| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manish Jhaveri | Criminal I target in church is one among a pack of killers (9) | 32 | 18 | ITARGET* in CE; def = one among a pack of killers |
- The definition would benefit from a question mark. - Excellent! - I like the definition particularly |
| 2 | Satyen Nabar | Get article about giving up ultimately harmful product causing cancer (9) | 26 | 17 | (GET ARTICLE)* - L; about= anag ind, giving up= deletion ind, ultimately harmful= L (last letter selection), def= product causing cancer. |
- Love this. Think there may be grammatical grumbling about the positioning of ‘ultimately’ - perhaps could be ‘the last of’ instead? |
| 3 | N Anantakrishnan | Caught wild tiger at edge of jungle - it can be dangerous | 21 | 15 | C (tiger at)* e Def - it can be dangerous | |
| 4 | Abhay Phadnis | Fag end of big title race disrupted after student drops out (9) | 20 | 15 | Definition: Fag; "end of biG"=G; [G TITLE RACE] "disrupted" (anagrind) "after student (L) drops out" = [G+TITE+RACE]* = CIGARETTE | |
| 5 | Hari Mannarsamy | Get care! It could be a Health hazard! | 19 | 14 | (Get care it)* |
- ''Get care'' is not a standard expression - clunky surface |
| 6 | Veera Raghavan | Starts to ignite gathered tinder, creates mostly swirling smoke (9) | 19 | 12 | (I G T CREATE)*. Swirling is anagrind. Definition: smoke |
- Nice definition! - Nice surface |
| 7 | Ganesh Raman | Spooner's fix? A place for a smoke | 16 | 8 | Spoonerism of "Rig (fix) a set (place)" Def on the right |
- cheeky and fun |
| 8 | Adman_i | Dazzling E-car GT, I note, emits no smoke (9) | 13 | 10 | E-car GT : Electric car Grand Tourer, Dazzling : Anagrind, Emits : del ind, Smoke (Definition) : (ECAR + GT + I)* + (NOTE - NO) | |
| 9 | Sitter | This is often tipped, but not by medical professionals! | 12 | 6 | Self-explanatory CD |
- Very neat |
| 10 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Tragic! French and English invention is a potential killer (9) | 11 | 9 | [TRAGIC + ET (and in French) + E (English)]* indicated by invention. Def. A potential killer |
- Good surface & wordplay |
| 11 | @qpheevr | Joint Chiefs (of course including General Allvin) report exclusively to the executive (9) | 11 | 8 | Acrostic, indicated by “chiefs of”; def.: “joint”. Surface refers to US military advisors; General David W. Allvin is Chief of Staff of the US Air Force |
- The brackets are disruptive and interrupt the cryptic grammar |
| 12 | @LowdownCryptic | Spooner says "Fix a group something unhealthy" (9) | 11 | 6 | "Rig a set" spoonerism, def = something unhealthy | |
| 13 | Drawing on this could be teratogenic (9) | 10 | 5 | &lit comp. anag.*ON CIGARETTE = TERATOGENIC. For the surface drawing on = inhaling, for the cryptic drawing = eviscerating. Teratogenic means harmful to a fetus. |
- Superb. - This is very clever! But ‘drawing = eviscerating’ suggests dropping middle letters, rather than anagramming (which is adequately indicated by ‘could be’ anyway) - Great construction, but drawing as eviscerating suggests removing inner parts, not anagramming |
|
| 14 | Smoke big descaled fish in this, Provençal style (9) | 9 | 7 | [b]I[g]+GAR in CETTE, French for “this” |
- Not completely convinced by descaled as outer letters removal. This provencal style is good though |
|
| 15 | Roll it and eventually die...tragic (9) | 8 | 6 | Anagram of (IT E TRAGIC), roll is anagram ind, whole clue is def |
- alea jacta est - Wrong anag. Extra i, missing e |
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| 16 | Joint etc. rolled up, inhaling air, get high (9) | 8 | 6 | C(IGARET*)TE< Def: Joint, Rolled up - Reversal indicator, High - Anagram indicator | ||
| 17 | One of a Group of Twenty, perhaps, give credit to revolutionary Greta's interrupting! (9) | 7 | 5 | CI(GARET*)TE; [give credit to] = CITE; [revolutionary Greta] = GARET*; ['s interrupting] = container indicator; surface references the G20 (where Greta Thunberg might protest) and the standard size of a pack of cigarettes |
- Sorry I didn’t have points left for this! I love the whole idea but surface doesn’t quite flow for me! - In the surface reading, “give” doesn’t agree in number with “one” |
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| 18 | Quote covers renovation of great joint (9) | 7 | 5 | Cite around anagram of great. Definition = joint | ||
| 19 | Worry about police officer approaching railway employee for nicotine roll(9) | 4 | 3 | Definition: Nicotine roll. Anno: (C(IG)ARE)(TTE). Worry - Care. Police officer - IG. Railway employee - TTE. About - Containment indicator. | ||
| 20 | Mention about fish touching alien's butt(9) | 3 | 3 | Mention is cite/ about is container indicator/fish is gar/ alien is et/ butt is definition |
- There are a few clues using ‘butt’ as a definition - maybe I’m being too fussy but for me that’s just a part of a cigarette, not a synonym. |
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| 21 | Setter tragically loses the right to hold back his butt(9) | 2 | 2 | sETTER AGICally (loses right, RT missing) read back within |
- losing would be better cryptic grammar - Deserves a mention for creativity - didn’t quite work for me but think it has the makings of something brilliant! Would certainly remove ‘the’ and think surface doesn’t quite make enough sense to me. - Good wordplay. Less fussed on def & surface though. |
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| 22 | North gone for good in unusually nice treat for a smoker! | 1 | 1 | Anagram of NICE TREAT but with North (N) 'gone for' good (G) |
- I don''t think the definition works here smoker is an agent noun not what is smoked. It''s not slang that I''ve ever heard for a ciggie either. |
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| 23 | Tragically eat tiger (cold)? It's an abomination! (9) | 0 | Anagram indicator: TRAGICALLY, Fodder: eat tiger c. Definition: It's an abomination. |
- I loved this other than I can’t make ‘tragically’ work as an anagram indicator sorry! Wondered if something like ‘bizarrely’ might work better - Def is rather vague |