| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madhusudan H | Baby-to-be starts to expand, mother buys relaxing yoga outfit (6) | 39 | 22 | Defn:Baby-to-be. Acrostic | |
| 2 | Ganesh Raman | Absurd or maybe without a basis | 25 | 15 | Anagram of (OR MAYBE without A); Anagrind: ABSURD; Def: Basis |
- Great surface and misdirection - A clean and elegant clue - basis 👎, basics 👍, IMO. |
| 3 | @qpheevr | “Twisting & Shaking” or “Be My Baby”, potentially (6) | 24 | 11 | (OR BE MY)* with “twisting & shaking” as anagram indicator and “baby, potentially” as definition. (In the surface, “Twisting & Shaking“ and “Be My Baby” are both pop songs from 1963.) |
- Very creative, smooth and deceptive! - I love it, but fear that, technically, two anagrinds for the same fodder isn’t kosher. - Be my, be my, be my little baby…. |
| 4 | Satyen Nabar | Root may be run out, leaving Australia's captain excited (6) | 22 | 14 | (MAY BE RO)* - A; Root= defn, run out= ro (abbrev), leaving= del ind, Australia's captain = A, excited= anag ind. | |
| 5 | Nicholas Loader | Stage of life experienced by you or by me perhaps? (6) | 21 | 12 | ORBYME* [perhaps] = EMBRYO, Extended def = stage of life experienced by you / whole thing | |
| 6 | Manish Jhaveri | One could help increase population by more reproduction (6) | 19 | 13 | Def = One could help increase population. Wordplay: Anagram of by more with reproduction as anagrind. |
- 👍, but “help” is surplus to requirements? |
| 7 | Thejaswi Udupa | It matures more by developing | 19 | 12 | (more by)* anagrind - developing, whole clue is definition |
- A pleasingly quick punch. “It matures” is a bit meh as an award-winning def, though. - Lovely and simple. |
| 8 | VENKATESAN P | Doctor in emergency room heartily praying with love for a baby in the womb(7) | 19 | 11 | Definition: A baby in the womb. Anno: (E(MB)R)(Y)(O); Emergency room=ER; Doctor=MB; Heartily praying=Y; Love=O |
- I’m dubious about “heartily”. |
| 9 | Samit kallianpur | Model bore my seed (6) | 19 | 10 | (Bore my)*. Model = anagrind. Def = Seed |
- seed is not embryo - Wishful thinking! |
| 10 | Textrous | Shockingly, biometry gave it away as an unborn child (6) | 18 | 12 | anagram of (biometry - it) |
- Nice, neat wordplay, but unborn child = embryo isn’t the best |
| 11 | Bye Roger ! Matches will not be the same without the grace. Salute ! Top seed (7) | 17 | 8 | Seed (Defn). Anagram fodder (Bye + Roger + Matches), Anagrind (will not be the same) Deletion indicator (without) Delete (THE + GRACE + Salute) |
- Brilliant ! - Nice idea for misdirection, but too complicated, + seed = embryo? - Very topical clue! |
|
| 12 | “Roe” may be rewritten, disregarding initial apprehensions expressed for foetus (6) | 14 | 9 | ROE MAY BE = fodder, rewritten = anagrind, disregarding = deletion indicator, initial Apprehensions Expressed = AE, for = connector, foetus = definition |
- Clever idea - What does the surface mean? |
|
| 13 | Wear my robe for baby shower? (6) | 11 | 7 | Anagram of MY ROBE*, Indicator - Wear, Def - Baby Show er - Embryo being the first show er of baby |
- Bit of a stretch. |
|
| 14 | Early stage of revolting by Rome (6) | 10 | 7 | Anagram of BYROME, def = early stage |
- Outstanding misdirection 👍 |
|
| 15 | Possible product of commerce exploited by Rome? | 10 | 6 | (by Rome)*, exploited as the anagram indicator; Definition: Possible product of commerce (commerce meaning s3 xual intercourse, reference: Merriam Webster) |
- A rather archaic sense of ‘commerce’, but it works nicely here - Great surface. The offerings in a thesaurus need to be considered wrt whether solvers would twig. |
|
| 16 | Example: morula/blastula resulting initially by fusion of head of Y-spermatozoon with ovum (6) | 9 | 5 | Clue type: Charade. "Example: Morula/Blastula Resulting initially" = EMBR. "head of Y-spermatozoon" = Y. "ovum [egg]" = O. EMBR + Y + O = EMBRYO. Definition: The entire clue. &lit. Notes: "Morula" and "blastula" are names given to the embryo in its initial stages of development, occurring soon after fertilization. The head of the sperm cell contains its chromosomes. |
- Science! - “head of Y-“ to indicate Y is stylistically could-do-better. Ditto need for such a long anno. - Lovely ‘biology lesson in a clue’. |
|
| 17 | This shot up – to become mother's boy? | 7 | 5 | compound anag: (EMBRYO+SHOT)* = MOTHER'S BOY ("up"=anagrind) ... & lit, ish! |
- I like the idea but I''m not fully sold on "up"=anagrind |
|
| 18 | Case of Monsanto, Bayer modifying a seed | 7 | 5 | CA. (M O Bayer)* = A Embryo. Def - seed. |
- seed is not embryo - I don’t think ‘modifying’ is suitable as a post-fodder anagram indicator. |
|
| 19 | Beginnings of evolution - male body readily yields own foetus | 7 | 5 | Foetus = definition Acrostic - Evolution Male Body Readily Yields Own |
- Foetus != embryo. - Acrostic okay but not a winner. - The surface reads like a man is giving birth to himself. |
|
| 20 | Naughty boy smirked regularly at the beginning (6) | 7 | 4 | Def - At the beginning, Naughty - Anagrind : Boy+ mre(alternate letters of smirked - regularly used for alternate letter selection) - EMBRYO | ||
| 21 | Early man perhaps, or maybe animal starting out? (6) | 6 | 6 | Def: Early man perhaps. Anagram of (OR MAYBE) with A (Animal starting) being deleted (indicator: out). Semi &lit |
- I cannot see an anagram indicator unless either ‘out’ or ‘perhaps’ is doing double duty. - Which one''s the anagrind? Out? Perhaps? Is it doing double duty? - if "perhaps" is part of def, clue lacks anagrind (and if "perhaps" is anagrind, def is not as accurate) |
|
| 22 | Unborn baby! Basically every maturing baby raises your optimism (6) | 4 | 4 | Acrostic, Definition : Unborn baby |
- A competent clue, but lacking the special brilliance that marks a winner. |
|
| 23 | Beginning made by treating dreamboy without one daughter(6) | 4 | 2 | def: beginning, fodder : (dreamboy -d-a)*, anagrind: treating | ||
| 24 | Ombre playing has unknown origin (6) | 3 | 3 | Y (unknown) in {OMBRE}*. Anagram indicator - playing. Container indicator - has. Def - origin. Surface: see second para of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombre#History | ||
| 25 | Merboy developed from a seed. (6) | 3 | 3 | Fodder: merboy (a young male half fish creature) Anagrind: developed. Definition: a seed. |
- Wordplay from definition is not correct IMO - Fun anagram find 😊 |
|
| 26 | Ambiguously, bore my egg! | 3 | 2 | Egg - defn, ambiguously - anagrind, bore my - anagram of embryo |
- “egg” is not embryo. “Ambiguously” not a great anagrind. |
|
| 27 | Starting eight months before ready, youngster's organism (6) | 3 | 2 | &lit acrostic ("Starting") - human embryo stage starts about 8 months before birth | ||
| 28 | Following Zygote more by design! (6) | 3 | 1 | Def - EMBRYO - Following Zygote- (stage); anagram of 'more by' - anagrind -'design' ; The whole clue also reflects that Embryo stage follows the Zygote stage by design. |
- Why capitalise “Zygote” - What does the surface mean? |
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| 29 | Life of yore revolved around doctor (6) | 2 | 1 | Defn is life, doctor is mb, yore* around mb |
- Life = embryo seems a bit of a stretch. |
|
| 30 | Source of foremost fabric - rayons essentially everywhere (6) | 1 | 1 | Anno: forEMost faBRics raYOns. Def: Source |
- Nice misdirection, but letter-selection doesn’t seem fair - Lovely surface. What is the purpose of ‘everywhere’? |
|
| 31 | Author of 'Offspring in the Making' (6) | 1 | 1 | DD |
- I’m not sure I get how ‘author’ works here. (A more explicit annotation might have helped me) - Anno insufficient. “Author of” = embryo? - I don’t understand; could you explain it in the comments on the post? |
|
| 32 | Middle part of bio replaced with line on pronoun taken up in the beginning of a new life (6) | 1 | 1 | B(-i)(+RY)O + ME< [EM B(RY)O] + def (the beginning of a new life) |
- Not snappy enough to medal. |
|
| 33 | Re Moby: dance source | 1 | 1 | Anagram (“dance”) “Re Moby” / def. = “source” |
- Legit clue, but surface is pedestrian - I realise Moby is an electronic music artist; What does the surface mean? ‘Dance’ isn’t a great anagram indicator. |
|
| 34 | Pre-human society ending in the first person objectified, looking back at a sibling (6) | 1 | 1 | Y (society ending) contained in reversal of ME (first person, "objectified") + BR/O (sibling). "Pre-human" is def. |
- It works, but it works too hard. “dude” better than sibling? - What does the surface mean? |
|
| 35 | Bun in the oven by more, loosely arranged (6) | 0 | Bun in the oven = def / (BYMORE)*loosely arranged |
- Fun idea, well executed, except “loosely” is redundant. Re-wording could lose it. - What does the surface mean? |