Thanks to everyone who participated in this week’s 1ACCWC contest. The winner was Dr. Satyen Nabar, with a widely appreciated clue (13 voters awarding around 3 points each). Following in second and third were Kalyan Bandhyopadhyay and @LowdownCryptic. Congrats to them.
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Satyen Nabar | Assistant ordered X-ray urgently at first to check pelvic bones (9) | 38 | 13 | [XRAY + U(-rgently)]* around ILIA; ordered= anag ind, urgently at first= u (1st letter selection), to check= cont ind, pelvic bones= ilia, def is assistant | – Very good. Take all the points. Excellent. (Pundit JEE) – IMO the best of the lot – surface, wordplay, conciseness – kudos to the setter (Abhay Phadnis) – Very nice! I think I can guess the setter 🙂 (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 2 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Support a university team – struggling, fairly leaderless (9) | 29 | 11 | Definition: Support. A + U (university) + XI (eleven; sports abbreviation) + anagram (struggling) of (f)AIRLY | – Good. Take points. (Pundit JEE) – Nice, though “fairly leaderless” sounds a bit odd! (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 3 | @LowdownCryptic | Italy’s top fraudster caught by two unknowns near gold reserve (9) | 25 | 11 | AU,X(I+LIAR)Y – Italy’s top = I; fraudster = LIAR; caught by two unknowns = between X & Y; near gold = beside AU; def is reserve | |
| 4 | Textrous | Helping unknown figures to capture one cheat chasing gold (9) | 16 | 8 | Def: Helping, unknown figures: X Y, capture: containment indicator; one: I, cheat: LIAR, chasing: going after, gold: AU | |
| 5 | Manish Jhaveri | Leaders left fake record about extremists in Israel to get backup (9) | 16 | 7 | leaders left fake record = (-f)AUX , (-d)IARY around I(srae)L = extremists in Israel; def = backup | – I liked the wordplay a lot (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 6 | Veera Raghavan | Within a year, fresh failure essentially besieged team leading to emergency (9) | 9 | 5 | A(U(XI)LIAR*)Y. Fresh: anagrind. Besieged: containment. Definition: Emergency | – I like the construction, especially “within a year”, but with a mild caveat – “essentially” is perhaps not the best bet where we are retaining everything except the two ends of the word. (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 7 | Amrita Majumdar | Assistant lacking time, arranged a tux airily (9) | 8 | 5 | Assistant – DEF, ATUXAIRILY-T* | |
| 8 | Ramki Krishnan | Supporter is awfully disheartened about United team\’s attack getting repelled (9) | 8 | 4 | def = supporter, A-Y around U XI + RAIL (attack) << | – Attack = rail is a bit of a stretch (Nathan Townshend) |
| 9 | Srivathsan S | B Team storms Australia’s fortress with messed up middle order and patchy tail (9) | 7 | 3 | Definition – ‘B’ as in the prefix to indicate reserve /backup (like Plan B or B Team) ; Wordplay : Team = XI , storms (insertion indicator) , Australia = Au + fortress (LAIR) with middle ‘order’ messed up = LIAR + patch(Y) tail (end selection indicator) = AU (XI) L(IA)R + Y ; Surface story a call back to India’s famous Test win at the Australian fortress of Gabba with a ragtag B team. | – Ok, approved, after deep thinking. Take points. (Pundit JEE) – I don’t know enough about cricket to appreciate this one fully, but it’s nicely put together (@qpheevr) – I thought of using Au=Australia but it’s not in Chambers… (Nathan Townshend) – Nice buildup of surface story. “Reserve” would work better than B as def IMO. (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 10 | Nathan Townshend | A universal vote, airily abandoned for one of lower status | 6 | 4 | A + U + X + AIRILY* Def = one of lower status | – While most clues were mediocre, and not worthy of any comment, here the definition is so evil and disgusting that I was compelled to comment (Pundit JEE) |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Satyen Nabar for the next contest.
Here’s the link to the full results
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