Two teams were tied at the first and second positions at the end of Phase I of the prestigious annual national-level inter-school Cryptic Crossword Contest 2021, on Sunday. The contest was inaugurated on July 31.
The teams led by Vijval Ekbote of The Mother’s International School, New Delhi, and Adya Singh of Notre Dame Academy, Patna, shared the first spot; those led by Vaishnavi Pandey of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) Farrukhabad and Aditya Sharma of JNV Faridabad shared the second spot. The team led by Ashish M. of DPS Pune got the third position.
The rankings are based on the cumulative scores of the two online rounds on July 31 and August 1. Based on the overall rankings, school teams will now be shortlisted for a face-to-face online round and then for an offline Grand Finale in Phase II. All online rounds are hosted on the portal crypticsingh.com.
On inaugural day, too, Mr. Ekbote’s team stood first after Round 1 whereas Ms. Singh’s team was a close second. Mr. Ashish’s team was at the third spot. In Round 2 on August 1, while Mr. Ekbote’s team stood first, the one led by Krati Saxena of DPS Vadodara stood second. Ms. Singh’s team took the third spot.
The cumulative scores will be taken into account to shortlist school teams for Phase II. While the national rankings are the key, the organisers will also take into account State and city performances to broad base representation at the Phase II level from different parts of India.
As many as 9,672 school teams had registered till July 31 from across 353 towns and cities in India to participate in the contest, which has been acknowledged as the biggest of its kind by the Limca Book of Records.
A school team comprises two students of Classses 7 to 12.
The maximum number of registrations — 3,200 — came from Bihar’s 38 towns. Telangana with 967 registrations from 32 towns, Assam with 757 teams from 16 towns, Tamil Nadu with 742 teams from 26 towns, Karnataka with 675 teams from 23 towns, J&K with 466 teams from 15 towns, were the other big-number States in terms of registrations.
Registrations for the contest were also received from as far as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Sikkim, Manipur and Meghalaya, among others.
The contest has been an offline event since its inception in 2013. Due to the pandemic, the current edition is being held in an online format. The previous edition, the CCCC 2020, too was held online amid the nationwide lockdown.
The inauguration on July 31, was marked by an address to participants by Iqbal Singh Chahal, IAS, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai.
