anagram and that which is
  8) to be anagrammed: if his is supposed to be an &lit clue, it isn't
  8) indicated as such, and is a poor one at that; if it is not an &lit
  8) clue, you can't do this (in these contests, anyway).
  
  9) "Ancient age" is a noun phrase, while "prehistoric" is an adjective;
  9) cryptically quite good.
  
  10) Pretty good clue; decent surface and cryptically clean.
  
  11) Good surface reading; I'm not keen on "gross" as an anagram indicator
  11) although I appreciate the trickiness of using it.
  
  12) Surface reading a bit long and choppy (especially "I Christopher"); 
  12) otherwise OK.
  
  13) I think "is" should have been "was" for the straight definition; 
  13) cryptically, it would seem that "hor" should be appended to the anagram
  13) of "priciest" rather than mixed in with it.
  
  15) "priest" and "choir" are separated by too many other words to be a
  15) really good anagram; good surface reading.
   
                               Mark Meyerson

