CASSOWARIES:

A hundred boobies surround an egg, fighting one bird repeatedly (11)

Luciano

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For SCWC 377, please write one, two or three clues for:

CASSOWARIES (11)

Cow pushes around donkey and chases ram: they're top of the pecking order Down Under (11)

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And now, my interpretations of the clues; ??? indicates a point where I
am unsure. Please let me know about anything I have incorrect.

Luciano:

Buffalo standing beside house shuts up goose and other birds (11)

other birds = definition
Buffalo = COW
goose = ASS (in the sense of "fool")
house = ARIES (a house in the astrological sense)
COW standing beside ARIES shuts up ASS = C(ASS)OWARIES

A hundred boobies surround an egg, fighting one bird repeatedly (11)

bird repeatedly = definition
A hundred = C
boobies = ASSES (in the sense of "fools")
an egg = O
fighting = WAR
one = I
C + ASSES surround O + WAR + I = CASS(OWARI)ES

David A:

Antipodean fliers? Disastrous! I saw coarse failures ultimately (11)

Partial &lit
Whole clue = definition, in the sense that CASSOWARIES are *flightless*
antipodean birds who would not succeed ultimately if they tried to fly ??? Disastrous = anagram indicator
I SAW COARSE anagrammed = CASSOWARIE
failures ultimately = last letter of failures = S
CASSOWARIE + S = CASSOWARIES

Rob:

Cow pushes around donkey and chases ram: they're top of the pecking order Down Under (11)

they're top of the pecking order Down Under = definition
donkey = ASS
ram = ARIES
COW pushes around" ASS and chases ARIES = C(ASS)OW + ARIES

Kevin Wald [email protected] | Cavities containing one's http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~wald | seed for birds (11)

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On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 10:14:44 AM UTC-3:30, [email protected] wrote:

And now, my interpretations of the clues; ??? indicates a point where I
am unsure. Please let me know about anything I have incorrect.

Luciano:

Buffalo standing beside house shuts up goose and other birds (11)

other birds = definition
Buffalo = COW
goose = ASS (in the sense of "fool")
house = ARIES (a house in the astrological sense)
COW standing beside ARIES shuts up ASS = C(ASS)OWARIES

A hundred boobies surround an egg, fighting one bird repeatedly (11)

bird repeatedly = definition
A hundred = C
boobies = ASSES (in the sense of "fools")
an egg = O
fighting = WAR
one = I
C + ASSES surround O + WAR + I = CASS(OWARI)ES

David A:

Antipodean fliers? Disastrous! I saw coarse failures ultimately (11)

Partial &lit
Whole clue = definition, in the sense that CASSOWARIES are *flightless* antipodean birds who would not succeed ultimately if they tried to fly ??? Disastrous = anagram indicator
I SAW COARSE anagrammed = CASSOWARIE
failures ultimately = last letter of failures = S
CASSOWARIE + S = CASSOWARIES

Rob:

Cow pushes around donkey and chases ram: they're top of the pecking order Down Under (11)

they're top of the pecking order Down Under = definition
donkey = ASS
ram = ARIES
COW pushes around" ASS and chases ARIES = C(ASS)OW + ARIES

Kevin Wald [email protected] | Cavities containing one's http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~wald | seed for birds (11)

Kevin, my question is rhetorical, and disastrous is doing double duty. It's a non-starter, but they are fast devils, and quite nasty with it, descended from raptors, I believe, when possibly some of their ancestors may have had links with the
pterodactyls??? and actually flown??? - anyway, today's version is probably as helpless as an ostrich! Disastrous! as I say.

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And now, my judgements:

Luciano:

Buffalo standing beside house shuts up goose and other birds (11)

Good construction, reasonable surface.

A hundred boobies surround an egg, fighting one bird repeatedly (11)

I like the surface, particularly the disguised break between "one" and "bird". Construction is okay, though I'd prefer a verb that can take a singular
subject ("will surround" instead of "surround", say) since there is no "and"
or comma or the like to make "C ASSES" plural in the cryptic reading.

David A:

Antipodean fliers? Disastrous! I saw coarse failures ultimately (11)

Disastrous here is doing double duty (in the definition, and as the anagram indicator in the wordplay); I prefer avoiding a overlap of this kind (unless it's
the whole clue). Surface reading is good.

Rob:

Cow pushes around donkey and chases ram: they're top of the pecking order Down Under (11)

I generally think of the start of a clue as its front, so I would consider "chases"
to be backward here. Surface is fine, but I think I prefer Luciano's more concise
take.

And now, the winners:
First place to Luciano's blue-footed birds.
Second place to David A's flight-unqualified birds.
Third place to Rob's pecking mammals.

Luciano?

Kevin Wald [email protected] | Elliot, who sang vacuous http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~wald | epodes about game birds (11)

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