After a fine crop of clues the top five were:
In fifth place @LowdownCrypic’s European Union not backtracking about Greenland’s first language
Fourth was Textrous with: Gun-shot interrupts the opening bits of Trump’s ostentatious election speech
In third place Aashirwad’s: “EU not in recession,” admits Germany’s leader in speech
Second goes to Pundit JEE : Organ felt regularly moving around the middle of mouth?
And the winner is Satyen Nabar’s Report on Guevara’s inspiring speech
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Satyen Nabar | Report on Guevara's inspiring speech (6) | 39 | 16 | Hidden word, inspiring is indicator, definition is speech | – Parses nicely ("is inspiring", or could be "has inspired"). Slight niggle with "speech", bit too distant, doesn't give pleasing click. (Guy Norman) – Great clue, nice parse: but not entirely happy with "speech", feels a bit too distant, no satisfying click. (Guy Norman) – Best of the hidden word clues IMO. (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 2 | Pundit JEE | Organ felt regularly moving around the middle of mouth? (6) | 34 | 12 | &lit – letter picking OGNET – organ felt regularly, moving – anagram of TONGE*, around U (the middle of mouth) | – Good &lit! (Aashirwad) – Good one. (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 3 | Aashirwad | “EU not in recession,” admits Germany’s leader in speech (6) | 32 | 13 | G (Germany’s leader) contained in a reversal of EU NOT. The definition is “speech”, as in a way of speaking (ref: Chambers dictionary and thesaurus). “In recession” can mean the same as “receding,” which is a common reversal indicator. | – Very nice clue: my only niggle is "speech", feels a bit too distant, doesn’t give satisfying click. (Guy Norman) – Great clue, but not entirely happy with "speech", feels a bit too distant, no satisfying click. (Guy Norman) |
| 4 | Textrous | Gun-shot interrupts the opening bits of Trump\'s ostentatious election speech (6) | 32 | 11 | def: speech, Gun-shot=GUN*, interrupts=insertion indicator, the opening bits of Trump\'s ostentatious election=TOE. TO(NGU)E [reference to https://tinyurl.com/3vk6ewsz] | – Beautiful clue (Aashirwad) – Nice! (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 5 | @LowdownCryptic | European Union not backtracking about Greenland's first language (6) | 25 | 9 | EU NOT <– (backtracking) about G (Greenland's first); def: language | – Nice surface, nice parse, my top-scorer. (Guy Norman) – Excellent surface, excellent parse, gets my top score (Guy Norman) |
| 6 | Matthew Marcus | What could be for dinner? Paddington guessed sandwiches | 24 | 9 | Sandwiches = containment indicator. Tongue is an old-fashioned meat course option, Paddington prefers marmalade sandwiches. | |
| 7 | Ramki Krishnan | Chinese secret society starts to use encrypted language (6) | 22 | 8 | TONG (Chinese secret society) + U E (acrostic), def = language | – Essentially same parse as my clue (TONG+UE): though you help out with "Chinese", I misdirect with "Italian"! Yours works very nicely I think. (Guy Norman) – Parse (TONG+UE) essentially the same as my own submission: though where you help out with "Chinese", I misdirect with "Italian"! Yours works very nicely I think. (Guy Norman) – Excellent use of TONG (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 8 | Sampath Srinivasan | Slice of meat on guest's palate (6) | 20 | 8 | Hidden word clue; def = palate; slice of – indicator; meaT ON GUEst's | |
| 9 | Amrita Majumdar | Wasted enough time after husband leaves for talk (6) | 13 | 6 | ENOUGH T -H * | |
| 10 | Shobha Nayak | Mainly, taste organ near glottis's upper end | 9 | 4 | Acrostic, &Lit | – Mainly is fine as a deletion indicator for the last letter of the fodder, but it cannot be used as a first-letter selection indicator. The clue would have worked with “Primarily” as the selection indicator. (Aashirwad) – Nice acrostic. But "mainly" is not an indicator to pick 1st letters. (Ramki Krishnan) |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Satyen Nabar for the next contest.
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