This was a fun set of clues (with lots of boiling rice)! Congratulations to all participants, particularly our top finishers. Manish Jhaveri came out with a decisive win, earning 40 points for a clue combining acrostic, anagram, and political commentary. Satyen Nabar and Ramki Krishnan are neck-and-neck in second and third place, with Sampath Srinivasan and Pundit JEE rounding out the top five.
Thanks as always to Sowmya for masterminding the whole thing, and over to Manish for our next word!
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manish Jhaveri | Hardened leaders in India regularly belittle caste & religion unfortunately (12) | 40 | 14 | Def: hardened. Anagram of I, R, B, C & RELIGION with unfortunately as the anagrind | |
| 2 | Satyen Nabar | Hardened and desperate, I rob nice girl (12) | 32 | 15 | (I ROB NICE GIRL)*; desperate= anag ind, def= hardened | |
| 3 | Ramki Krishnan | Hopeless cook boiling rice without rinsing at first (12) | 31 | 13 | Def = hopeless, anagram of BOILINGRICE around R (without is containment indicator, at first = letter-picking ind) | – Negative marking for lacking sympathy for working class minimum wage worker (Pundit JEE) |
| 4 | Sampath Srinivasan | Dreadfully boring relic, I found, to be hopeless (12) | 17 | 9 | Anagram; anagrind : dreadfully; fodder: boring relic I; def : hopeless | |
| 5 | Pundit JEE | Cooking rice with boiling water? Ultimately irredeemable! (12) | 15 | 6 | Anagram (cooking) of (rice+boiling R.) , def – irredeemable p.s. please don't cook rice in boiling water. Simmer on medum flame. | |
| 6 | @LowdownCryptic | Hardened bit of radish thrown into boiling rice while stirring (12) | 11 | 5 | Def: Hardened; R (bit of radish) in BOILING RICE* (while stirring) | – This is better than the rest , take points (Pundit JEE) – I don’t think “while stirring” works *after* the fodder. (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 7 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Gear stuck in damaged brine coil, beyond repair (12) | 10 | 5 | RIG (“gear”) stuck in (containment indicator) Anagram (“damaged”) of BRINE COIL; Def: beyond repair | |
| 8 | Adman_i | Boiling rice with water finally goes wrong and Is impossible to set right (12) | 10 | 4 | Impossible to set right (Defn) – (BOILING + RICE + wateR)*, goes wrong – anagrind | – Self-same thinking style as mentioned, so take points in the name of brotherhood and neighbourhood (Pundit JEE) |
| 9 | Aashirwad | Lost Byzantine relic with origin outside Bulgaria’s capital (12) | 9 | 5 | Anagram of RELIC + ORIGIN (anagrind: Byzantine), going around B (Bulgaria’s capital). The definition is “lost”. Both “lost” and “incorrigible” mean “beyond redemption.” | – Not convinced about the definition… (Pundit JEE) |
| 10 | Veera Raghavan | Husband abandoned horrible icing done as hopeless (12) | 9 | 4 | (h)ORRIBLEICING*. Done: anagrind (Clue clinic). Hopeless: Definition |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Manish Jhaveri for the next contest.
Here’s the link to the full results
Also Check out the Leaderboard for 2026.
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