| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manish Jhaveri | Team on key bus in Essex caught clowning around [6, 8] | 30 | 15 | Telescopic with caught as containment indicator. Def = clowning around. Surface evokes a cricket / football team travelling in Essex. |
- Hidden word the last thing I expected 😊 - 👍 - Good try for a telescopic . 14 letters over 4 words is very good. Past tense is generally not seen as indicator, IMO. - That''s a lovely long telescopic worked into a great surface. - Good attempt at a long telescopic. But "key bus" doesn''t read well. |
| 2 | Textrous | Improper behavior by Musk is seen on broadcast (6,8) | 29 | 17 | Def: Improper behavior; Anagrind: broadcast; (by Musk is seen on)*; Reference to Musk smoking and drinking on a live show |
- So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out.3 - The best of the Musk clues! |
| 3 | Dave Williams | Crazy Musk's been noisy making dodgy deals | 29 | 14 | *(MUSK'S BEEN NOISY) |
- So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out. - Nice surface and link to current affairs. It''s a shame three clues have the same anagram fodder. |
| 4 | @LowdownCryptic | Musk's been noisy, out of line and fooling around (6,8) | 28 | 15 | Def: fooling around. Anagram (out of line) of MUSK'S BEEN NOISY. Ref: Elon's shenanigans |
- Out of line as an anagram indicator? - So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out. - Nice surface and link to current affairs. It''s a shame three clues have the same anagram fodder. |
| 5 | Veera Raghavan | Bank issues money not initially authorized, perhaps pointing to hanky-panky (6,8) | 26 | 13 | (Bank issues money - a)*. Perhaps is anagrind. Def: hanky-panky |
- * without initial authorisation? |
| 6 | Kabir Firaque | Mischievous boy kisses English nun, beaten up by head of monastery (6, 8) | 18 | 9 | (Definition: mischievous. Anagrind = beaten up. Head of monastery: M): BOY KISSES E NUN* by M |
- What a surface! Fun attempt - wordplay seems to work! - "mischievous" = adj. whereas MONKEY BUSINESS = noun. - ‘Mischievous’ suggests the answer should be an adjective rather than a noun - Nice surface and clear wordplay. Points from me - Great surface! You have a POS issue: ''mischievous'' is an adjective whereas ''monkey-business'' is a noun. - Nice but monkey business = mischief and not mischievous |
| 7 | Michael Rolfe | A minor may be following my French affair for mischief (6,8) | 17 | 10 | A-minor = KEY (“in the key of A-minor”); maybe = dbei; following = juxtaposition; my French = MON; affair = BUSINESS; mischief = def. |
- Juxtaposition? I''m not really sure that word fits there but A-minor= key is a good find! Fair attempt - Business could have been clues cryptically than as a straight synonym - Great surface. The DBEI ''maybe'' should be split to facilitate the surface; ''may be'' and ''maybe'' are two different meanings. |
| 8 | Ganesh Nayak | Apeshit? (6, 7) | 16 | 7 | CD |
- I like how it took you only 7 letters - seems to work , too! - Lovely, concise idea, but monkey’s aren’t apes. - Cute. - Like the pun but to me, doesn''t work as a CD alone. This is a def with some wordplay would have been ace. |
| 9 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Uses bins perhaps for underhand dealings? | 12 | 8 | Reverse Anagram of Business; (Monkey as a verb meaning to tamper/ act in a mischievous manner, 'perhaps' and '?' to indicate RA) |
- Fair attempt! - Nice surface. I wouldn''t include a word as part of the indication of this structure of RA; a ? is adequate. |
| 10 | Avtaar | Suspect dealings in refurbished buses sink money (6,8) | 12 | 7 | BUSESSINKMONEY* (Refurbished)*. Def: Suspect dealings |
- Okay, but yet another competent anno without a winning spark. - I''ve not heard the phrase ''sink money''; is this a phrase? |
| 11 | Sowmya Ramkumar | Absurdity of investing final buck in stock trading, say (6, 8) | 12 | 5 | Def: Absurdity, insertion of K (final buck) in Money Business (Stock trading, say - DBE) |
- Well constructed! Surface makes a lot of sense too - Absurdity is not an anagram for monkey business. |
| 12 | Small bunnies smoke yellow hash for mischief (6, 8) | 10 | 5 | Def - mischief, (small = s) + bunnies + smoke + (y= yellow) , hash = anagrind |
- That''s quite a cute, whimsical imagery - wordplay might be treading the lines of indirect anagram though, but seems doable - Cute surface. I will give your clue votes for doing something different and fun. |
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| 13 | Clowning about in the company of apes? | 9 | 6 | Double definition, one of which is a cryptic def (referenced by a question mark) |
- An appealing simple clue that gets the job done. - Cute. |
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| 14 | Some sort of tomfoolery, unfortunately — Musk’s been noisy (6, 8) | 8 | 5 | (MUSKS BEEN NOISY)*; unfortunately = anagrind; some sort of tomfoolery = def. |
- So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out. - Better among the Musk clues - Nice surface It''s a shame three clues have the same anagram fodder. |
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| 15 | Doctor seen in skybus playing dirty tricks(6,8) | 7 | 6 | Anno: (MO)(SEEN+IN+SKYBUS)*. Doctor=MO; Anagram fodder: Seen in skybus; Anagrind: Playing; Definition: Dirty tricks |
- A workmanlike clue, but lacking the something-extra of a winner. MO is technically legit, but not known to many solvers. |
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| 16 | Scam is about vital transport being in mess | 7 | 5 | M(on key bus in)ess, Def: scam |
- Seems slightly grammatically off - or maybe you can just skip the ''is'' - I respect the straightforward wordplay! - mess > mess? Not strictly verboten, but stylistically not top-notch. - Nice surface. I''m not sure that your clue annotates to MONKEY-BUSINESS; it looks more like ON KEY BUS inside MESS. You need something between ''transport'' and ''being'' to act as an insertion indicator. |
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| 17 | Making mischief half-heartedly, reveal bottom in front of locksmiths! | 7 | 4 | Mischief = definition / half-heartedly, reveal bottom = M[o]ON / locksmiths! = KEY BUSINESS |
- Locksmiths reads as oddly specific when you look at the surface - but I still find it amusing! - half-heartedly 👍 - KEY BUSINESS is singular but "locksmiths" is plural. Wouldn''t "locksmith''s" be better? - Nice idea. There is a POS issue: ''Making mischief'' is a verb phrase whereas ''monkey-business'' is a noun. |
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| 18 | Bum seeks noisy neighborhood at first for playing hanky-panky (6,8) | 5 | 3 | Anagram - BUM + SEEKS + NOISY + N(eighbourhood), Anagrind - For playing, Hanky-panky (Defn) |
- Not sure “for playing” works well as anagrind. - Great surface. ''for playing'' isn''t an anagram indicator; just ''playing. In your clue ''for'' comes as part of the anagram fodder. |
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| 19 | Colorless individual Elon Musk's been busy playing shenanigans (6,8) | 3 | 2 | Fodder : {I ELON MUSKS BEEN BUSY} - {BLUE} (colorless) Anagrind (playing) Definition (Shenanigans) |
- Colorless = - BLUE seems a bit iffy? And we have to remove an anagrmmed version of blue too - indirect anagram? - Indirect anagram deletion - So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out. - Indirect anagram deletion? :-O - Great surface. There are a couple of issues with the deletion: How does the solver know it''s BLUE that needs to be deleted? The letters of BLUE do not appear in that order in the fodder so you would need an anagram indicator there. - Since blue does not appear as such, using colourless makes it an Indirect anagram - Not sure whether deletion fodder can be a synonym, that is like an indirect anagram |
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| 20 | Sounds like Gregorian chanter pitch craft is messing about | 3 | 2 | def = messing about, sounds like[Gregorian chanter (monk) pitch (key)] craft(business) |
- Surface is a bit stretched. - What is ''gregorian chanter pitch craft''? ''Gregorian chanter'' > MONK needs a DBEI as there are other types of monk. What is the purpose of ''sound like'' which is a homophone indicator? You have two K sounds: MONK KEY whereas it''s said with just the one. |
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| 21 | Mischief results when Curious George directs traffic (6,8) | 3 | 2 | Curious George (monkey) directs (leads or comes before) traffic (business), resulting in mischief (definition) |
- Fun imagery! - Popular-culture references risk generating a blank stare, disqualifying in a competitive environment. - Who / Lovely surface. What is ''Curious George''? This seems a bit vague / niche. I don''t think ''directs'' is a valid juxtaposition indicator. |
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| 22 | Man eater: bit of heart on the left, skin, bones, yum! Us: The end? Run frantically - this means devilry! | 3 | 1 | Anagram: { E (bit of heart on the left of "Man eater") + SKIN + BONES + YUM + S (the end of "us")}* Run frantically being the anagram indicator. Definition: This means devilry |
- Surface doesn’t read well - Works too hard: the winner is going to be a deft little surprise. - It''s like a whole scene from a horror film neatly wrapped up in a clue. I will give your clue votes for doing something out of the ordinary even though ''us the end'' doesn''t quite equal S; it would need to be ''the end of us''. |
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| 23 | Hammered Musk bones Ye in initiatory saturnalian antics (6, 8) | 2 | 2 | Anagrind: "Hammered." / Anagram Fodder: "MUSK BONES YE IN" + "S" ("initiatory Saturnalian"). / Def: "antics." / (Obligatory disclaimer: This is satire, not a statement of fact.) |
- Surface meaning eludes me - So many Musk anagrams make it difficult for one to stand out. - I''m not a fan of using old English in clues unless the surface context lends to this. |
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| 24 | Ape trade amounting to tomfoolery(6,8) | 2 | 1 | def: tomfoolery, ape trade = monkey business. |
- An appealing simple bijoux little clue, but monkeys aren’t apes. - Perhaps a bit too straightforward |
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| 25 | Basically Ketan caught in capital transactions that was illegal(6,8) | 2 | 1 | Def - illegal Mon(k)ey (Money - capital) Busines (transactions) |
- Obscure references risk generating a blank stare, disqualifying in a competitive environment. - Surface is good. But Business could have been clued cryptically rather than as a synonym - Nice surface. You have a mismatch of number in ''transactions that was''. I''m told that past tense connectors are not allowed. |
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| 26 | Strike impacts cash transactions for shady dealings | 0 | 5 | Strike (K) impacts cash (MONEY) -> MONKEY, transactions (BUSINESS), Def - shady dealings |
- K = strike is non-standard and MW and AHD have it as strikeout - Great surface. I don''t think ''strike'' > K works. I guess you''re thinking of KO = knock out but that''s ''knock'' > K. - Strike = K? |
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| 27 | It’s an animal’s work to do mischief! | 0 | 2 | DD - mischief =defn. Animal - monkey, work - business |
- An appealing simple clue that gets the job done. - Nice surface. Your have a POS mismatch in that ''monkey-business'' is a noun whereas ''to do mischief'' is a verb phrase. |
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| 28 | Shenanigans a small zoo described? | 0 | 1 | Shenanigans = def., a small zoo = def. (DD) |
- Monkey business = small zoo? How? - Why small? Supposed to indicate “specialising in monkeys”? Doesn’t work for me. - I think better would be "Shenanigans in small zoo?"; I cannot see a purpose to ''described''. Saying all of this, I''m not sure that ''small zoo'' = MONKEY BUSINESS; perhaps it could be as a DBEI |