Subject:      PCWC51 RESULTS
From:         SAILORJOHN@delphi.com
Date:         1995/12/21
Message-Id:   <4ba982$qah@news1.delphi.com>
Newsgroups:   rec.puzzles.crosswords

PCWC 51 RESULTS..December 20, 1995...John Hakemian (Sailorjohn),Moderator
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The results are in for the Peoples Clue Writing Competition #51, and as
Moderator, I have had the pleasure of watching a group of 25 Entry Clues
and 6 Bonus Clues come in.  I appreciate the response and congratulate
all entrants.  I was impressed with the overall high quality of the
entries, although there was a fair amount of repetition of themes.

Halfway through the entry period, a clue came in that was so outstanding 
that I KNEW it was going to be the winner, hands down.  I am pleased 
(and relieved) to announce that the great unwashed voting group (14 
voters) agreed with me.  Congratulations to the winner by a decisive
margin, Martin McCarthy (marty@habitat.demon.co.uk), with a score of
85.7% for his homophonic &Lit. clue #19:

        Sound of a chord! (7)

Second place honors went to Dave Fisher for his clue #13, scoring 77.2%:

        Head of heroic army holds on to reach accord. (7)

Martin will be moderating PCWC#52, and will be posting soon, although he
tells me that there will be no deadline until after the holidays pass.
(And that's good for your moderator, since I will be SAILING in the BVI
from 12/23 to 1/1).

MODERATOR'S COMMENTS:

I thought when I decided on the relatively easy word "HARMONY", I would
get lots of clues, including some really imaginative ones. I was correct
in that I got 31 clues in 25 entries, and a good variety in types, though
anagrams were (again) the most common clue submitted (oh, those Hymns!).
I enjoyed moderating the contest, and just for fun, I designed my own
Lotus 123-based scoring worksheet rather than use the UNIX kit. It turned
out to be more work than I thought it would be, but that was part of the
fun.  If there's a next time, I think I'll go the easy route. (-:

NOW FOR YOUR GENERAL COMMENTS:

 I'm not keen on the 'Agreement' clues. Sure, dictionaries  offer
'agreement' as a definition of harmony, but usage  is that things or
people are *in* harmony, *in* agreement  In contrast, whilst we might
say 'We have signed an agreement,'  we sure as hell don't say 'We have
signed a harmony.'  As such, clues using this definition better be good
to compensate.   Similarly, whilst 'a pleasing arrangement' is ok,
'arrangement'  by itself is *not* a definition of 'harmony.'

 Overall, I thought there was a bit too much music-related stuff in
the clues.  And it never ceases to amaze me how many people take the
most obvious idea and make a clue of it.  As usual, we are blessed
with a very healthy amount of repetition.  Also, I got a bit cynical
by the end, so you might notice that some of the comments sound a bit
mean-spirited, which they're not meant to be.  I'm sorry if anyone
gets offended, though if you are, you really need to lighten up.

 This word produced an overabundance of excellent, varied clues;  as
well as an overabundance of repetitive, yet excellent clues!  Marking
it was definitely a challenge, but in my opinion, one  true winner
finally emerged from the fray

 Nice, simple word.  i fear that there may be many homophones.

 The word was average...and interestingly inspired. The group
of submitters should be proud of having no obvious shortfalls
such as no definition, no wordplay, etc...

 Happy holidays to everyone and all the best. Bon voyage, John.
Thanks for moderating.
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THE LIST OF CLUES, AND YOUR VOTES AND COMMENTS:
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1st place (score 85.7%) - clue 19
>From Martin McCarthy

    Sound of a chord! (7)

Votes (normalized): 50 50 80 80 83 85 88 92 92 100 100 100 100 100

Lovely!  Top marks.

Quite good. Like the homophone.

Brilliant!

Top of the second tier.

My goodness.  I usually dislike soundalikes, and here we have an
*indirect* soundalike, a most unusual form.  And yet it's extremely
solvable -- and it gets my first-place vote.

This has got to be the quintessential &lit. homophone clue!
An absolutely perfect clue!  Top marks.

Another "indirect homophone" clue --- if this is a new
trend in clue-making, I don't like it!

High score for the cleverness of the &Lit clue: in a real puzzle
this would have been too easy.

Neat and tidy. One of the best of the batch.

Nice and neat.

Now here's a new twist on the homophone device.  Let's see,
the classic homophone clue is decoded as follows:
   #1. start with the homophone fodder
   #2. find synonym(s) of #1
   #3. find a homophone of #2
..
 for example,   "Didn't catch fog report (6)"
    FOG -> MIST  and then  MIST -> MISSED
..
This entry has switched around #2 and #3:
   A CHORD -> ACCORD  and then  ACCORD -> HARMONY
Nonstandard?  Yes.  Do I mind it?  Not a bit.

Would be first except, like many clues in this competition, definition
is a synonym of a homophone.  &lit makes up for this.

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2nd place (score 77.2%) - clue 13
>From Dave Fisher

    Head of heroic army holds on to reach accord. (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 56 70 70 75 76 81 83 92 100 100 100 100

A lovely charade, and a nice surface too!  Perfecto.

Good surface reason, nothing wasted, definition well put,
sensibly stops before it runs on too far ... excellent

This is in the upper echelon since it's a nice,
reasonably clever charade.  Now if only it made a tad more sense...

Nice image.  Third place, tied with #2 and behind #19 and #4.

Really good clue, I think; the pieces fit very nicely. I'll
quibble that, typically, militarily "hanging on" achieves an
accord only indirectly.

Too easy perhaps but the surface was irresistible.

An excellent workmanlike clue without flaws.

My (easy) choice for winner, though "to reach" is minor flaw.

Nice...good and interesting, descriptive surface, decent wordplay

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3rd place (score 67.7%) - clue 11
>From Brian Spollen

    A hymn or other arrangement! (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 25 44 57 57 60 62 75 86 90 92 100 100 100

Equal to (other) arrangement (clue #3) in my book!

Simple, breif. good instance of obvious &lit

Oh, look, another clue using 'hymn or a' as anagram fodder.  At least
this one achieves a reasonably good surface, hence it's in the upper
echelon.

A hymn or other arrangement is not a harmony.

Third clue of this type (counting mine).  "Other" seems
superfluous after clue 3.

Very good; brief and accurate.

Almost identical to another clue on this ballot. No points for avoiding
the obvious.

I'm bored with seeing 'hymn' now.   Surely the best of the &lit clues.

"other" is extraneous.  Not convinced that word has been defined &lit.

Not as clean as the other and lit, but close, and still a very good clue

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4th place (score 67.6%) - clue 4
>From Greg Lawler

    Possibly a third agreement (7)

Votes (normalized): 33 35 52 55 60 67 67 75 81 83 85 86 100

The surface is a little rugged, but a lovely clue.

I don't want to penalize someone for using musical terminology, but
this is awful close to being a bit too technical.

Second place for this simple yet tricky double definition.

Cute, clever, concise clue!

Another "brief and to the point" clue; well-chosen, distinctly
different definitions.  The surface is mostly good, although  it leaves
me wondering what the first two agreements were on,  and who was doing
the agreeing.

"Possibly a third" is a good clue (although dangerously close to a
pun); this is the type that I'd need a few letters to solve.

A little gem. Not only delightfully ambiguous but providing a morsel
of musical knowledge. Well done.

Like it. Clean surface.

Quite good.  The first def. is a bit vague-sounding.

Not the best word for a double definition clue.

I dislike the second definition portion, but I do like the non-music
surface
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5th place (score 67.0%) - clue 22
>From Jake Bergmann

    Huge crowd kept running after first Honda Accord (7)

Votes (normalized): 33 43 50 50 58 67 76 77 78 80 83 86 90

Great surface.  Maybe "Throng" instead of "Huge crowd", but just great.
Nice construction, too!  I particularly like the use of Accord.

'huge crowd' != army. Host maybe, but not army.

Fine technically, but just doesn't do much for me.  You know you're
in trouble when the author has to tell you what the imagery is.

Nice; good image.

Good clue all around, the definition nicely buried in a bit
of commercialism.

"Running" makes me think "anagram", not "on"; it would take me a
while to equate "Huge crowd" with "army" ("first Honda" was
obvious, but necessary).  I'd likely be working on this for days.

No reason for the past tense or uppercase in accord

Good surface.

Good charade, but there must be a better way to get"army".

Almost a very good clue...but "first Honda" doesn't really work for me.
Perhaps "Huge crowd keeps running after driver of Honda Accord"
Nice disguise for the def

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6th place (score 64.4%) - clue 15
>From Mark Brader

    With arm on your heart to show friendship (7)

Votes (normalized): 17 22 43 60 68 70 71 72 75 75 76 83 83 85

Interesting - instead of "heart on your sleeve"...

good workmanlike clue

At least it makes sense.   This one is a pretty good clue, though not a
great one.

I was going to question 'friendship' a definition, but my dictionary
confirms it as a synonym, so. . .accepted.  Should there be more
direction as to how much of this phrase  constitutes its 'heart'?  I can
see how it works, but is it solvable?

Pretty good clue in all aspects; I'll contend that   "friendship" has a
slightly different connotation than  "harmony", though.

This is not a great clue (said with my arm on my heart).

Arms are much bigger than hearts.  Hard to visualize.

Suberb construction, awful surface.  "To show" is redundant (heart
extracts words) and is a poor link to def.  "Friendship" isn't that hot.

An interesting surface, but a little stilted

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7th place (score 63.7%) - clue 16
>From Phil Rose

    I left hairy Scotsman in agreement (7)

Votes (normalized): 22 40 50 60 64 67 70 70 71 71 75 75 75 81

But did you leave his caber, too?

Not a bad clue.  The container is a bit questionable, I think, but
it's not too bad.  Jamaican might have been a better 'mon' than   a
Scotsman, but Scotsmen are, AFAIK, a bit more hairy...  (Though   my
experience is extremely limited with both...)

Pretty good clue; minor points deducted for the "backwards"
ordering of the inclusion instruction.

Points for imagery but, Auch!, the <mon> is hard on us wee puzzlers.

Just like the sound of it...

Nice construction, great surface, hurt by "MON"

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8th place (score 63.5%) - clue 3
>From Whuang

    A hymn or arrangement! (7)

Votes (normalized): 14 17 20 33 45 60 70 71 75 83 100 100 100 100

Not a perfect definition, but a nice elegant &lit.

Simple, brief. good instance of obvious &lit

A decent clue.

A hymn or arrangement is not a harmony.

Since this clue is so close to mine (#8) but shorter,I wondered how I
missed it.  I think it's because I don't see the &lit. here.  A hymn may
have harmony; an arrangement may add harmony but they are not a
"definition" of harmony. Then again, you could probably say the same of
my clue.

Very nice, although I'd have preferred the anagram indicator to have
indicated some movement of letters (like "rearrangement", although
that's unsuitable to the surface.

Too easy.
5,
The clue fails because I'm sick of hymns (I started at the bottom).

Bolt standard anag. but like the &lit.

A good attempt, but I do not see how the surface defines "harmony".

An excellent & lit...no extra words, a good def, okay wordplay,
and good surface

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9th place (score 63.1%) - clue 21
>From Robert Galejs

    Sliced ham on rye with one third to go sounds good to me (7)

Votes (normalized): 30 33 40 43 50 57 60 67 69 75 83 85 92 100

An indirect anagram, though a solvable one.

'one' in 'one third' is extraneous. A little long.

And what happens to the other 67% of the sandwich?
The Beatles were famous for their exquisite sounds good to mes.

One third?  At first I thought this was a variation on clue 4!

Nice clue in all aspects, it's pleasantly non-obvious as to
the actual word being clued.

Vivid surface but you lost points because I got hungry considering this
clue.  and had no sandwich makings on hand. Just kidding. This is my
choice for first spot with #19 and #13.

I remember you, buddy.  Yesterday, you were in here, it's  "Sliced ham
on rye with half to go".  You were pushing it.  Now, "one third to go"!?!
Go in the back and get me my  micrometer calipers.  And fall down the
basement stairs  on your way back...Actually, this clue is pretty good.

Flawed surface, definition unconvinicing.

Nice use of "to go" but a little too complex for my taste

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10th place (score 59.0%) - clue 2
>From Kevin Wald

    Horn may play chords (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 20 40 43 44 50 67 71 75 81 83 92 100

Very elegant anagram.  A perfect clue

Simple. No unnecessary words, consistent surface, breif. Solid

Nice, simple, and rather boring.  (And, as someone
pointed out later, a horn usually may not play chords.

Plain and simple.  Third place, tied with #13 and behind #19 and #4.

At first I thought, what kind of horn can play chords?  (See #5)
Then I realized - oh, an automobile horn!   "Play" is poor as an
anagram indicator.  "At play" is more acceptable

Short and to the point.  "Play" is only a so-so anagram indicator
in my book, but it certainly fits in well with the surface.

Too easy.

Plural def. is off a tad and it's a yawner.

Very nice cryptically.  I've heard of hornists who can hum  one pitch
while playing another.  Technically, that's not  quite a "chord", which
is three notes or more.  Followups to rec.music.classical.performing.

Typical anagram with good surface.

An average clue, but not very taxing

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11th place (score 57.4%) - clue 8

    A pleasing arrangement or a hymn medley (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 25 33 43 50 61 68 70 71 75 75 83 92

More hymns.  Only clue #8, and I'm already sick of 'em.  But, then,
it is the "right" answer, in many ways.

Reads well.

Average and dull.

A pleasant-enough clue, but I feel the &lits in clues 2 and 11
accomplished this anagram more compactly.

Overkill in the def. department

Very near top marks, but "medley" doesn't suggest anagramming to me.

nice surface, so-so def, so-so anagram indicator

So close...

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12th place (score 55.7%) - clue 6

    Hundred killed from troubled monarchy to provide internal calm (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 33 33 50 50 56 57 57 58 65 70 81 83 86

That's quite an extended family that can sustain 100 deaths.

Too long. Forced. 'killed from' ?? 'to provide' ??

I'm not sure I like the killed from bit, and the overall meaning is weak

What kind of despot is ruling here?  First we had 10 left to die as
1,000 entered kingdom.  Now another 100 are killed off?!!

Nice idea, particularly meshing the definition with the surface.
But I don't care much for "killing" as a removal indicator, and
"killing from" scans awkwardly in the surface.

Awkward surface. How about: Monarchy overthrown and a hundred killed...

Why "internal" calm?

Is "internal" needed?  Construction would be smoother if anagram indicato
came after "monarchy".

Nice strong deletion indicator

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13th place (score 54.5%) - clue 10

    Cause injury, behead horse, it makes a pleasant sound(7)

Votes (normalized): 17 22 29 54 56 57 57 65 67 67 67 67 70 70

Kind of Godpaternal, isn't it?  Behead horse is an indirect charade,
which may or may not be OK.

Not sure about the indirect decapitation, but otherwise good;
perhaps we should crosspost this contest to alt.tasteless

This is not a very good clue in terms of surface read, but since it used
none of the things we've seen in every other clue, it gets pushed up.

First of all, marks off for punctuation.  I now turn you over to  our
resident analyst.

Well, I'm no psychiatrist, so I won't venture a guess as to your
question.  The clue is cryptically solid, although the surface is
somewhat choppy, leaving me with a sense that the clue is too formulaic.

Good one, but the stilted language makes it obvious.  Might have been
a little better as "Beat headless horse: ... etc"

Not a pleasant clue

Good construction, but surface is awkward and "behead" is too obvious.

Points for sickness, and overall, nice charade

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14th place (score 53.3%) - clue 18

    Good pitching beats running in hot division (7).

Votes (normalized): 0 8 14 33 43 50 50 57 70 75 77 83 85 100

A great surface nearly makes up for the unsolvability of the clue.

surface fails. definition sucks. 'devision' != army

This is a great clue.  Clear winner.

Another nice tricky definition.  Nice punny definition!

Great surface just doesn't cut it where the rubber meets the road.
(And how's that for a great mixed metaphor.)

I'll complain (just a little) that the definition isn't quite right
(technically, "beat" doesn't affect "harmony"?) and "division" is only
part of an army, but all that's compensated for by its cleverly
deceptive nature.

"Good pitching" is enough of a literal clue for "harmony" without
"beats", which looks more like wordplay.  (I got "H+AR(BASTE)MY"
and "H+AR(NO)MY")  Something should be done with that word, but I
don't know what.

Encrypted beyond recognition.

This seems a bit US specific.

To this simple brain, "good pitching beats" seems to be  a very rough
approximation of "well pitched notes".  I'm  impressed with the
construction, though.

Great double use of words, but not sure if this is solvable due to
tough pun combined with non-obvious construction.

I loved the definition in this because of it's deceptiveness...
but the surface falls a little short. Overall a good clue tho.

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15th place (score 52.6%) - clue 7

    Many a mother struggling to achieve this with mate  (7)

Votes (normalized): 22 30 33 37 38 50 50 50 57 67 70 71 75 85

Hmmm.  Is it really fair to clue "harmony mate" with no subtractive
indicator, but rather an indicator of the result as "____ + mate"?  An
interesting technique, but I think it would be better to use  "Many a
mother struggling without mate..." instead.

Interesting. Don't know if many would solve this.

A rather clever clue.  Like it, though don't love it.

Ingenious, but not very solvable

Foul!  Where does it say to remove 'mate'?  It looks as though it's
to be added, i.e. "with"

Pretty good; nice surface.  I'm not overly disposed towards  clues of
this structure, though, requiring the solver to  do a subtraction at
the definition end.

Good effort. It would've worked (and been more accurate sociologically)
if written <Many a mother struggling without mate to achieve this>

Clever! Nice to see no sledgehammer ! &lit indicator.

Nice &lit def and construction, but too unconventional for my tastes.
Would have been better if somehow the letters in "mate" were removed
prior to the anagramming.

Not a very convincing clue overall, but I could it see it fly in the
Nation's

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16th place (score 51.5%) - clue 5

    Horn may produce this, but not alone! (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 29 35 44 50 50 58 58 59 62 65 67 71 73

A slight stretch for the &lit, and I don't like "produce" as an
anagram indicator.

More interesting than 3, but not an under-used idea.

A valiant try with the "plural since two words are anagrammed",  but
it doesn't work; you'd need "horn and may produce this",  which of
course blows the other reading.

The dubious horn again.

A truthful clue, but the "not alone" part is extraneous to  the
cryptic part, and "produce" is a very weak anagram indicator

The exclamation mark makes me think it may be an &Lit clue, but  it's
still just an anagram.

The def. is the downfall of this clue. To make matters worse it
contains  factual error. Any fool knows, it's the other end of the cow
that produces.

Don't care for "produce" as an anagram signal, and  the last three
words seem to be there for the defn. only.

End result not as satisfactory as #2.  Close-but-not-quite &lit def.

A little lengthy, and "and not alone" has no role in the wordplay

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17th place (score 48.3%) - clue 12

    Take every other theatre:  Mao only brings peace (7)

Votes (normalized): 10 25 29 40 48 50 50 51 52 56 57 58 75 75

Even with the surface directive, this is strained.

Cute idea, cut down by crappy surface reading

The surface don't make too much sense.

What!  Our quiet little newsgroup has been infiltrated by communists?!!
"Every other" almost SCREAMS its device.  I suspect this clue was
submitted by an AOLer living in exile in Mozambique.

Very clever, but even with the additional explanation, I'm
still struggling to make sense of the surface.

"Theatre" makes me think of cinemas: combining that with
something obviously unrelated makes the clue too obvious.

Guess I need an interpreter. I admire the intent but I can't break the
surface on this one. Maybe the Mao could dress up the ham on rye in #21.

Would be higher but for cluttered surface.

"take" just does not work in the surface.  Why not,
 "Even in theatre, Mao only brings peace (7)"  ?

Surface choppy, construction obvious.

The surface doesn't quite work. If you need to explain the surface in
your explanation of the clue...it's probably not worth keeping

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18th place (score 45.9%) - clue 14

    Unity, or a hymn deformed (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 20 22 25 29 30 40 52 58 64 67 67 71 92

The surface doesn't make too much sense, but it's a lovely crisp clue.

No surface meaning - makes it very easy to see the mechanics of the clue

This clue makes so little sense, it makes #12 look like a paragon of
clarity and eloquence.  And I think I've seen that anagram somewhere...

Least acceptable of the "or a hymn" clues.  Surface suffers here.

Decent clue; the surface doesn't seem very coherent, though.  How
exactly does one deform a hymn, and what does that particularly have to
do with unity?

Too many hymns on this ballot. Doesn't Norm roll in the hay anymore?

Hymn again...

No surface, or a clue deformed.

A deformed hymn? "And now, let's hear Amazing Grass..."

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19th place (score 43.0%) - clue 9

Agreement's only with harmless Liberal (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 29 30 33 33 40 42 42 50 57 58 60 62 67

The charade isn't quite proper, as the words seem out-of-order.

Dodgy definition, otherwise good

The cryptic would be shaky even without the lack of an anagram
indicator.  Although I like clues that push the envelope, this one
pushes it in the wrong direction.

This clue would work fine without the 's, but it needs a
re-arrangement indicator.

Good surface, but I'm rather picky --- I prefer anagram clues
equipped with an actual indicator, which this lacks, and
subtraction indicators which aren't bound to the anagram fodder.

You missed a perfect opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas(-:

Trickier anag. Like 'harmless'.

Failed to write the anagram indicator you've advertised, and
I don't think you really needed one... how about,
"Agreement's only depending on harmless Liberal (7)",
 HARM followed by ONLY, ....

no anagram indicator.  Do not like "less"'s use here, because "harm" is
neither the object nor the subject of the removal, which would be
forgivable if the "with" didn't come between "harm" and "only".

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20th place (score 42.3%) - clue 23

    A pleasing arrangement is expressed with charm on your keyboard (7)

Votes (normalized): 11 15 17 22 24 29 42 42 50 50 67 70 77 86

Very solid!  Nice job creating a good surface for a container

too long. doesn't work. 'is expressed with' is an indicator of what?

An uninspiring container.  And a useless keyboard.

Say, is that a musical keyboard?

Where does "keyboard" play a part in this clue?
I see a definition and an indicator.  An indicator of what?

Okay definition and surface, but I don't like your choice of
hidden-word indicator ("expressed from" might have worked better,
cryptically, at least), and "keyboard" is extraneous.

Sorry, but <keyboard > serves no purpose other than to improve the surfac

What's the keyboard for?

There are much better Hidden indicators than this one.
The waste words hurt too.

"keyboard" is extraneous.  Don't like hidden word indicator.  Def. could
be better as well.

Where does keyboard fit in, other than surface?

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21th place (score 40.4%) - clue 25

    Laugh more, endlessly perhaps, at city girl.

Votes (normalized): 0  5 11 17 33 33 35 43  50 50 51 67 70 100
 
I don't like City -> NY, nor do I care for this indirect anagram.
And "Harmony", while a girl's name, is hardly a fair definition.

'city' -> NY is bullshit. Like 'girl' definition, especial it involves
an unusual (but quite reasonable) name.

N.Y. is the city of ats?  Endlessly perhaps, (missing a comma there,
I believe) is just screaming _indicator_ louder than a Megadeth concert.

Logical fallacy?  Just because b is a, doesn't mean that a is b.

Okay surface, but the cryptic is a little convoluted (the "rmo"  part).
And I really don't like the definition --- I'm never  overly fond of
boy/girl clues, and this one, in particular,  rankles:  it's an extremely
rare name, as far as I'm concerned,  and there are so many "standard"
definitions for this word.

My Favorite!  But then, I wrote it.

A good example of a bad clue. Lacking an indicator word and def. is out
of reach.

I like this but I'm not sure why...

There are cities other than NY.

Fixing "city" => "NY" would be a start.  I refuse to comment on the def.

Interesting definition and surface, but the wordplay leaves a little
blah...good try tho for coming up with a different angle...

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22nd place (score 34.8%) - clue 17

    Score "Old Apple" as oral piece? (7)

Votes (normalized): 10 11 14 17 17 20 20 29 34 42 50 57 67 100

Apple -> NY is tough, maybe Big Apple, but not just Apple.
I like the "oral piece" defn.

score != harm. I'll buy 'the big apple' for NY, but not 'apple' alone

The score-harm thing is shaky at best, and Apple is at least a
hundred things before New York.  'Windy light tube' is most certainly
not Chicago White Sox...  And putting things in quotes is cheap unless
you're using actual titles.

Too many questionable things going on here.  Surface is hard to follow.
How does harm = score???  "Apple" needs the "big" to stand  in for N.Y.

A weak clue on several counts:  it's quite a leap from "score"
to "harm"; "Apple" without the "Big" just doesn't equal "NY";
I don't approve of the indirection in the definition part.

Another pun.  Bad enough to use "Apple" (instead of "Big Apple")
for "NY", but the literal clue should never be punned.

Doesn't score with me. Oral piece sounds like a dental prosthesis.

Magnificent. ;-]

"score" is too distant in sense from HARM.  "oral piece"
is off the wall, too,... sounds like a dental appliance.

"Apple" => "NY" not acceptable.  Don't like homophone in definition part

The definition is really wordplay..."an arrangement" would have
worked better. The wordplay was still interesting...especially
the use of score...

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23rd place (score 29.8%) - clue 20

    No disagreement in my cartwheeling cheerleader (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 0 10 10 17 29 30 33 33 33 43 50 58 71

A little too convoluted for an "Aha!"  Quite a construction.

Convoluted. Bizarre surface. upside down "rah"? Ha!

This is the type of thing that's hard to parody.  It's so complex, not
even the author will be able to figure it out a couple of years from now.

This is just to far to go!  Too much buck for the bang.  Perhaps,
another day, another time.  But right after seeing #19?  Sorry!

Not a totally bad idea, but you've got "no" doing double duty  without
the clue being an &lit; I'm not thrilled with   "leader" tied to "cheer"
cryptically; and the surface   seems a little unfocussed.

An exclamation mark would have made the double use of "No
disagreement" a little more obvious (and adhered better to the   rules of
form).  Also, "in" generally divides clue and wordplay  (when I first
read this, I got <something> = YMC); change "in"   to "without" and tack
on an exclamation mark, and it's a good   one.

We're suppose to have a glimmer of a chance of solving the clue, aren't w

A bit long, but at least no hymn or army.

Impossible, unconventional construction, starting with the double use
of "no".

Cartwheeling cheerleader for Har is weak...

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24th place (score 17.5%) - clue 24

    Sing, we all agree, a backward cheer for currency (7)

Votes (normalized): 0 0 0 0 10 11 13 14 17 25 25 29 43 58

Two definitions?  Interesting.  Perhaps "currncy" would be a good
clue for "mony".  As it is, where's the 'e'?

'sing' and 'we all agree' are elements of different definitions  of
harmony; it doesn't make sense to mix them. Backward cheer = rah? Pah!

Yes, a toast and a backward cheer for currency!  Since this clue
already makes no sense, you might add a homophone indicator, perhaps
providing "a backward cheer for audited currency".  Much better!  Or
maybe "a backward cheer   for--listen to this!--currency."  Hey, that
might even make slightly more sense.  (Though, admittedly, that's not
hard).  Or perhaps scrap the currency idea and incorporate the idea of
Tommy James & the Shondells' "Mony Mony", which spells it the way we need
to here.

Cute rhyming clue, but, unless somebody's changed some
spelling rules lately, "mony" means "insurance company";
the green stuff one often needs in life is "money".

Would have been good (an 8.00 perhaps), except that I got
"HAR-MONEY" when I translated this.

One def. should suffice but with the mish-mash of mystification that
follows perhaps two is not enough.

Very weak definition.  Supposed to be a noun, and here there
are two predicates strung together.  And as for "mony",...

I don't agree, and I refuse to cheer in either direction.

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25th place (score 11.0%) - clue 1

Tell a tale: Oh, mindless war, money, energy shortage causes dischord?? (7)

Votes (normalized): 0  0  0  0  0  0  8 10 17 17 21 30 40

I think my experiment failed.

Re. '??', I'd be just as happy with the one.  how 'mindless war' => 'ar'
convoluted, overlong. dislike punny definition, don't understand

This clue gets points for originality, but the clue makes very little
sense and is on shaky ground cryptically. (Not that that's necessarily
always bad.)

This clue just doesn't work for me on many levels.
'Tell a tale' seems too far to go for a lowly 'h';
Similarly, 'mindless' does not seem to readily indicate the beheadment
suggested.  Surface is overly melodramatic.

You're right, it's experimental.  And I don't particularly   like it;
it doesn't seem fair to the solver.  Plus, I don't  buy "mindless" to
mean "remove the first letter of" ("headless"  works for me, but why
"mindless"?).  And to top it all off, I  don't like the definition ---
it might have worked if there  had been some sort of "Brooklyn
homophone" indicator.

Hated it. I dislike punning cryptics to begin with, and this one
contained two puns, one of which was a pun on a charade clue.  I
understand that the guy was trying an experiment, but it didn't work.

Back to the drawing board.

Clever but too involved. Better with an antonym dischord/harmony definer.

Such a lot of work for an 'H', but you did say it was to  begin a
discussion.  No, I didn't like the homophone that  got you only as far
as a charade signal.  Another nail in  the coffin was "tail: Oh"; you
need something like "of"  between the words.

Do not like how the "h" was obtained; long-winded and didn't provide
great surface to boot.  I do not see how the pun works.

Too confused. I dislike "tell a tale" as an indicator for tail.

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BONUS CLUES:  (no voting on these)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Clue 26:

    Former Twin's slugger joins club as backup (7)

It's "Former Twins slugger", no apostrophe.  And didn't he played for
the Brewers, not the Twins?

I  agree with setter's comment. Possibly too parochial
 for non-sport oriented US solvers even.

Even in a bonus clue, spelling counts.  "Twin's"?!!

And almost too obscure for U.S. residents; Mr. K. hasn't  been in the
news lately.  I spent a moment or two trying  to fit "Carew" into the clue

This clue goes down looking.

Despite the need for baseball trivia knowledge, this is a good clue
Primarily because it takes you completely away from music...
The best disguise
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Clue 27:

    Charm on yogi embodies peaceful coexistence (7)

Good clue. I like embodied, and you've managed to get
a very good definition seamlessly into the clue.

Surface at beginning a little choppy.

Another charming clue.

Best hidden-word here, but surface is lacking.

It's okay, but a little obvious
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Clue 28:

    Damage any Scottish agreement (7)

Nahhh. I'll go for Scotsman => 'mon', but not 'any' => 'ony'.

Good thing it's a bonus; "ony" is (was) completely unfamiliar  to me.

Scottish refs. abound. This could turn into a wappenshaw!

I assume the submitter is from the UK, or at least writing for an English
audience. The surface is a little weak, but the charade is okay.
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Clue 29:

    Why roofless Roman ruin contained order (7)

I'm dubiouse on 'why roofless' => 'HY' Surface doesn't work for
me - raises too many questions.

Not a great surface, and "backwards" cryptic instructioin

You tell me.

Nice inspiration in "order".  This should have been tried by
some of the regular entrants.

The charade suggests "Why roofless contained Roman ruin"
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Clue 30 :

    Injury at club brings accord (7)

Solid. Good without being great.

Not a great surface; "at" isn't really "on".

I'd say it brings a lawsuit.

Better than most entries.  Simple construction, surface that works.
I realize, however, that most of y'all hate "club" for "Y".

A good charade...I like the fact that "on" is not represented by "on"
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Clue 31:

    Good vocals in Elton John song (7)

I can, with pride, say that I never knew Elton John had
a song called "Harmony." Hopefully now I will forget it.

Another case of a double definition where both are really the same thing.

Guess you've got to be a bigger "Reg" fan than I;  and, really, there isn
much of a difference in the definitions, when you get right down to it.

Singing in the john, eh?

Weak double definition.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you all enjoyed the contest. After this posting, I'm packing for
our Christmas sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands, and will not
be accessing E-mail or the newsgroup until January 2, 1996.

John Hakemian, aka
         /|
        //|\   ***
 ****  ///|\\         Sailor John
  **  ////|\\\  *** Chesapeake Isle
   __/////|\\\\_      MD and NYC
  /__PANACHE__/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* S.V. PANACHE on the Chesapeake, S.V. PANACEA in the BVI *