A hard-fought contest with 4 entries getting 22-24 votes each! For me the clear winner among them is Satyen’s intricate offering in the service of a meaningful and topical surface.
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Satyen Nabar | Trouble after Republican starts to order leader of Canada about becoming a US state (8) | 24 | 11 | ADO after [R + O(rder) + L(eader) + O(f) + C(anada)] reversed; trouble= ado, after= positional ind, Republican= R, starts to= 1st letter selections, about= rev ind, def= a US state | |
| 2 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Protocol or a doctrine inspiring US state (8) | 24 | 9 | Hidden word (indicated by inspiring); Def. US State | |
| 3 | Pundit JEE | State of Mohenjo-daro located between borders from East to West (8) | 22 | 11 | Of-Mohenj(ODAROLOC<<)ated reverse (from East to West) hidden (between borders), def – state | – Good find! (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 4 | Shobha Nayak | State with canyons or landscape of rocks and desert outcrops, originally | 22 | 10 | Acrostic | – Easy, but I liked the geographic theme. (N. S. Harvey) |
| 5 | Ramki Krishnan | Pass over winding road in US state (8) | 19 | 13 | COL (pass) + O (over) + anagram of ROAD, def = US state | |
| 6 | Aashirwad | State of ordinary old car manufactured by Opel originally (8) | 16 | 7 | Anagram of O (ordinary) + OLD CAR, followed by O (Opel originally) | – Very nice – and it revived memories of my late and much lamented Opel Swing car! 🙂 (Abhay Phadnis) |
| 7 | Nitish Asthana | Toxic gas in its expanded state? | 16 | 7 | Toxic gas is CO, also expanded to Colorado (state) | – Great thought, but not sure the construction works – it is not &lit, and separating the definition (state) leaves the wordplay incomplete. (Abhay Phadnis) – My favourite clue of the set. Concise, coherent, not an anagram, and a satisfying solve. (N. S. Harvey) – This is a clever and creative approach, but given the unconventional wordplay, I think it would be fairer to give the solver “carbon monoxide” to work with rather than just “toxic gas” (@qpheevr) |
| 8 | Adman_i | Dynamic, cool Republican joins a party in state (8) | 14 | 9 | State (Defn) – (COOL)*(R)(A)(DO), Dynamic – anagrind, Party – Do | – Fine. (Pundit JEE) |
| 9 | Textrous | Time spent in moving to a cold or stormy place in the US (8) | 14 | 7 | toacoldor* – t; deletion indicator: spent, anagrind:stormy, def: place in the US, | – If the anagrind is "stormy", then what is the role of "moving"? (Abhay Phadnis) – Role of 'in moving' in the clue? (Kalyan Bandyopadhyay) – Wow (Pundit JEE) – What is the role of "moving"? (Ramki Krishnan) |
| 10 | Manish Jhaveri | State officer demolished a door [8] | 13 | 8 | COL (short form of Colonel) is Officer + anagram of ADOOR. Def = state. Surface echoes bulldozer justice that's unfortunately very popular in these intolerant times | – Does the abbreviation of COLONEL need an indicator? (Abhay Phadnis) – Quite neat. I can imagine this clue in the Telegraph (N. S. Harvey) |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Satyen Nabar for the next contest.
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