          The voters have voiced their opinions on clues for the word
          RESERVOIR in People's Clue Writing Contest #67, and the top-rated
          clue is

              "Sire, Rover is playing pool" (9)

          from bshatzer@orednet.org (Bill Shatzer).

          Bill predeclined to moderate, so Keith Engers <kabe@iafrica.com>,
          who submitted the second-place clue,

              Made when dam'd river rose (9)

          is invited to set PCWC 68.


          Now follow the clue ratings and comments, preceded by the
          voters' general comments...




          I'm not sure how others judge, but I base mine on *10* being a
          perfect score - something which is very rarely acheived. Similarly,
          to get a score of *0* would require a certain perverse genius.
          Today, my highest score awarded is an *8.5*, and the lowest is *3.5*.

          [Moderator's comment: the scoring program, in that event, treats
          all your 8.5 ratings as "100", your 3.5's as "0", and interpolates
          the rest linearly.  That method serves to weight all judges'
          ratings equally.]


          One of my standard rules is to automatically downgrade a clue if
          the clue's definition component fails to be absolutely correct - if
          it is patently wrong, very low marks will be awarded regardless of
          other merits - such clues couldn't possibly be published anywhere
          without invoking derision towards the editor.

          I was relatively unimpressed with the originality of most of the
          clues, though clues 13 - 16 impressed me. Structurally, I found most
          if not all of the clues to be acceptable.

          7 out of 16 rivers rose to the occasion, et un peu de messieurs.
          I have also marked down most partial anagrams with OVER.

          the frequency of "river rose" made me feel better about the "co(r)pse"
          fiasco a few months back.  :-)  this fodder is actually good for
          misdirection ( "river"->'r', "rose"->rev. ind. for a down clue ).
          clues 13-15, which tried to turn this fodder into somewhat successful
          partial &lits, were more clever, but, w/o the extra words, lost this
          misdirection and are, imo, too easy to solve.  overall, many very good
          clues, with few great clues, and even fewer less-than-good ones.
          i cannot recall a pcwc w/o bonus clues.

          Unfortunately the obvious anagram 'river rose' mean quite a few
          of the clues were very similar, although most used this well with
          appropriate anagram indicators.

          Was this some sort of exercise in group ESP?  I guess I don't
          "have it", since I was not part of the rising river brigade.

          I propose a new source of rule breaking:The "indirect anagram
          indicator"
          wherein it is claimed that word X is a good anagram indicator, and
          that Y is listed in some dictionary with X as a synonym or definition,

          therefore Y is a good anagram indicator, even when it isn't.
          For examples, see clues 2, 15.

          The plethora of "river rose" clues was, perhaps, inevitable and
          to be expected.  Maybe I'm unusually grumpy today but none of
          the clues, my own included, seems really outstanding.

          \gripe on\ I really dislike the US convention of a shriek for an
          &lit; punctuation should fit the sense of the surface \gripe off\
          Considering the nice letters of the target word, clueing was harder
          than I expected. Most of the clues tended to be a bit cluttered.

          Seven "river rose" fodders made the two other anagram clues seem
          almost
          gifted...well, maybe not! In all, a disappointing outing for PCWC.

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

          1st place (score 72.46%) - clue 11
          From bshatzer@orednet.org (Bill Shatzer)

              "Sire, Rover is playing pool" (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 13 50 60 83 86 89 89 100 100 100 100

          This is a good concise clue with an evocative surface.

          Charming!  I considered ranking this tied for first with #10, but
          I felt I had to downgrade it a bit for the arbitrary "sire".  This
          leaves it in a in a third-place tie, still well ahead of the pack.

          Lovely surface idea and good anagram. Its unique anagram fodder
          enabled to break the tie with the two runners-up.

          even if the surface were credible outside of a shaggy-dog story,
          i wouldn't like this clue.  the fodder is too obvious, and the
          ind. is slightly unsatisfying ( due to the tense, i think ).

          Made me laugh and I like the use of alternative 'pool' for definition.

          I think "is" should be part of the fodder in this construction.
          Thus, "Sire, Rover played pool" is better.

          Cute.  I liked it.

          The Surface?  Au contraire:  the king's valet is showing off
          his flea-market acquisition, the companion to the infamous
          "Dogs Playing Cards" portrait.  I usually frown at proper-
          noun anagram fodder, but, in this case, it contributes
          mightily to the amusing surface.  Nice use of a different
          meaning of "pool" in definition and surface.

          Surface is too bizarre for a general crossword - but in a thematic
          it might work?

          The only reservation I have is the definition - 'pool' is not really
          a reservoir.  Otherwise, a very witty little clue.

          The best of the lot of 16, with fresh fodder, a sound indicator,
          and a decent definition.

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

          2nd place (score 71.66%) - clue 15
          From Keith Engers <kabe@iafrica.com>

              Made when dam'd river rose (9)

          Votes (normalized): 17 25 44 69 80 80 89 91 94 100 100

          OK! This is more like. I concur that the "!" is unnecessary -
          particularly since damned/dammed is indicated by the unusual (though
          quite proper contraction) "dam'd". It's too bad the author felt forced

          to go to such pains to sell this clue which I'm awarding reasonably
          high marks to.

          Delightful doubl'd reading!  Second place after #10.

          Runner-up. This clue nicely sidesteps the DAMNED/DAMMED dilemma that
          ruined #13.

          [i mentally inserted the bang before judging this clue -- nyeh nyeh]
          preferred this clue to #13 and #14.  the contraction works much
          better ( and, imo, is more "legal" ) than the pun in clue 13.
          minor flaw: "made when" is extraneous in the cryptic reading.

          I liked this clue (best of all, in fact), but I didn't need quite
          so long an essay justifying it.  Have some guts.  Just stick your
          clue out there and say,  "Dam' it -- vote for mine!"

          Any clue which uses four different dictionaries to
          justify it (go back and count them: OED, Random House,
          Webster's and Chambers) can't be any good.

          A clue which requires a half page of explanation has gotta
          be flawed, somehow.  Still, I liked this 'un. The double
          meaning for "dam'd" is unusual but fair, I think, and
          quite inventive.  Thumbs up!

          Well, "dam" is a tad too colloquial for my taste: this clue
          take the converse approach to number 13's, but I don't really
          like "dam'd" as a contraction for "damned".

          Good. An interesting clue and an &lit that doesn't shriek.

          Another "river rose" try for an &lit. Unlike #14, this one comes close
          with the clever contraction, which can be read both ways. Second
          place.

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

          3rd place (score 59.91%) - clue 6
          From Kevin Wald <wald@math.uchicago.edu>

              River spilled over into English knight's water supply (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 17 18 40 44 70 71 83 86 89 100 100

          This clue's OK. The charade's at least as good as any other so far,
          and the surface is the best to date.

          Excellent surface; the cryptic is a bit complicated.  I rank this and
          others in a third-place tie, still well ahead of the pack.

          Superfluous genitive 's. The knight wouldn't have his own water
          supply,
          his liege lord would own it (and the river). Also I quibble about
          WATER SUPPLY = RESERVOIR - a reservoir is used to store water not
          deliver it.

          my fave here, if not completely satisfying.  "spill" not the greatest
          anagram ind, imo.

          Good word play and surface.

          I don't like "English -> E" in such a long charade.

          Not bad, but knights don't own water supplies per se.  Kind of
          convoluted construction.

          I'm afraid not - we've got a charade/charade/anagram/container/
          charade clue - just too "busy" and too much work for the payoff.
          A clue this cryptically complicated should have a great payoff;
          either with a witty surface or some sort of "aha!" in the
          solution.  This 'un has neither.

          Very good clue:  cryptically very solid; good definition;
          descriptive and logical surface.

          Nice surface but a the construction is in too many pieces.

          I like the surface reading, and the clue construction is neat

          Thought #3 couldn't be topped for tortured charades, but I was wrong.
          Liked "water supply" definition & surface was at least meaningful.

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

          4th place (score 55.10%) - clue 10
          From Roy Thearle <r.w.thearle@canterbury.ac.uk>

              River -- English see mostly source of regattas, French see
              source of water. (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 20 21 36 40 50 58 60 67 78 86 100 100

          A minor quibble with the surface (since it's in the definition form):
          A river is a source *for*, rather than *of* regattas I think. I also
          think the definition isn't quite correct - the water is *sourced*
          elsewhere, then *stored* in the reservoir.

          Brilliant!  The use of parallel wordings in two parts of the clue,
          but with a completely different cryptic reading in each part, is
          wonderful; and the surface reading is completely natural too.
          First place.

          A yet more convoluted charade

          i can see a *lake* being a *location for* regattas.  "source" to mean
          head so-so.  see clue 8 comment re: VOIR.  quite wordy.

          Like this immensely - clever and a great surface - my winner.

          Aside from being really long and contorted, this has a lovely
          surface structure.  Nice.

          The surface is OK and the cryptic is OK though a bit messy (Source of
          regattas=R)

          Five charade elements for a nine letter word?  That does
          seem a bit much.  Yet the surface is perhaps the best
          in this bunch.

          Quite a nice (though lengthy) surface, but there's that
          (to me) obscure Frankish element again.

          Lovely attempt at a surface but too many parts to the construction

          I love the surface reading, and am almost prepared to forgive the
          use of a French word because it fits into the clue so neatly.

          A decent charade of word bytes, but confusing surface lost many
          points.

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

          5th place (score 54.55%) - clue 9
          From bcs@harriseda.com (Brian Spollen)

              Turbulent river rose, forming a large body of water (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 25 43 50 50 56 60 63 66 71 80 91

          This is a good anagram clue (despite the disasterror). Good surface.

          Arrrgh!  This is so much better than my own effort, the similarly
          constructed #12.  A good score.

          Runner-up, I summon up visions of the Severn bore

          the obvious clue, i s'pose.  most satisfying of the
          straightforward "river rose" clues.

          Another 'river rose' anagram but turbulent the best anagram indicator
          IMHO.

          Nice, sound clue.

          Weird. Is this the first draft of number 12?  Either way be sure not
          to change clues in mid-stream, er, rising river.  Oh and watch the
          spelling in the explanation.

          A near twin to clue 12.  The surface of this 'un is
          somewhat better, however, and "turbulent" is a better
          anagram indicator.

          Not as tight as 7. A little too obvious.
          The explanation was presumably from version 1 of the clue?

          An OK clue.  The explanation obviously fits an earlier version

          The best of the straight "river rose" anagrams; good indicator &
          surface.
          I ignored the "disasterously" indicator in the explanation for the
          better
          "turbulent" indicator in the clue itself.

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

          6th place (score 52.39%) - clue 16
          From ken.stern@yale.edu (Ken Stern)

              Again, gentleman takes ill over water supply (9)

          Votes (normalized): 9 14 21 25 27 33 50 78 78 80 80 86 100

          Well well! Four quite good clues in a row to finish my judging on.
          This charade has it all: A topical (E-coli bacteria problems abound
          in my neck of the woods) surface, tight construction, and an accurate
          definition. Additionally, this requires some thought to solve - though

          it's not tortuous.

          Defective.  "Again" can't clue RE because RE in that sense is a
          prefix,
          not a word.

          I quibble about
          WATER SUPPLY = RESERVOIR - a reservoir is used to store water not
          deliver it. The AGAIN=>RE doesn't work for me as an isolated charade
          element.

          good clue.  construction is fine.  surface adequate.

          Does 'ervo' mean ill?

          AGAIN -> RE doesn't thrill me.

          Using 'again' to signal 're' just kills this.  Similar to 6 but
          because of this flaw not as high a scorer.

          Quite good - the use of "re" in its prefix meaning is a
          little inelegant but probably excusable and the surface is
          reasonable and fairly smooth.

          Good surface; serviceable cryptic.  I liked the similar
          "knight" clue somewhat better; this one seems like a, um,
          watered-down version.

          Like it. I have heard 'taken ill' used but I am not 100% sure
          about 'takes ill'. Benefit of transponder usage given.

          Nice surface reading with eminently fair construction

          "Again" = RE? Not without a prefix suggestion! Otherwise, not bad.

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

          7th place (score 49.74%) - clue 3
          From N. Edward Coulson <fyj@psu.edu>

              Step back, around, over, muddy pool of water (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 20 20 25 40 55 57 67 71 75 78 89

          Muddy surface; otherwise good.

          Step around *and* over the water?  I don't think so.  And the
          punctuation
          is wrong for the surface reading; the third comma should go.

          The BACK AROUND OVER trilogy of directions doesn't quite gel as a
          surface.

          i like the construction, and the work with "step".  surface is cute
          but ultimately awkward.  not sure about that ind. ( "muddy" as
          "confused", i presume. )

          Clever construction and good surface.

          I was of two minds about this clue.  It's too indirect
          (Step -> RISER -> RESIR which is then used as a container)
          for my tastes, but it's got a great surface (I *love* the
          sequence of prepositions).

          Good - perhaps the cryptic portion is overly "busy" but certainly
          solvable and the surface is logical and smooth.

          Tricky, difficult, but legal cryptic; very nice surface.

          Very nice idea but the surface stumbles over those commas.

          A neat clue, spoiled only by too many (unnecessary) commas

          An amazingly tortured anagram-container-reversal with an
          unintelligible surface.

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

          8th place (score 48.89%) - clue 12
          From msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)

              River rose disastrously, forming new body of water (9)

          Votes (normalized): 21 29 30 40 40 44 50 50 58 60 64 71 78

          Get those submissions in early to avoid being downgraded due to
          repetitiveness. Had this clue been disected earlier, I might have
          scored it higher - right now, I'm just tired of anagrams - bad luck!

          [Moderator's comment: I listed the clues in random order, not
          in order of submission.  Bad luck indeed!]

          My clue gets one of the lower scores, particularly after seeing the
          "improved version" #9 and the brilliant winner #10.

          Same idea as #9, but the surface was not as good.

          the definition is unique and, although generally true, unsatisfying.
          decent clue, but i preferred clue 9 to this one.

          Another 'river rose' anagram.

          Darned rising rivers.

          Kinda wordy compared to similar clues.

          Clue number 9's near clone but not as good.

          Nice enough clue in most respects, although "new" seems
          unnecessary in the definition.

          OK, like 9, a little too obvious

          Very similar to clue 9, and rates the same

          Second best of the "river rose"'s, primarily for the good surface.

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

          9th place (score 47.84%) - clue 14

              River rose to make this! (9)

          Votes (normalized): 14 20 21 33 33 40 56 67 70 71 100

          Ah! Here's a good example of why the "!" rule needn't be slavishly
          adhered to. Without the exclamation point this clue requires some
          thought to solve; with it it's too simple - and inelegant. Still, a
          good concise clue which I expect will score high marks with other
          judges.

          Defective.  A reservoir is at least in part an artificial construct
          and a rising river does not, by itself, form one.

          A cryptic clue consists of two parts - it's
          just that in the case of an &lit the two parts have 100% overlap!

          preferred this clue to #13.  this clue will be a winner among those
          who accept "to make this" as a proper anagram ind.  i am not one
          of them.

          I don't accept your anagram indicator, but &lits get some slack.

          The only decent &lit.  Simple yet effective.

          Almost a very good &lit.  The flaw is the missing anagram
          indicator - "to make this" isn't sufficient, IMHO.

          I'd be a lot more partial to this clue if there were an
          actual, honest-to-goodness anagram indicator somewhere.

          Here I don't mind the shriek so much as the compiler
          is 'sharing a joke' with the solver

          ...the UK use of the mark (one not to be over-used)

          While I like the punny definition, it seems to stop just short of
          being a proper or fair definition of a reservoir.  That said,
          however, the clue is still quite easy to solve

          A middling "river rose" clue, but fails as a &lit. due to the
          lack of a true anagram indicator.

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

          10th place (score 44.25%) - clue 7

              River rose around water storage (9)

          Votes (normalized): 4 25 29 29 33 33 33 39 40 60 73 78 100

          Straightforward. Good, but uninteresting clue.

          Uninspired.

          Good basic anagram

          "around" is a less-than-mediocre anagram ind. imo, most other clues
          that used the same fodder were more effective.

          Another 'river rose' anagram.

          "around" isn't my favorite anagram indicator.  I think "water tank"
          would be a better definition and improve the surface.

          One of many rising rivers, and among them, this one is weak.

          The "river rose" yet again!  Certainly solid (although there
          would seem to be better anagram indicators than "around")
          but not very exciting.

          Solid clue, if somewhat bland in terms of surface and choice
          of anagram indicator.

          That's better. Nice and tight. The only fault is that it's
          too obvious.

          'around' is a very weak anagram indicator

          The second worst of the "river rose" clues. Dull, too.

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

          11th place (score 33.37%) - clue 5

              Resident turns over Irish stash (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 0 0 14 18 20 29 29 30 40 67 88 100

          Definition isn't quite right, stash indicates secretive.

          Two abbreviations I wouldn't think of using.

          Two arbitrary abbreviations.

          "turns" suggests to me reversal rather than anagram.  appearance of
          "irish" is unsatsifying in both cryptic and surface readings.  that
          aside, unique clue.

          I'm not sure about the abbreviation RES for resident, but 'turns over'
          is clever.

          I could almost forgive either RESIDENT -> RES or IRISH -> IR,
          but both are too much!

          I have to take your word on Resident=RES.  And stash seems
          a bit off as a definition.  Other than that, not a bad clue.

          "Res" is a non-standard abbreviation but, that aside, this works
          very well.  The definition is a little unusual but fair, I
          think, and the surface is smooth enough.

          Bzzt!  Indirect anagram!  And the "resident" abbrviation
          seems rather arbitrary as well.  Reasonable surface and
          definition.

          Close. The abbreviations are a bit iffy.
          'small resident'?  and Ireland is more usually IRL?

          'turns' is better as a reversal indicator rather than an anagram
          'stash' as a definition of reservoir is also poor

          Some arbitrary abbrev. ("res"), but liked definition.

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

          12th place (score 31.86%) - clue 13

              Damned river rose! (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 0 0 17 33 36 43 44 44 48 50 67

          The lack of two parts is no problem in a punny clue. The "!" is proper
          here for two reasons: It's the correct punctuation, and it identifies
          an anomaly. I would have scored this clue very high (a minority
          position I expect) had there been an indication that 'damned' was a
          homophone.

          Something like: Damn it, remarkably river rose! (9), while less
          forceful than the original at least satisfies (my) accepted
          construction guidelines (and additionally should satisfy the two-part
          sticklers) - the anomaly indicated here is the double use of
          'remarkably'.

          Though I think absolutes defeat the purpose of cryptics - for those
          who insist that puns *must* be indicated by a "?" - a version such as:

          Damn it! Remarkably river rose? (9), could work equally well.

          I'm giving this clue middling marks despite the flaw.

          I'm giving this what may be the highest score I've ever given to a
          defective clue.  It is NOT acceptable to me for "damned" to stand
          for "dammed" without a soundalike indicator.  Compare this with the
          clever solution to the same problem in #15.

          Good idea spoilt by DAMMED != DAMNED. Also the pun doesn't quite
          lead to RESERVOIR. BTW a cryptic clue consists of two parts - it's
          just that in the case of an &lit the two parts have 100% overlap!

          while there is a nice pun here, i don't like the ind; i see damning
          leading to an abstract, not concrete, ruining.  i also am not a big
          fan of the partial &lit; the full sentence is used cryptically, but,
          to get the def, i only use half of the sentence, and half to get the
          pun after that.  nice attempt, though.

          A cryptic clue consists of two parts...
          Actually, I have no problem with your structure, but I felt compelled
          to satisfy at least half of your prediction.  I would add that I
          think the clue does need a '?'.  Otherwise, a very nice clue.

          Well at least you didn't put me to sleep with your explanation like
          similar number 15.

          A good try and certainly an honorable attempt at "something
          different".  Yet, ultimately, too many problems to give it
          top marks - not the least of which is the need to somehow
          convert "damned" into "dammed" with no indicators pointing to
          the conversion.  And, yes, a cryptic clue does consist of
          two parts.

          My objection is based in what you're apparently labelling
          a pun:  I accept "damned" as an anagram indicator, but I
          don't regard it as being sufficiently synonymous to "dammed"

          Unfortunately, the past tense of dam is dammed. Using dam'd is
          useful as in ... River rose, poured into dam'd lake.

          I feel the pun is slightly too obscure to stand as a definition.
          Even with the exclamation mark, it doesn't really indicate a
          homophone.  It seems to me that this clue is little different from
          one that says 'River rose (anag)'

          I didn't know whether to give this clue a "10" or a "zero".  If it
          had a homophone indicator, the "10" would've applied.  Without it,
          it's just too obscure and requires ESP in the solver.

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

          13th place (score 29.41%) - clue 8

              About a second's hesitation, then French see large supply (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 7 17 20 20 30 33 38 43 44 45 56

          Reasonable charade, but definition is rather mundane and hurts the
          surface. A more colorful 'large caisson' or 'large tank' (for a
          militaristic surface) would help.

          Defective.  The symbol s means "second", so the "'s" should form part
          of
          a second element, either making SS or joining on to what follows or
          linking the cryptic to the straight definition or something.  I'm also
          dubious about "hesitation" as the *definition* of ER, and there is
          also
          no surface reading.

          Convoluted charade

          construction decent, surface not as.  "voir" points too easily
          to the answer.  also, i don't know french, but perhaps "voir" really
          translates to "*to* see"?

          My clue - no comment.

          supply of what?  Those darn French are showing up in increasing
          numbers.

          The 's is not accounted for in the cryptic reading.  And the surface
          is
          weak.

          I'm unenthusiastic about using "er" (or "ah" or "oh" or
          the like) as part of the cryptic solution.  The surface
          doesn't do much for me either.  Decent but not spectacular.

          An adequte surface, and the cryptic *almost* works for me ---
          until I hit the "voir" part.  Since it's beyond a rudimentary
          knowledge of that language, it borders on the unfair.

          The apostrophe-s messes this up. There is no second 's'.
          A reading might be 'about a second is hesistation...' which
          gives you E(S)R...

          The surface reading is poor.  Also, while I do know that 'voir' is
          to see in French, I don't think it's fair to use this in an English
          crossword

          I got REASECERVOIR.

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

          14th place (score 26.73%) - clue 1

              Large holding tank for errors I've tripped on (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 0 14 14 17 29 30 33 36 38 40 41 56

          So-so; mediocre surface.

          Nice humor, but I don't care for "tripped on" as an anagram indicator.

          I hope that you don't hold onto the errors to re-use them. This
          thought
          spoils the surface a bit.

          not sold on the ind.  unique, odd surface.  an okay job with perhaps
          the best fodder.

          Surface a bit contrived and I'm not sure about 'tripped on' as
          an anagram indicator.

          I'm not sure "tripped on" fully qualifies as an anagram indicator.
          Also, the surface is a bit ragged.  You could certainly dispense
          with "Large".

          I like the anagram fodder, but not the indicator.  And the surface
          makes no sense.

          "Tripped on" is a very marginal anagram indicator, IMHO.
          "Tripped" might work but not "tripped on"  That nit aside, the
          surface seems almost nonsensical.  I can envision tanks holding
          lots of things but not errors, whether tripped on or otherwise.

          "Tripped" *might* pass as an anagram indicator, the "on" is
          extraneous at best.  The surface is only marginally sensible.

          OK but could be a bit tighter, surface doesn't quite gel.

          A pretty meaningless surface reading

          The points gained for using a different fodder than "river rose" were
          lost on the definition and the horrible indicator.

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

          15th place (score 15.63%) - clue 2

              River rose: submerged tank (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 0 0 0 0 7 17 22 25 29 33 55

          Poor indicator.

          "Submerged" in no way indicates anagramming.

          SUBMERGED does overwhelm me as an anagram indicator

          i think a comma would work better here than a colon.  not sold on
          the ind.  imo, most other clues that used the same fodder were more
          effective.

          'River rose' a popular anagram.

          I don't accept "submerged" as anagram indicator.

          'Submerged' is a terrible anagram indicator

          The first of many "river rose" clues.  Submerged is a good
          hidden word indicator; as an anagram indicator it's pretty weak -
          "destroyed" or some such would have been better at no cost to
          the surface.  Except for the weak anagram indicator, the clue
          is certainly solid but somehow unexciting.

          I don't buy "submerged" as the indicator *at all*.  Decent
          surface.

          'submerged' is not an acceptable anagram indicator

          The worst of the "river rose" anagrams, with a poor indicator and def.

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

          16th place (score 15.44%) - clue 4

              Tank irradiates first two trailers to preserve endless love (9)

          Votes (normalized): 0 0 0 0 0 14 16 17 20 20 31 67

          Endless is wrong; surface is poor.

          I don't consider "irradiates first two" acceptable for "first two
          letters
          *of* IRRADIATES".  The "trailers to" is nicer, but basically this is a
           poor
          effort, too complicated and completely lacking in surface reading.

          TRAILERS is not a verb, and no doubt the tank is made of depleted
          uranium.

          "irradiates first two" and "trailers to" seemed not quite right in
          the cryptic reading.  i love the second half of the clue, however,
          even though "preserve" is a bit soundalike to hide the clue
          effectively.  the surface, sadly, is nonsense.

          The surface doesn't make much sense.  How can a tank irradicate
          trailers and what's love got to do with it ;-)?

          My (lame, but original) clue.  Abstain.

          An Orwellian conflict if there ever was one.  Preserve love
          by nuking a couple of mobile homes.  Yuck.

          Well, the cryptic portion works satisfactorly but the surface
          is pretty nonsensical.  Tanks don't normally irradiate things
          and irradiating trailers is an unusual method of preserving
          anything, much less love.  IMHO, the flawed surface overwhelms
          the decent cryptic.

          Torrid Army romance?  Even with that spin on it, the surface
          is tough to like.  Took several readings to convince me
          that the cryptic wasn't invalid.

          Surface doesn't make sense to me.

          Very tortuous, and poor surface reading

          Isn't "trailers" a noun, and "trails" the verb? Too many other faults
          to mention...except for the surface, which I'll mention was not kind
          to
          that nuclear scientist nicknamed "Tank".

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