Stats -We had a good response to “Have a Ball” and there were a whopping 36 submissions for this puzzle. Of those who submitted 33 got the full grid score of 32 and 20 people got the maximum possible score of 37. Here’s the Solution grid.
The following questions were asked at the end of the puzzle..
-
- Which 3 clues have more than one possible answer?
- How is Felis achilles better known as?
- Annotate Clue 20D
The correct answers to these were
(1) 13d: (EVEN or EVES), 20A: (WINS or LOSE) and 20D: (WASHES or LASHES)
(2) Achilles the “Oracle Cat”, who was supposedly predicting the results of the current FIFA World cup
(3) Def = What the wave does; a bit of lime = L / a bit of water = W; Deposits = ashes i.e. WASHES/LASHES
Here are the Annotations.
Across:
1 Leaders of Indian mosques and Muslim society (5) – Acrostic
4 Fine plane crashed in front of Troy yard (7) – PLANE* T Y
9 Whisper on stage, “Silly ideas” (5) – IDEAS*
10 Sadly espy mud on The Oracle, for instance (9) – (ESPY MUD ON)*
11 Salmon Tom cooked had a bit of cilantro and flavouring (6,4) – (SALMON TOM C)*
12 Partly, Dante’s secret existence? (4) – T
14 Hand over free entrance coupon (4) – MD
16 Fly consumed after a violent inhalation in the beginning (6) – A V I ATE
19 Father joins a new church in country (6) – FR A N CE
20 What may follow 19 in tomorrow’s newspaper headlines? “West Indian New Saint?” or “Zero investment in LSE” (4) – WI NS / L(O)SE
23 Ten soldiers produce very little (4) – IO TA
24 Refurbishing old sofas, he lies (10) – (OLD SOFAS HE)*
27 Bring up repair of ruined cot (9) – (RUINED COT)*
28 Breathes abnormally after giving up tea and flavouring agents (5) – Breathes – tea*
29 Wrongly blame in Greek custody? That’s better (7) – G(BLAME*)R
30 May be found at the entrance of and inside Xanadu 2.0 (5) – DD
Down:
2 Cosmo’s cowardly to some extent? Capital! (6) – T
3 She’s boss, either way (5) – MADAM<
4 Rice dish returned in Galle, apologetically (6) – Rev T
5 Signifies consent and excitedly absconds, in absence of sailor and Second Captain (4) – ABSCONDS*-AB-C
6 Lenin’s ordered capture of loveless Chinese leader and flag-bearing official (8) – (LENINS)* around MAo
7 Talked incessantly about dear Emmy (8) – (DEAR EMMY)*
8 Brief message on mobile after bath results in convulsions (6) – SPA SMS
13 Ladies changing direction at last? Not odd! (4) – EVES / EVEN
15 Main curved structure (4) – DD
17 Joining a couple of females at nine and taking mixed gin (8) – A FF IX GIN*
18 Truth of trade union member? Initially, an odd-job man (8) – FACT O TU M
20 What the wave does? Deposits a bit of lime/water initially (6) – W/L ASHES
21 Yes, German bean for South American cat (6) – JA GUAR
22 Journalist’s concoction of bile can be consumed (6) – ED BILE*
25 Chess game with a wizard? Funny game chasing ball (5) – O GAME*
26 Target tailless animal next to lake (4) – GOAt L
Here is the scorecard (sorted by total score and then in the order of submissions received)
Congrats to Ramki who submitted the first all correct entry and to all others who managed to “max” the score.
21 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent”, 13 rated it “Good” and 2 rated it “Average”. Thanks to “The Oracle” for an amazing prediction of the World cup result. Needless to say, it was absolutely correct. It’s amazing how you manage to get these right every time!
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.