1ACCWC - Results
1ACCWC#563 - STRAIT
Total Clues: 26 Total Voters: 28
✓ Contest Closed - Final Results
| # | 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 |
| 11 | --- | Navy abandoning transit after bombing in Hormuz, say (6) | 11 | 5 | Anag. after bombing of (TRANSIT - N)*. Def: Hormuz, say | --- |
| 12 | --- | Tortured artist finding connection through drink | 10 | 4 | (ARTIST*) - "(the) drink" is a large body of water, a strait is a connection between portions of the drink |
- If a dictionary lists “the drink” as the definition for a large body of water, I don’t think we can drop the “the” when using it as a definition for the same. - Fun CD! |
| 13 | --- | Artist redraws Hormuz, say | 9 | 4 | Def: Hormuz, say Redraws - anind[ Artist - anagram fodder |
- The anagram indicator is redrawn |
| 14 | --- | Leaders in Senate: "Trump's rhetoric affecting international trade channel" (6) | 9 | 3 | Acrostic clue with "channel" as def | --- |
| 15 | --- | Artist swimming in Gibraltar, say (6) | 7 | 4 | Definition: Gibraltar, say. Anno: (ARTIST)*. Swimming – Anagrind. | --- |
| 16 | --- | Araghchi essentially leaves directly for Hormuz! | 7 | 3 | Remove GH (essential of AraGHchi) from STRAIGHT (directly), to get strait (Hormuz!) -Def'n |
- exclamation mark (\"a screamer\") isn\'t a definition by example indicator - Needs a DBE indicator |
| 17 | --- | Narrow site realists regularly avoided | 6 | 3 | Narrow (noun) = def; Alternating letters (regularly avoided) of SITE REALISTS; also &lit | --- |
| 18 | --- | I got into classic Fender electric guitar sound (6) | 6 | 3 | STRA(I)T: ‘classic Fender electric guitar’ = STRAT (common nickname for Stratocaster); def. ‘sound’ (body of water) |
- Niche but very neat - The letter I gets into the fodder |
| 19 | --- | Initially, strategic talks restore all imports through Hormuz, say (6) | 5 | 2 | Acrostic clue; Initially = acrostic indicator; say = example indicator | --- |
| 20 | --- | Shimmering sitar and tablas start to sound | 5 | 2 | STRAI (anag.) + T. Def = ‘sound’ — as a noun but used as verb for surface. |
- Grammatically, “S” is “tablas’ start” and not “tablas start” - Should be start of tablas |
| 21 | --- | At first, turned off loud sound (6) | 4 | 2 | ATFIRST* - f ; def: sound |
- I don’t think “off loud” works grammatically as a deletion indicator for F. “Offing loud” would be proper, but then your surface wouldn’t work. |
| 22 | --- | "The Way of Water" with audience in a row (6) | 4 | 1 | The way of water (def/avatar movie), audience (homophone indicator), in a row = straight (homophone of STRAIT) |
- “audience in a row” doesn’t work as a homophone indicator. Yes, the homophone indicator is adjacent to the homophone fodder. But that’s not enough. Grammatically, you want to say something like “in a row to the audience” to indicate a homophone. - Some nice misdirection here, though I’m a bit dubious about including “the” in the definition |
| 23 | --- | Crisis as train missing station's end lands in empty spot (6) | 3 | 1 | Def: CRISIS TRAIN - N station's end in S..T empty spot. | --- |
| 24 | --- | Artist redrawn the channel, say Hormuz? | 2 | 1 | Channel=strait (def.), redrawn=anagrind, (artist)*, say(example), Hormuz(strait) |
- The surface grammar doesn’t really work - ? unnecessary with \"say\" |
| 25 | --- | Water channel transit disturbed with no end of Iran | 0 | 0 | Anagram (suggested by disturbed) of TRANSIT minus N (end of Iran), Def = water channel | --- |
| 26 | --- | It chases rats around a passage, mainly speaking? (6) | 0 | 0 | IT after RATS* (around); Def: a passage, "mainly" speaking ("main" is a literary/poetic word for sea/ocean) |
- “Mainly speaking” is clever, but a bit awkward; I think “in the main” would work better in both the cryptic and the surface readings - main is a noun for sea, but mainly is not an adverb that means \"in a sea-like way\". \"In the main\" would have worked. |