Stats -23 people managed to submit the completed grid for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, a whopping 13 managed to get the full score of 33, Shakespeare references and all!. The following is the list of people who had full scores, in alphabetical order..
1. Aashwina Mouli
2. Akshay Bhandarkar
3. Ashley Smith
4. Col. Deepak Gopinath
5. Ganesh Nayak
6. Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
7. Neelima Rai
8. Raju Umamaheswar
9. Vasant Srinivasan
10. Venkatraghavan S.
11. Vignesh Kiran
12. Vinayak Ekbote
13. Viresh Ratnakar
Congrats to all of you.
Here’s the Solution grid
Questions asked at the end of the puzzle included Annotations for Clues 19A, 28A and a list of three theme words, as well as the theme.
The theme related to characters from Shakespeare as well as works of Shakespeare. In addition to the theme words highlighted in the grid above, the following clues also had references to the theme in the clue surface – 9a, 17a, 19a, 22a, 26a, 27a, 28a, 2d and 19d.
Here are the Annotations..
Across:
1. Chips, not right at fantastic Spanish gala (6) FRIES-R +AT*
5. Avoid cool revolutionary- not a character from Othello(8) AVOIDCOOL-A*
9. Spectacular and swift, like Caesar’s rise to power(8) Multiple Definition
10. A pinion around new shade provider(6) A WING<<N
11. Stan Hope turns into a tipsy butler wanting to become the king of the island(8) STANHOPE*
12. Settles wife inside and slogs(6) S(W)EATS
13. The French man, (Peeping Tom) turns and mocks(8) LA M SNOOP<<
16. …not any lover of the Egyptian Queen(6) NOTANY*
17. Useless deposit from Beatrice, so it obviously is rejected(6) Rev. T
19. The first letter from poor Bard, (losing head over Queen) to Chaucer’s nameless character(8) P(-oor)+ (-B)ARD +ON +ER
21. A secluded spot for a bit of cuddling, in tenderness(6) A L(C)OVE
22. Some classy bar items for a man like Falstaff?(8) T
25. Bags for men from kinky actors(6) ACTORS*
26. Veiled hint: Rep identifies woman like Cordelia?(8) T
27. Keats’ pining lady from Messina or Shakespeare’s sexually repressed nun?(8) both characters are called Isabella
28. Couples from Mexico, Columbia & Dylym, at say, “All’s well that ends well”(6) CO ME DY
Down:
2. Still heads of Iago, Nestor, Emilia, Roderigo & Trojan(5) Acrostic
3. Dear! Good man to piddle on way back(5) good man =ST, PEE<<
4. William’s ‘Fantastical Spaniard’ to fuss about torrential rain(7) ADO<RAIN*
5. Voters do not initiate college readers(7) (-e)LECTORS
6. Gone…say,behold -hyper saline lake in Asia(4,3) DEAD SEE hp
7. Free incentive -endless love for the Duke of Vienna(9) INCENTIV*+O
8. She, who said, “I am not mad…”, with bit of sharp practice and attitude(9) C ON STANCE
14. Motor vehicle with Greek wolf and con artist from The Winter’s Tale(9) AUTO + greek wolf=LYCUS
15. Spoil, in a flash?(9) CD
18. Check out, pick up everything says Spooner(7) Spoonerism – buy all/ eye ball
19. Initially, Prospero is seen clad in nothing at a pool from the Roman era(7) Acrostic
20. Miserable boor has a twitch, perhaps mechanical(7) BOOR*TIC
23. Odd! Embracing that man with watery discharge(5) R(HE)UM
24. After second, hit another road(5) HIT* RD