| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Satyen Nabar | Wild night in Bali without husband is exciting (4-6) | 55 | 24 | (NIGHT IN BALI)* - H; wild= anag ind, husband= H, defn= exciting |
- A fun surface and simple wordplay! |
| 2 | Textrous | Dramatic end to Indian tail in big ground (4-6) | 29 | 14 | Def:Dramatic, end to Indian=N, (TAIL IN BIG)*, "ground" is the anagrind |
- Lovely cricket surface. - No idea what this surface means, sorry. |
| 3 | Madhusudan H | Without training, batting in IPL can be nerve wracking (4-6) | 23 | 12 | Without training {PT}, {BATTING IN IPL} (fodder) , can be (Anagrind) nerve wracking (definition) |
- Very well constructed! - Lovely cricket surface. |
| 4 | Veera Raghavan | Latin being not easy at first, I became tense (4,6) | 21 | 11 | (LATINBEING-E+I)* Became is anagrind Def:Tense | |
| 5 | Sowmya Ramkumar | Jittery Sunak essentially weak, has little time (4-6) | 17 | 10 | N AIL(BIT)ING Def: Jittery, N (sunak, essentially) AILING (weak) - little time - BIT (eg - see you in a bit). |
- Nice surface. The link between ''little time'' and ''bit'' is a bit tenuous. - Good one |
| 6 | @LowdownCryptic | Batman actor dubbing in Spooner's speaking style is unnerving (4-6) | 14 | 8 | "Batman actor" = (Christian) BALE; "dubbing" = KNIGHTING; "in Spooner's speaking style" = Spoonerism indicator; "unnerving" = def (NAIL-BITING) |
- Interesting use of spoonerism this! - My favorite of the Spoonerisms this week. |
| 7 | N Anantakrishnan | Catching outside edge of bat! It is nerve-wracking! | 14 | 8 | Catching = nailing. Outside= containment indicator. Edge of bat = B. Nail ( B IT) ing. Def - nerve-wracking |
- I don''t like the exclamation marks |
| 8 | Saurabh Upadhyay | For the Reverend perhaps, Christian ceremony is exciting (4,6) | 13 | 7 | Spoonerism of BALE KNIGHTING. Perhaps Christian = Bale (the actor Christian Bale), Ceremony = Knighting. Def = Exciting |
- The best of the spoonerisms here. - Very nice. |
| 9 | Dave Williams | Nothing about a small part in government is exciting | 12 | 7 | nothing about a = N(A)IL; small part = BIT; in government = IN G. exciting = def. |
- The simplicity and friendliness I respect - smooth surface! |
| 10 | Avtaar | Brewing gin & it in lab is nerve-racking (4-6) | 12 | 7 | GINITINLAB*. Def: Nerve-racking |
- Grammatically off? - What is ''it''? The surface doesn''t make very good sense; perhaps ''Brewing it with gin in lab....'' would make for a better surface. - Not a huge fan of & appearing to avoid "and" in an anagram--it sticks out too much, and not worth it here for the "it in." |
| 11 | First of all; no audience is laughing, but is the implementation not good? This is worrying! | 10 | 6 | Acrostic! Definition: this is worrying |
- A bit strained, but humorous! Nice. |
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| 12 | Exciting activity that’s unhygienic (4-6) | 10 | 6 | Double definition | ||
| 13 | Strike! Major league crowds can be tense (4-5) | 10 | 6 | NAIL+BI(TIN)G; Tense = def., NAIL (strike) + BIG (major league) "crowds" (gathers around) TIN (can) |
- The way you straddle surface and wordplay seems clever.. - What does the surface mean? |
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| 14 | Hairy Scotsman lying around, having sex wearing kinky bling (4-6) | 9 | 5 | def (hairy) NAI (Scotsman [Ian] + rev. ind. [lying around] {IAN<}) + juxt. ind. (having) + IT (sex) + cont. ind. (wearing) + anag. ind. (kinky) + LBING* [short form = NAI LB(IT)ING] |
- I don''t like Scotsman = IAN - it''s a crossword cliche with no basis in reality - a shame, because the rest is great - , - I think there''s way too much going on here; how is one lying around AND having sex? "Kinky bling" is funny, though. |
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| 15 | New power-drill tool cutting not very well on pins and needles(4-6) | 8 | 5 | Definition: On pins and needles; Anno: (N)(AIL(BIT)ING); New=N; Power-drill tool=Bit; Not very well=Ailing; Cutting=Insertion indicator. |
- Good attempt! - Great surface. ''On'' isn''t a connector. - Power-drill tool=Bit doesn’t really work. “very” redundant. |
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| 16 | Digital activity exposing cached trace | 6 | 4 | NAIL(BIT)ING; Nailing (as in exposing) containing (cached) Bit (trace); Definition: Digital activity (cryptic description of Nail biting) |
- Very devious - I wonder if it''s too difficult to solve...but interesting attempt! - Tough, but clever. |
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| 17 | New learning disability aids rely on suppressing anxiety (4-6) | 6 | 3 | (LEARNINGDISABILITY-AIDSRELY)* Def: anxiety (nail biting as a noun eg "it causes nail-biting"), Anagrind: New, Deletion Indicator: on suppressing |
- I like the way your mind works parallelly with surface and wordplay! - Great surface. You could have made this into a lovely CA. ''On suppressing'' as a deletion indicator is best used prior to the fodder being deleted. - Interesting surface, but "on suppressing" feels strained as a deletion (and that''s a BIG chunk to have to take out before anagramming). |
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| 18 | Edgy Dark Knight actor dubbing in Spooner's speech (4-6) | 5 | 4 | Spoonerism of BALE ("Dark Knight actor") KNIGHTING ("dubbing"): -> NAIL-BITING. Defn = "Edgy." |
- dubbing = knighting 👍 |
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| 19 | Cooking giant blini is a bad habit (4-6) | 5 | 3 | (GIANT BLINI)*; cooking = anagrind; ‘a bad habit’ = def. | ||
| 20 | This kind of finishes cause a bad habit, perhaps (4,6) | 4 | 3 | DD |
- Is this a typo? Should it be ''This kind of finish''? - Need singular noun and verb ("finish causes") to agree with "This." |
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| 21 | Extremely exciting spell of batting leaves opponent eventually in endless rile (4,6) | 3 | 3 | Def - extremely exciting, spell - anagrind, batting-(t = opponent eventually)= bating+in+il(endless rile) = nail-biting |
- Good attempt! Just not too sure about the indicators, especially spell - I could be wrong, though - If ''spell'' is the anagram indicator then ''of'' is part of the fodder. ''leaves opponent eventually'' doesn''t work for removing the ''t''; it would need to be ''opponent eventually leaves''. ''rile'' is not a noun so this doesn''t work in the surface. |
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| 22 | Grotesquely giant blini are disturbingly creepy (4-6) | 2 | 2 | Definition: “disturbingly creepy”. Wordplay: anagram “giant blini”. | ||
| 23 | The Reverend's collateral ennobling is symptom of anxiety (4-6) | 1 | 1 | spoonerism: bail knighting > nail-biting, def = symptom of anxiety |
- Surface? What is ''collateral ennobling''? |
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| 24 | Lion-baiting organized without love make one jittery(4-5) | 1 | 1 | def:jittery, fodder is "lion baiting-o", anagrind : organized |
- For the surface grammar, you need ''makes / making'' rather than ''make''. The surface context is a bit far-fetched. - *makes |
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| 25 | Last ball nipped by leg stump to be sent back undoes Nawaz’s bowling for lack of turn? | 0 | = letter selection indicator (last [balL]) insertion indicator (nipped by) + leg stump (TIBIA) reversal indicator (to be sent back) insertion indicator (undoes) + Nawaz’s bowling (spinNING) letter removal indicator (for lack of) turn -(spin) N[AI[L]BIT]ING refers to India v Pakistan at T20 World cup 23 October 2022 nail biting finish, not sure it entirely works |
- I think it''s too specific a cricket reference to be fair to all solvers. But very well thought out - good efforts! Although SPINNING-ING seems a bit iffy. - 😵💫 - Très rococo! |