Stats -We had a fabulous response to “Bogus Poems ” and we got 33 unique submissions for this puzzle too. Of those who submitted, 21 got the full grid score of 37 but only 11 people got the maximum possible score of 41. Here’s the Solution grid.
The following questions were asked at the end of the puzzle..
-
- Identify the theme
- List 3 theme words
- Connect the title to the theme
The correct answers to these were
(1) Horror Movies
(2) Any three of the words highlighted in the grid above
(3) Bogus Poems is an anagram of “Goosebumps”
Here are the Annotations.
Across:
1 Husband’s relative means trouble (5) – charade/ h aunt
4 Two girls together? hair-raising thriller (9) – charade/anna belle
9 Stories, mostly lies, about German Rock Legend (7) – charade/ lore + lie
10 Jimmy’s about to fight at the pub (7) – c row bar
11 Louis and Ajay stripped for a movie (5) – deletionn of both ends / oui ja
13 Dark rider, say (5) – knight~night HP clue
15/16 Those people smuggle electronic device, finally that makes one see things (3,3) – 15/16 they around e + e
17 When radium is replaced by gold in instrument, it produces sound (5) – radio – ra+au
19 Shikari on vacation took a long time to reach the inn (5) – shikari on vacation=si around era
21 Madonna gingerly holds an Indian- she could be a charmer’s target (5) – telescopic
23 See 14 Down
24 Endlessly average…Help me! (3) – so so -o
25 Say, wash sink (3) – dye~die hp clue
26 ……still like abominable snowman? Not I (2,3) – like = as /snowman=yeti – i
28/34 Family figures at scary movie about a masked scientist (5,5) – family=blood/figures=dolls
29 Ha! Ha! Springfield, exclaims Spooner! have fun…. (7) – spoonerims lol rick / rollick
31 Poster claims to be going beyond love for coarse Etruscan pottery (7) – i am past o
33 Juggling firm’s causing damage without a bit of introspection (9) – co injuring – i
34 See 28 –
Down
1 Festival greetings get very little reaction at the end (9) – hallo wee n
2 Britain has influence, we hear, in this East European nation (7) – UK + RAINE~ REIGN
3 Briefly reveal telephone number (3) – tell-l
4 A retired singer, he’s out of the world (5) – a neil<<
5 City’s extremely noisy and cold (3) – extremely noisy= ny + c
6 Kick around husband- in Delhi, that shows spirit (5) – boot around h/ in delhi is hindi language alert
7 Crustacean soup: Boil after removing intestine first and blend, you hear? (7) – boil-i* + ster =stir~
8 Mysterious, Oriental lake (5) – e + erie
12 One more time- stove’s hot! (5)- aga+in
14/23 Sue this British mockumentary depicting spooked-up chat show guest! (5,5) – composite anagram- chat show guest-sue
18 Union money exchange! (5) – CD for dowry
19 Regressive prejudice about some heinous address (5) – bias<< around h
20 ‘Inside Out’ is about destroying ‘ET’- what a movie! (9) – inside out is-et*
22 Running wild, linger around some mischievous pixie (7) – linger* around m
24 Special vacation, sipping a soup- somehow this is wifely (7) – sl around a soup*
25 Scholastic letters in Arabic from Merci Rodrigues (5) – reverse telescopic merCI RODrigues
26 So long heads of a demon illustrated execrably…unbelievable! (5) – acrostic a d i e u
27 13 unravelled this creature (5) – 13 refers to clue number 13 anagram night to get thing
30 Fine to reject one kind of fish (3) – ok<< ko +i
32 Dressing room (3) – DD
Here is the scorecard (sorted by total score and then in the order of submissions received)
We have a new topper on the leaderboard this time. – Bhala (for those who may not know, he sets as Xchequer for “The Hindu Crossword“) submitted the first all correct entry. Congrats Bhala and all others who managed to “max” the score.
20 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent”, 11 rated it “Good” and 2 rated it “Average”. Thanks to “Samurai Pony” for giving us “Goosebumps” with the innocuously titled “Bogus Poems”. A very enjoyable solve and I was amazed at the number of theme words you managed to fit in to the grid. We look forward to more puzzles from you.
So, readers.. 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.