| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ganesh Raman | Hit-man’s head found in gunny bag | 37 | 19 | Def: Hit; Container clue: M (Man’s head) found in SACK (gunny bag) | |
| 2 | Textrous | Addictive substance oddly same as coke (5) | 36 | 18 | def: Addictive substance; odd letters of SaMe As CoKe |
- Clever |
| 3 | Sowmya Ramkumar | Kiss maiden in bed (5) | 34 | 20 | Def: Kiss, S(M)ACK |
- Lucky maiden. |
| 4 | Satyen Nabar | Spank groom's butt in bed (5) | 34 | 18 | (-groo)M in SACK; defn= spank, groom's butt= M (last letter selection ind), in= insertion ind, bed= sack |
- Funny. - Naughty and nice! - Very ''cheeky'' |
| 5 | Manish Jhaveri | CSK is reeling having lost last 5 out of 7 matches straight (5) | 26 | 13 | CSK* (reeling is anagrind) around MA (-tches) Def = straight |
- Great clue. - Great surface. Who / What is CSK? - Haha. To be fair, they maintained the ratio - Superb idea, but I think the "is" should be deleted and a comma after "reeling should be added |
| 6 | Madhusudan H | Western leaders kept calm amidst Modi's surgical strike (5) | 23 | 15 | Western leaders - acrostic with first letters in reverse order; Defn : Strike |
- Great surface. I don''t know that ''western'' is a reversal indicator. - Nice reversal, well-disguised surface. - Nice surface! - Not sure if Western leaders can indicate what it is supposed to. |
| 7 | Mona Sogal | Blow a kiss (5) | 17 | 11 | Double Definition |
- I like this, but it was submitted by two setters, so I give no points. |
| 8 | Camelia Oberoi | Blow a kiss (5) | 15 | 12 | DD |
- I like this, but it was submitted by two setters, so I give no points. |
| 9 | Gayathri Viswanath | Basically, sound made amidst crushing kiss (5) | 14 | 9 | Acrostic &lit | |
| 10 | N Anantakrishnan | Heroin! Chainsmoker desperately wants heroin! | 12 | 9 | Def - heroin. (Chainsmoker - heroin)* . Anagrind - desperately. Wants - deletion indicator |
- I think wanting would be better than wants but good clue. |
| 11 | Fire engulfs money box (5) | 11 | 9 | Definition: Box; Fire=Sack; Money=M; Engulfs=Containment indicator. | ||
| 12 | Heroin hit | 11 | 7 | DD |
- I think there''s a root issue. ie heroin is called smack because it''s gives the user a hit. |
|
| 13 | Lastly, its synonym: a terrific spank or slap (5) | 10 | 5 | Lastly = letter selection indicator, tail acrostic: itS synonyM A terrifiC spanK, def = slap | ||
| 14 | Strike using smart moves after checking king initially (5) | 9 | 6 | def: strike, wp: initial letters of "smart moves after checking king". | ||
| 15 | Pouch containing money and heroin (5) | 9 | 5 | SACK (pouch) around (filled with) M(oney). Def: Heroin | ||
| 16 | Fishing boat's starting to moulder in fire | 8 | 6 | M inside SACK | ||
| 17 | Whack!? A thousand in a pouch! | 8 | 5 | Thousand = M in pouch = SACK, gives S-M-ACK |
- The surface doesn''t really make sense. If you had left out the punctuation it would make better sense ''Whack a thousand in a pouch!'' where ''whack'' means ''put'' in some countries. |
|
| 18 | Initially shy maiden accepts Caesar’s kingly kiss (5) | 8 | 5 | Acrostic; definition is “kiss” | ||
| 19 | Bit of S&M with a naked fucker (5) | 7 | 4 | S and M with A fu(CK)er , Def: BIT (a hint of - a smack of - a bit of - Merriam Webster), Connector: OF |
- !!! |
|
| 20 | Hire man to fire point-blank! (5) | 7 | 4 | Hire (insertion indicator) man M to fire SACK def: point-blank! S[M]ACK |
- Great surface. I prefer containments to appear in a linear manner in the clue. |
|
| 21 | Ailing mother sending setter off to get drug (5) | 6 | 4 | Anno: MA for I in SICK. Def: Drug |
- Great surface. How does MA come to be inside SCK? |
|
| 22 | Beginning to secure myself another cheeky kiss? (5) | 6 | 4 | Acrostic, &lit (ish!) | ||
| 23 | Fire engulfing head of miniature horse (5) | 5 | 3 | fire = SACK around M + def (horse being a synonym of heroin as is smack) | ||
| 24 | Poke around: my first kiss (5) | 5 | 3 | A poke is a type of SACK, around the first letter of "my" (M) for: S(M)ACK, a kiss. | ||
| 25 | Druggie uses Mac keyboard to hide blow (5) | 4 | 4 | Hidden word - useSMACKeyboard. Def - blow. In the surface, blow = cocaine. |
- Lol - What does "druggie" contribute? - What is the role of ''druggie'' in the wordplay? |
|
| 26 | Cuff the leaders of Srilankan ministry, acting completely kooky (5) | 4 | 4 | Def - Cuff (Chambers), leaders of - 1st letter indicator, (S)rilankan (m)inistry (a)cting (c)ompletely (k)ooky - smack | ||
| 27 | 'Scam' (OTT) with Pratik, finally is a hit (5) | 4 | 3 | Scam - Anagram fodder, Over The Top (Anagrind), + pratiK, Hit (Definition) |
- What is ''pratik''? |
|
| 28 | Fishing boat with bag filled with money for heroin (5) | 4 | 3 | 1 wordplay (SACK filled with M) and 2 definitions (fishing boat and heroin) |
- Def1 wp def2 is not a fair clue structure to the solver |
|
| 29 | Money in bag, right? (5) | 4 | 3 | M (money) in SACK (bag). Definition Right (smack as adverb) | ||
| 30 | Stack Exchange™ offers a hint (5) | 4 | 2 | Stack Exchange™ runs a popular network of online Q&A forums. Making a "TM" exchange in STACK offers SMACK, which is a hint (Chambers). |
- A clever idea for a letter-exchange. - Clever idea, albeit easy :) - I really like the TM wordplay. |
|
| 31 | Box room, not large in a bit of mess (5) | 3 | 3 | box- def , room - slack - L + M | ||
| 32 | Show orgasm acknowledgement as sign of love (5) | 3 | 3 | Telescopic, Show as the indicator, cryptic definition of Smack. |
- "Show" as telescopic indicator should come after the fodder. - "Show" feels like a bit of a stretch vs. "Orgasm acknowledgment showing a sign of love" but it works. - Cure surface. Telescopics are better over 3+ words. |
|
| 33 | Fire engulfs Mike and Pat! (5) | 3 | 3 | S(M)ack. Fire = Sack. Engulfs = container ind. Mike = M (NATO). Definition = Pat |
- Poor Mike and Pat : ( |
|
| 34 | Taste of crack and heroin | 3 | 1 | double def. with 3 defs, last one slang. taste of/crack/heroin | ||
| 35 | Strike first century wearing mask loosely(5) | 2 | 2 | Defn is strike, c from century in mask* |
- Good wordplay. I can''t see why a batter would be wearing a mask. |
|
| 36 | Tender, well-hearted once | 2 | 2 | Def. of a one-time US fishing boat with a well to keep fish alive. |
- Lovely surface. I think the reference to the boat is too obscure. |
|
| 37 | Second match but not the first in IPL Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians played a big hit | 2 | 1 | (A+csk+mi-i)* played anind |
- Great surface. What is the role of ''but not the'' in the wordplay? |