All of the clues for phase 1C of the C5 contest are
listed in this article.  The assignment was to write
clues for the words SCALLOP, PLATEAUS, and INTEGRAL.

My own comments are marked by  ##  .



Here are the three prize-winners:


WINNER:   -- from Brian C. Spollen            bcs@sc.harris.com

CLUE 1) See, amidst the skin of the head, some boneless flesh (7)

[SCAL(LO)P]
## The culinary kind of scallop.  If the "boneless flesh"
## is not simply more skin, please excuse me while I leave
## the operating room.

CLUE 2) Scramble up East L.A.'s high, flat expanses (9)

[UP EAST LA anagram]
## Excellent concealment; realistic surface.  Check your
## enumeration, though!

CLUE 3) At home, by night's end, considerable reflection is
 essential (8)

[IN + T + EGRAL (LARGE reversal)]
## Another standout surface reading.



RUNNER UP:   -- from Todd McClary         toddm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu


CLUE 1) Sea creature put in water without justification (7)

[S(CALL)OP]
## CALL is "need"; "justification" is not quite on the mark.

CLUE 2) Amid hoopla, tea usually reduces intensity (8)

[Hidden]
## A good use of the verb sense of PLATEAU.

CLUE 3) Right triangle composed of discrete units (8)

[TRIANGLE anagram]
## I expected and hoped for a number of TRIANGLEs.  This is
## the best of the lot (sounds like a tiling problem on the
## Putnam Mathematics Exam.)  "right" is a smidge weak as
## an anagram signal.

 


HONOURABLE MENTION:   -- from Lee McGinty (lee@ehiltd.dircon.co.uk)


CLUE 1) Animal rights? Call operator internally (7)

[Hidden]
## I see no objection whatever to Hidden clues that
## barge right through the stop-sign of a punctuation
## mark.

CLUE 2) Gold found in flat thin pieces, for example in Anatolia 
 or Patagonia (8)

[PLATE(AU)S]
## A well-researched bit of geography.

CLUE 3) Fundamental triangle transformation (8)

[TRIANGLE anagram]
## Short and well worked-out.  Not entirely satisfied with
## the definition.






And here are the rest of the entries, in the order received:

-------------------------------------------------------------
CLUE 1) A rascal lopes by, holding a bivalve (7)

[Hidden]

CLUE 2) Polkas, to Ed, a curse of steppes! (8)

[Alternating ("steps") hidden-letter]
## Steppes are more like prairies.  The word derives
## from something Slavic meaning "lowlands".

CLUE 3) Keywhole (8)

[Double def (key, whole)]
## A quite effective clue, which some would prefer
## to be rendered as "Key whole (8)", but this
## also works fine for me.

   -- from Matthew Merzbacher        matthew@mills.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------

CLUE 1) Look inside - Indian treasure is a shell (7)

[SCAL(LO)P]
## I'd prefer 'trophy' to 'treasure' for SCALP.

CLUE 2) Buried in Alp, late Austrian rises to a new level (8)

[Hidden]

CLUE 3) Upset ingrate left altogether (7)

[INGRATE anagram + L]
## Concise and well-formed, but I'm very doubtful
## about 'altogether', an adverb, defining 'integral'.

   -- from Phil Rose                pvr@wg.icl.co.uk

-------------------------------------------------------------


CLUE 1) Seafood either way--give or take a kilo (7)

[SCALLOP and POLLACKS - K are reversals]
## But which one is the answer?

CLUE 2) Highland fling leapt U.S.A. (8)

[LEAPT USA anagram]

CLUE 3) Perfect altering (7)

[ALTERING anagram]

   -- from Don Monson                dmonson@Direct.CA

-------------------------------------------------------------


CLUE 1) Mollusc all opened exposes bivalve (7)

[Hidden and &lit flavor]
## This kind of double-exposure definition, where
## "mollusc" re-echoes the definition that's
## already there in "bivalve", is not simple to
## compose, I'll grant, but it's not my cup of tea.

CLUE 2) Tectonic segments with gold inlay become tables (8)

[PLATE(AU)S]
## The surface is a little strange.  Sounds like someone
## discovered the architect had specified teakwood for the
## studwalls and decided to salvage it before the paperhangers
## arrived!

CLUE 3) Interest returned large sum (8)

[INT + EGRAL (LARGE reversal)]
## An excellent compact clue.

   -- from Murray Smith             smithmw.direct.ca


-------------------------------------------------------------------

CLUE 1) It's not a straight bribe, you have to ring in (7)

[S(CALL)OP]

CLUE 2) Spacious high-rise flats? (7)

[misleading def.]

CLUE 3) Complete one large revision, the New Testament (8)

[I (one) + LARGE + NT anagram]

   -- from Bob Gregory                  bobg@cullen.demon.co.uk

-------------------------------------------------------------


CLUE 1) Sew curved and lacy loops on petticoat!  (7)

[Acrostic]
## This would be my favorite clue for SCALLOP if an
## acrostic signal had been somehow worked in.  Perhaps,
## " ... on petticoats' top edges"

CLUE 2) A metallic covering from East uses American levels.  (8)

[PLATE A (A PLATE reversal) + US]
## Most often A PLATE reversed would be taken as ETALPA.

CLUE 3) Neat girl destroyed a basic ingredient   (8)

[NEAT GIRL anagram]

   -- from Paula Tanous            paula@interserve.com

-------------------------------------------------------------



CLUE 1) Small tailless fish upended a mollusk (7)

[S + CALLOP (POLLACK - K reversal)]
## A marked improvement on the earlier POLLACK clue.

CLUE 2) Gold in parts of the Earth's crust becomes stable (8)

[PLATE(AU)S]
## I was always told that gold was one of the most stable
## metals to begin with.

CLUE 3) Relating obscurely, like 220 and 284 (8)

[RELATING anagram.  The surface refers to amicability; each of
 those two numbers is the sum of the other's proper divisors.]
## As much as I love the number theory, I had to mark this
## down in terms of real-life solvability.  For all that
## 220 and 284 are indeed integral, the solver will go on
## all day wondering what else he's supposed to infer from
## them.

   -- from Kevin Wald           wald@math.uchicago.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------


CLUE 1) Hollow communication is in the way it's done (7)

[S(CALL)OP; "Standard Operating Procedure"]

CLUE 2) Map digits tell where the flat spots are (8)

[PLAT TOES homophone]
## Another new word for me, but certainly in Random
## House Unabridged II.  Very nice job.

CLUE 3) Altering itself is essential (8)

[ALTERING anagram]
## I actually like this somewhat nonstandard self-
## referential signal very much.  Not so sure about
## the surface, where 'itself' has no antecedent.

   -- from John Hakemian             sailorjohn@delphi.com

-------------------------------------------------------------



CLUE 1) Cry in a sponge, a sea creature (7)

[S(CALL)OP]

CLUE 2) Plump late Australian owned some high flatlands (8)

[Hidden]

CLUE 3) Altering badly-blended composite (8)

[ALTERING anagram]

   -- from Clay Colwell          eris@bga.com
                                 
-------------------------------------------------------------




CLUE 1) Gus! Call operator! Clam inside! (8)

[Hidden]
## The rule that the definition cannot interrupt
## the cryptic is all-but-ironclad.  Here, however,
## the decrypting is virtually unambiguous.

CLUE 2) Sounds like Greek philosopher reaches new height
 but cannot go higher. (8)

[PLATO homophone]

CLUE 3) Oddly shaped triangle is an essential part of this clue. (8)

[TRIANGLE anagram]
## Would be better without the last few words.

   -- from Shankara Raghuraman          shankara@connectnet.com
 
-------------------------------------------------------------


CLUE 1) Indian war prize holds part of lowly seafood.

[SCAL(LO)P]

CLUE 2) Found in plate, Australia's high places.

[Hidden]

CLUE 3) Essential mixed up genital holds race's beginning.

[INTEG(R)AL]
## Sorry, no such noun as "genital".  And you could look it up.

   -- from: davehardy@bdsnet.com (David Hardy)





+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jake Bergmann                     jbergmann@bbn.com
BBN Domain Corporation
Cambridge MA USA                  617-873-2872
