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We have a tie with two clues receiving 25 points and 14 votes.
After catastrophic rout, desire to return to battle
Verlainex
Surprisingly, you’re not forsaking love for sports event
Kalyan Bandopadhyay
Casting my vote to break the tie, awarding the contest to Verlainex whose clue has a marginally better surface. Of course, the opinion is subjective.
In 3rd place is
Fantastic run-out ! Finally, Pakistan secure victory in the championship
Adman_i with 22 points and 11 votes
In 4th place is
Model to go topless in competition
Ramki with 22 points and 10 votes
In 5th place is
Rout galvanised desire to bounce back in competition
Manish Jhaveri with 17 points
Thank you all. Over to you Verlainex.

Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Surprisingly, you’re not forsaking love for sports event (7) | 25 | 14 | Anagram (‘surprisingly’) of YOURE NOT (fodder) without O (love, deletion indicated by ‘forsaking’), Def.: sports event | |
| 2 | verlainex | After catastrophic rout, desire to return to battle | 25 | 14 | (ROUT*) + YEN reversed. To tourney (v.) = to battle | |
| 3 | Adman_i | Fantastic run-out ! Finally, Pakistan secure victory in the championship (7) | 22 | 11 | Championship(Defn) – (R OUT)*(pakistaN securE victorY), Run-R, Fantastic – anagrind, Finally – last letters | |
| 4 | Ramki Krishnan | Model to go topless in competition (7) | 22 | 10 | T (model) + JOURNEY (go) -J (topless), def = competition | |
| 5 | Manish Jhaveri | Rout galvanised desire to bounce back in competition (7) | 17 | 7 | ROUT* (galvanised is anagrind) + NEY (yen = desire bouncing back) | |
| 6 | VENKATESAN P | Adjust your net for Australian Open, say(7) | 16 | 8 | (YOUR+NET)*. Adjust – Anagrind. Australian Open, say – Definition. | |
| 7 | Textrous | Our net got damaged by the end of hockey tournament (7) | 15 | 8 | OURNET* ("got damaged" is the anagrind) + Y (the end of hockey); def: tournament | – Good surface and wordplay, but it would be better not to use "tournament" in the clue as definition for its short form "tourney" (@LowdownCryptic) – I like the hockey angle, but the definition is too similar to (and etymologically derived from) the word being clued (@qpheevr) |
| 8 | Shobha Nayak | Contest ruined routinely, leaders of Israel and Lebanon not participating | 15 | 6 | Def= CONTEST, Anagram of ROUTINELY – IL | |
| 9 | Nitish Asthana | Open your ten bananas! | 14 | 7 | Anagram of your ten. Defn- Open | |
| 10 | @LowdownCryptic | Indian Crossword League is one time my group's craving returns (7) | 14 | 6 | T (time) + OUR (my group's) + reversed YEN (craving returns); Definition: IXL is one (def by example) | – Perhaps this is pandering to the voters’ interests… but it works! Very nice (@qpheevr) |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Kalyan Bandyopadhyay for the next contest.
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