Boo – Solutions, Annotations & Stats

Stats -25 people managed to submit the completed grid for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 17 managed to get  the full score of 47. The following 14 people managed to get full scores as well as the answers to the questions asked correctly.

1. Aashwina Mouli
2. Akshay
3. Aneerooth Thathachari
4. Col Deepak Gopinath
5. Dr S Venkatesh
6. Himanshu
7. Mona Sogal
8. Neelima Rai
9. R. Narayanan
10. Ramki Krishnan
11. Ranjani Srikanth
12. Supriya Mithal
13. Vinayak Ekbote
14. Wayne Jones

Congrats to all of you.

Here’s the Solutions grid

Questions asked at the end of the puzzle included

1. Name the theme and list three theme words
2. List three Kangaroo and Joey words

As you “boo”d have spotted it, the theme is Halloween. It also runs across as a “NINA” highlighted in “Green” in the grid above. The Theme words have been highlighted in “Yellow”.

Here are the Annotations..

Across:

1 Illusion, perhaps, of finding silver in microphone (5) M(AG)IC
5 National matter (7) DD
9 Smith’s block found in Indian village (5) T
10 Cad’s torch, for example (8) (5) bLIGHTer
11 Ten returned carrying masculine person from a Middle Eastern country (5) 10< around MAN
12 Many like this one, … or others (5) CD
13 Tree has a mark of approval on the outside (3) O(A)K
15 Rowdy yachtsmen left man at sea for the Reaper (6) (YACHTSMEN-MAN*)*
17 Bring that thing! Understand? (3,2) DD
19 Lug spectator regularly (3) spEctAtoR
20 Right assistance for attack (4) R AID
22 A couple of students get everything (3) A LL
23 Small portion of Sunapee waters flows back (3) Rev T
24 Habit developed in absence of right (4) GrOWN
25 Oddly, Sikkim hosts runner (3) SiKkIm
26 Destroys abilities (8) (5) sKILLSet
28 Bird nibbled at tasty morsel (6) TIT BIT
31 Consumed fruits (5) (3) dATEs
33 Butcher’s giggle (9) (5) sLAUGHter
35 Tightly pack 3 consecutive letters by a couple of females (5) STU FF
37 Meeting venue’s cleaning equipment (9) (5) cluBROOMs
38 Strange’s in a better mood (8) (5) chEERIEr
39 Male badly taunts genetically modified creatures (7) M TAUNTS*
40 Sultana’s tyranny is, to some extent, unpleasant (5) T

Down:

1 Wildly roams about lake, grinding teeth (6) ROAMS* about L
2 Soldier’s with a couple of girls – extremely leggy and inclined to titter (6) GI GG LY
3 Tame animal (11) (3) domestiCATe
4 Wicked variety entertainment (10) (4) vaudEVILle
5 Elves danced around European jacket (6) ELVES* around E
6 Scary sound in galley (7) (3) caBOOse
7 Muse: English love catching an animal (5) E RAT O
8 Harmed illusion (8) (5) sTRICKen
12 Cold river creature in fish-basket (5) C R EEL
14 Like Larkin … without hands (4) lArKIN-LR
16 Container has haggis in the beginning? Express your gratitude (5) T(H)ANK
17 Obese explorer has gingerbread at first (5) G ROSS
18 Goes back with good stuff (8) (5) reTREATs
21 One who treats spirits (6) (4) gHOSTs
23 Sticks used for whipping a black magic woman (8) (5) sWITCHes
27 Ditches plant parts and goes (6) MD
29 Some wander into budget shops – initially for housekeeping implements (6) SOME* in B S
30 Attempt to ingest icy malt liquor, for starters – with elegance (6) TRY around IML
31 State: “A lot of matter is returned” (5) A MASS
32 Brew pure tea and pour out (5) PURE* T
34 Horrible figurative representation (8) (4) alleGORY
36 Joy of getting some money back from the taxman (6) (3) reFUNd
37 Scottish mountain tree (3) DD

The Kangaroo / Joey Words are bLIGHTer, sKILLSet, dATEs, sLAUGHter, cluBROOMs, chEERIEr, domestiCATe, vaudEVILle, caBOOse, sTRICKen, reTREATs. gHOSTs, sWITCHes, alleGORY, reFUNd

24 out of the 25 people who participated rated the puzzle. 15 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent” and 8 rated it “Good”. Overall an excellent rating.

Thanks a lot to The Oracle, who keeps entertaining us with such an amazing variety of puzzles. Thank you readers and hope you enjoyed it. From me to you, here’s a Boo:)