This contest had many Double Defs and Reverse Anagrams for consideration!
The winning clue is just five letters:
Go ape!
Ramki Krishnan with 29 points
In 2nd place:
Accept bid without hesitation and leave
Nilesh Parmar with 27 points
In 3rd place:
What airplanes do from runway strip
Manish Jhaveri with 25 points
In 4th place:
Strip to become popular?
@qpheevr with 22 points
And in 5th place:
Undress Kate?
Textrous with 21 points
Congrats, Ramki! Over to you
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ramki Krishnan | Go ape! (4,3) | 29 | 11 | Double def. Take off = go, take off = ape (imitate) | – This is what I was trying to do, but better! (N. S. Harvey) – Chapeau! (@qpheevr) |
| 2 | Nilesh Parmar | Accept bid without hesitation and leave | 27 | 13 | Accept=take, bid=offer, without hesitation= -er | – Very much enjoyed this one; could easily see it in a published crossword (N. S. Harvey) |
| 3 | Manish Jhaveri | What airplanes do from runway strip (4, 3) | 25 | 12 | Double Definition. 1>What airplanes do from runway 2>strip | – Because "strip" could just as easily be part of the first definition, this feels non-cryptic, although I see what you were going for. (N. S. Harvey) |
| 4 | @qpheevr | Strip to become popular? (4, 3) | 22 | 9 | Double definition | |
| 5 | Textrous | Undress Kate? (4,3) | 21 | 10 | Def: Undress, Reverse Anagram: Kate is “Take Off” | – No reverse anagram indicator? (@qpheevr) |
| 6 | Ashit Hegde | STRIP TEASE (4,3) | 18 | 9 | DD | – Nice surface (N. S. Harvey) |
| 7 | Sampath Srinivasan | Beat it, Kate ! (4, 3) | 14 | 8 | Reverse Anagram; def = beat it | – I have a feeling these reverse-engineered anags with indicators in the solution are things of which Ximenes would not approve, but I still enjoyed the clue (N. S. Harvey) |
| 8 | Casey Callaghan | Oft fake being unwell and stay home from work | 10 | 6 | OFTFAKE* anag. (Indicator: “being unwell”) | |
| 9 | Amrita Majumdar | Remove topping of eggs in fine kofta dish (4,3) | 9 | 5 | Remove-DEF , E inside FKOFTA* , dish – ANAGRAM IND | – "Dish" doesn't work as an anag ind for me, but it's a good surface despite that (N. S. Harvey) |
| 10 | Adman_i | British aristocrat stores headless rake in shed (4,3) | 9 | 5 | Shed (Definition) – T(rAKE)OFF, British aristocrat – Toff, stores – containment ind, headless – first letter del ind |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Ramki Krishnan for the next contest.
Here’s the link to the full results
Also Check out the Leaderboard for 2026.
We love to hear from you..Let us know what you think..