Stats – 23 unique entries were received in all for this puzzle. 10 of those who attempted the puzzle got a full score of 35. The following is the list of people who had full scores, in alphabetical order..
1. Akshay Bhandarkar
2. Ashley Smith
3. Col. Deepak Gopinath
4. Mona Sogal
5. Narayan Mandyam
6. Neelima Rai
7. Supriya Mithal
8. Venkatraghavan S.
9. Vinayak Ekbote
10. Viresh Ratnakar
Congrats to all of you.
Here’s the Solution grid
Questions asked at the end of the puzzle included Annotations for Clues 10A, 16A and 4D.
Here are the Annotations
Across:
1 Brainwork undergoing change of direction calls for festivity (11) L changed to R in CEREBRATION
9 Ruffle a girl with a model in resting place (9) A G GRAV(AT)E
10 Bash one not in correspondence (5) PARITY-I
11 A crowd, it’s said, beginning to hatch in part of garden (5) T(H)REE
12 Small core represented in an activity from which one is barred (3-6) SMALLCORE*
14 Hilda’s disturbed by a bloomer (6) HILDAA*
16 Half a Washington city beside Australian marsupial (7) WALLA + BY (Walla Walla is the city)
19 A word repeated quietly could be a snare (7) MANTRA P
20 A man, almost divinely favoured, goes easy (6) A M BLES (-SED)
24 What hunters get when they shoot down tuskers, perhaps (3,6) CD
26 Saint’s always in control (5) ST E’ER
27 Son kindly provided balloon (5) S WELL
28 Mollycoddling father and mother with favourite, timeless ornament (9) PA M PET-T RING
29 A doubly new river, say, calls for yearly commemoration (11) A N N RIVERSAY*
Down:
1 Firm dates fixed – didn’t work too hard! (7) CO DATES*
2 Record choice bird in a torrent of mumbo jumbo (9) LOG OR RHEA
3 Brilliant display by boy with extraordinary zeal (5) B+ZEAL*
4 Poles leave learned person a right image (6) [-s]AVA[-n]T A R
5 Sack female dropped in anger (3) [-f]IRE
6 Okay to house expert in aristocratic section of mansion (2,7) NO[PRO] BLE M[ansion]
7 Make sense of prisoners going out to be straight (4) [cons]TRUE
8 Wanderer’s swindle’s extremely sleazy (5) GYP S…Y
13 Beg no prince to be in the forefront (4) [-p]LEAD
15 Bury a liaison – not one so new – among other things (5,4) INTER A LIA [i son]
17 Dancer’s short song about Ireland (9) BALL(ERIN)A[d]
18 Live up to a kind of music (4) DD
21 Son’s rugged and unkempt (7) S CRAGGY
22 Bring shame on a blowout (5) A BASH
23 Like one short step of writer (6) AS I MOV[e]
25 Delight in old song (4) DD
26 Cut is reportedly absolute (5) Hp sheer
28 Put down: “One is out of distress” (3) PA[-i]N