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We ended the contest with 32 votes. All but one of the setters voted, thank you.
Most clues used the wordplay of OUTAGE outside R or vice versa, or anagrams.
Here are the results.
Tied at 5th place, with 15 points
Venkatesan P about the power situation in Bucharest:
Power failure around capital of Romania causes anger (7)
Nathan Townshend’s anagram + deletion clue:
Right and left leave regulator seething with anger (7)
At 4th place with 16 points, Amrita with:
Shock of Queen crushed by loss of power (7)
At 3rd place, 17 points, Anne Pimodan with similar wordplay for a situation perhaps across the pond 🙂
Loss of power inspiring Republican’s appalling behaviour (7)
At 2nd place, with 24 points, Satyen with a neat anagram:
Alarmed at rogue’s atrocity (7)
And the winner by a comfortable margin with 32 points, is Ajeesh VM with a pithy reflection of the times we live in:
Barbarism beginning to thrive in the time we live in (7)
Thanks for playing. Over to you Ajeesh!

Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajeesh V M | Barbarism beginning to thrive in the time we live in (7) | 32 | 12 | Beginning to thrive = T, in = insertion Ind, the time we live in = our age, Def = barbarism | – Clue of the contest for me! (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 2 | Satyen Nabar | Alarmed at rogue's atrocity (7) | 24 | 9 | (AT ROGUE)*, alarmed= anag ind, def= atrocity | – Nice surface! (Puttaraju MT) – Nice succinct clue, and good anagram. I'm not 100% sold on the indicator, but it makes the surface good. (Rhiannon Vivian-Bolt) |
| 3 | Anne de Pimodan | Loss of power inspiring Republican's appalling behaviour (7) | 17 | 7 | OUT (R) AGE Outrage = an atrocious act (Chambers) | – Imo the best of the 'outage' clues (Nathan Townshend) |
| 4 | Amrita Majumdar | Shock of Queen crushed by loss of power (7) | 16 | 7 | Shock- def, R (Queen) inside OUTAGE( loss of power) | |
| 5 | VENKATESAN P | Power failure around capital of Romania causes anger (7) | 15 | 7 | Definition: Anger. Anno: (OUT(R)AGE). Power failure – Outage. Capital of Romania – R. | |
| 6 | Nathan Townshend | Right and left leave regulator seething with anger | 15 | 6 | REGULATOR – RL seething = anagram indicator | – Nicely constructed, I like the increased complexity of subtraction + anagram, but maintaining a lovely surface. (Rhiannon Vivian-Bolt) |
| 7 | Arnav V Raju | Anger at rogue rogue (7) | 13 | 5 | Definition: Anger, rogueat* with rogue as the indicator | – Fun and succinct, with a good anagram (Rhiannon Vivian-Bolt) |
| 8 | Rhiannon Vivian-Bolt | To argue atrociously is a gross offence (7) | 13 | 4 | anagram (indicator= Atrociously, fodder= To argue), definition=a gross offence | |
| 9 | Shailesh Tipnis | Dismissed! Basically, Root appeals, Gill exits in shock (7) | 13 | 4 | Definition=shock,Dismissed = out, first letters selection ind.=basically, in=connector | |
| 10 | Abhay Phadnis | Anger over misplaced laughter after ends of loincloth fall out (7) | 12 | 5 | Definition: anger; O(ver)+[(-l)AUG(-h)TER]*; anagram indicator: misplaced; deletion indicator: "ends of" L(oinclot)H "fall out" |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Ajeesh V M for the next contest.
Here’s the link to the full results
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