Iq 1454

[crosswhit99]

Used oil and funnel (6)

The answer is clear with ultimately all but the L checked and an obvious anagram (not sure about ‘used’ mind you), but with a fairly obscure clueword, surely the definition should be more accurate ? Afetr all not everything that is funnel-shaped is a funnel.

[TheFrogman]

I assume the answer is DOLINA - Chambers defines this as 'a swallow hole', which it in turn gives as 'a funnel or fissure', so I think this is fine. My issue would be with the anagram indicator 'Used', none of the senses of which indicates disturbance - it is listed by the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, but that gives a lot of anagram indicators that I wouldn't go near!

[crosswhit99]

To be honest, it’s a shocking clue. The surface reading is weak, the anagram indicator ranks alongside ‘could be’ as an indicator of rearrangement and the definition is vague at best. Apart from that, I like it ;-)

[TheFrogman]

Definitely not a classic!

[crosswhit99]

It sometimes seems in this series as if precision of definition is sacrificed when the setter is struggling to achieve a reasonable surface reading, as in this example from last week’s puzzle:

Wish to get pound out of noblemen consumed by absolute depravity (7)

(There is an extra letter provided by the wordplay – please can we have an embargo on this device for at least 3 weeks !)

[TheFrogman]

Should that read 'nobleman' rather than 'noblemen', the wordplay being ([E]ARL - L) in (A VICE)? Assuming AVARICE is the solution, I certainly struggle with 'Wish' as the definition, and 'Wish to get' is incomplete, lacking an object, eg 'money'. A little more latitude is allowed in '&lit' definitions, but not as much as would be required here. I'm always sympathetic when the word to be clued is something like 'nayward', which is a horror to define, but here I would have thought that a clue like 'Greed, a sin capturing attention' ([E]AR in (A VICE)) would be perfectly serviceable. Alternatively, the clue as it stands could be modified to read 'Desire to acquire wealth from nobleman left abandoned in absolute depravity'.

I agree about the 'wordplay leads to extra letter' device, something I think should be used very sparingly indeed!

[crosswhit99]

Yes, my typo for 'nobleman', sorry. AVARICE is indeed the solution and I much prefer your reworking of the clue, thanks again Frogman :-)