This week’s DIY COW (link below) winner was GymBunnies with a clue which I genuinely believe may be the greatest ever written. Have a ponder over this one:
. . . . . . (6)
Anaxcrosswords Crosswords by Anax / Loroso
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I must agree – Fair play to Gymbunnies for having the vision and audacity to throw this clue out. Your discourse on the relative merits, fairplay and clue environment on elsewhere are absolutely spot on. Anyone who can’t spot this as a gem really needs to consider their faculties.
well like to see you get that past an editor but I got it mmm worthy of you Dean
I don’t get it
Hi Michael
on conclusion of the over.
It relies on a bit of cricketing knowledge. A MAIDEN (over) consists of 6 dot balls – happily MAIDEN also consists of 6 letters, an extra bonus for the presentation of the clue. It has been pointed out elsewhere that on a cricket scoresheet the arrangement of dots would be similar to the way you see them on the face of a die, and these end up being joined up (in semi-dot-to-dot fashion) to show a plain maiden (M) or a wicket maiden
The observation is of course valid, but I think it takes the required knowledge of cricket scoring a touch too far. For those with just a smattering of cricket knowledge (me and the majority, I’d guess), the pure logic of 6 ‘dot balls’ being shown as . . . . . . is good enough to justify the clue.