Winning by several nautical miles, Karol S crosses the strait breezily with a staggering 40 points for the &lit clue
It’s a shortcut, essentially, at sea
Veera Raghavan and Textrous tie in 2nd place with 20 points.
Basically surviving Trump’s repeated attacks, Iran triumphs in Hormuz, for one
Byzantine art is at the heart of History Channel
Abhay Phadnis in 4th place with 19 points for
Channel is abandoning fiery satirist
In 5th place is Kalyan Bandyopadhyay with 17 points
Rats run riot next to city centre passageway
Thank you all for the clues and votes. Over to you Karol.
Top 10
| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karol S | It’s a shortcut, essentially, at sea | 40 | 14 | (ITS + A + RT [“shoRTcut essentially”])*. Anagrind= “at sea”. &lit.def – Straits connect two larger areas at sea, allowing shipments to avoid long detours around (or over) continents | – This is a godsent, well done – Cute &lit |
| 2 | Veera Raghavan | Basically surviving Trump’s repeated attacks, Iran triumphs in Hormuz, for one (6) | 20 | 8 | Acrostic clue. Definition: Hormuz, for one | – Basically is not a valid first letter indicator – has no meaning that conveys “start of” |
| 3 | Textrous | Byzantine art is at the heart of History Channel (6) | 20 | 7 | Def: Channel, anagrind: Byzantine, ARTIS*, at: connector, the heart of History: T | – Nice one – Nice misdirection |
| 4 | Abhay Phadnis | Channel is abandoning fiery satirist (6) | 19 | 9 | Definition: “channel”; “is” “abandoning” [SATIR(-is)T]*; anagrind: fiery. (A small tribute to Stephen Colbert!) | – Points for name dropping Stephen Col-berr |
| 5 | Kalyan Bandyopadhyay | Rats run riot next to city centre passageway (6) | 17 | 6 | Anagram (run riot) of RATS + (city centre, middle letters of cITy) IT = STRAIT. Definition: Passageway. | – “Center of city” or “city’s center” are both acceptable letter-selection indicators for IT. It’s not enough to simple place the indicator adjacent to the fodder. There has to be a grammatical link between them. – Fodder runs riot or running riot |
| 6 | Aashirwad | Sound of sitar playing at end of concert (6) | 16 | 7 | “Sound” is the definition. Anagram of SITAR + T | |
| 7 | Manish Jhaveri | Turbulent start engulfs opening of international waterway | 16 | 7 | Anagram of START (turbulent is the indicator) around I (opening of international). Def = waterway | |
| 8 | Kabir Firaque | First show of strength: amid tense time, Iran cut off waterway (6) | 16 | 6 | S + T[IRA(- n)]*T. Abbreviations: tense and time (T and T). Indicators: first show of (initial letter); amid (insertion); cut (last letter deletion); off (anagram). Definition: waterway | |
| 9 | Anne de Pimodan | Craft entering this turned around without Ayatollah’s backing? (6) | 16 | 5 | T[h]I(ART)S<. QM for the DBE | – Super clue |
| 10 | Mona Sogal | Auditor’s reliable and sound (6) | 14 | 6 | Sound is definition/ auditor’s is homophone indicator for reliable – straight HP of strait | – Very neat |
Congrats to the toppers and all those who participated.
Over to Karol S for the next contest.
Here’s the link to the full results
Also Check out the Leaderboard for 2026.
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