A Familiar Moving Easter Story – Solutions, Annotations & Results

Stats -We had a pretty steep challenge last week and only 16 submissions for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 11 got the full grid score of 48. A number of people managed to answer at some of the bonus questions asked as well..

Here’s the Solution grid

The following questions were asked at the end of the puzzle..

1. 1. Starting Point of the Family Easter Journey
   2. Destination Point of the Family Easter Journey
   3. If the perimeter anagram yields “ Relations X topnotch speedy Y”, what are X and Y

The correct answers to these were (1) Bilaspur  (2) Rourkela *3) X = “Boast” and Y = “Trailblazers”

Here are the Annotations.

Across:

1 Ditches – after initially changing sexual partners (5) – BOOTS/ROOTS Ditches=boots, roots= sexual partners (Oz/NZ)
6 Bit of a bloomer – I later made nothing for Saturday night special (6) PISTIL/PISTOL Pistil = flower part, Sat.nt. sp. = pistol
11 Bristol, I understand, could be to port or starboard (7) TO PORT OR STARBOARD = def. (= with fronts in line, side by side)BRISTOL (a breast) , I understand (hp indicator)
13 Stretch for and after a rest on the motorway (4) STRETCH = AREA; REST AREA – UK term for food/loo stop
14 So, Crime Scene Investigation’s somehow to be reshown shortly (3) SO = def., CSI* (TV series), somehow = *
15 Stops for a while for a change to view an outstanding group (5) LULLS/LULUS Lulls = limited stops; for a change = *, LULUS = outstanding persons
16 Audio input needs a replacement, Romeo? That would still make it go wrong (3) Audio input =EAR, ERR =go wrong
17 Sort of powder jar mutt almost completely buried coming home (6) SORT OF POWDER = def., JAR = alcohol (often beer) (MUT-T)<
19 500 Chinese first joined – a sweet bunch (4) HAN (Chinese first) + D (500), ref. bananas
21 Lug them aboard in Frankfurt; it’s simpler (6) EA (SIE) R (sie = German for them)
23 Thespian’s house deed … (3) ACT = What a thespian does in the house (theatre), ACT = legal deed
25 .. for a low area? Could be wrong! (3) DD: BUM = low (body) area; BUM = wrong
27 Terrible car, no, for a drug-dealer? (5) CAR NO*; terrible = *, drug dealer = def..,
29 Bother to come home in the past for those over there (3) NOY <, those over there = def..
30 Cracking self-contained accommodation? (3) humorous def..
31 Mum – it’s a quick dash in the mud (6) MUM = def ., EN= quick dash in SILT = mud
34 Flees from the French woman’s address (4) LA (the angels) + MS (usually unmarried title) = def. FLEES (US usage)
36 Utterly polite behaviour noblemen’s homes offered (6) hp MANNERS/MANORS, UTTERLY = hp indic.,
39 For the most part a deep persistent noise beastly place made (3) ZOO (-M); ZOOM = noise, ZOO = beastly place
40 Giving the go-ahead, changing the second after to ‘Hold on’ (5) HOLD ON = def = CLING:, CUING (giving go-ahead) -U + L
41 Crude engine driver (3) DD, Crude refers to the energy source not a person
42 IRA shot a number in Covent Garden (4) IRA* + A, shot = *, number = musical piece
43 Without reason look once: outside a Swedish nightingale is seen (7) BLY << LIND (Ref. to Jennifer Lind)
44 Trap heartless official in the end, substituting a pupil’s coat (6) COR –O NER = trap –R +A (finally substituting), pupil’s coat = def.
45 Jags – these are often seen going round on drives (5) DD.

Down:

2 Late summary, by the way’s, shortly before 7 (4) Late summary = def., OB = by the way + 7 down = IT
3 From the start Carson mostly upset killers – many serving life in Florida (5) CARSON originally = CARSO, upset = *, ref. to orcas in captivity
4 Effective instruction (7) DD
5 Dressing to be cheeky (5) DD
7 See 43D
8 Initially 5, 11, 37 and 19 formed a band (4) First letters. Band = def..,
9 Three arrested at international agreement formalisation (6) TRE AT Y, arrested = held, international agreement = def..
10 Ronald’s comic strip got roasted (6) RONALD*, comic = *, strip got roasted = def.
11 Jenny, once small, lately finally put on a couple of pounds or so – a hard thing to do (3) Jenny = ASS –S + K, hard thing to do =def,
12 Slight stain (4) DD
18 Flower homecoming Scot spotted (3) CAM< (a river in UK), homecoming = < 20 Gas? None around! (4) NEON* around =* Gas= def. 22 Gold and radium prospecting …could lead to an attack (4) AU RA; start of (epileptic) attack = def. 24 Senior officer’s docked and gone out to get perfume … (7) COL (senior officer’s docked) + GONE* , out = *, perfume = def. 25 Cabal abroad is protecting Zimbabwe’s top novelist (6) Z (Zimbabwe’s top) in CABAL*, abroad = *, top novelist = def. 26 Golda’s follower imprisoned a second for life (6) ME (MO) IR ; ref. Golda MEIR, life = def. 28 Germany’s limited married congress: just once a year (3) AG = ‘LTD.’ in Germany, + M (married), congress just one a year = AGM (def.) 31 Not even spaniels do this with a bark (4) SpAnIeLs (not even), BARK = (double meaning) 32 After tip-off, Tintin got upset, n’est-ce-pas? (5) (-T) INTIN* , got upset = *, n’est ce-pas = def., 33 Staff employed by UK mobile network get worn out (5) E ROD E (ROD = staff), get worn out = def. 35 Couple of Poles taking in cases quickly for medical procedure (4) S CA N (CA = abbreviation for CASES), a medical procedure = def. 37 Block bank deposit (4) DD (SILT vb. = block), 38 Make regular trips heading for Pompey, Lymington and finally Fowey. Early start needed skipping Pompey for a cathedral for a change later. (3) P LY (headings / finally) = make regular trips. , > ELY (Early start.)
43/7 So, one must add 43 + 7 = ‘Amen!’ (2,2) – (so) BE IT.

Here is the scorecard (sorted by score and then in the order of submissions received)

Congrats to Venkatraghavan, who was the first one to submit an all correct entry and to all others who maxed the score as well.

11 out of 16 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent” and 4 rated it “Good”.

Did you enjoy the puzzle? Do you have any feedback for us or for the setter. Do comment in the blog and let us know.