Stats -We had a good response to “Goa’s Echoes” and there were a whopping 39 submissions for this puzzle. Of those who submitted 35 got the full grid score of 45 and 20 people got the maximum possible score of 48. Here’s the Solution grid.
The following questions were asked at the end of the puzzle..
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- What phrase links the title to a description of your situation while solving this puzzle (4, 5, 5)
- Annotate 7D and 30D
The correct answers to these were
(1) WILD GOOSE CHASE. Its a Reverse Anagram of Goa’s Echoes and Wild is the anagrind. If you had been following instructions to reverse the answers and enter it in the symmetrically corresponding squares, somewhere, along the line, you would have realized that you could’ve solved the grid straight. Hence, “Wild Goose Chase”!
(2) 7D: ST<< around RAM (butter), 30D: MARTS*, def = such phones
Here are the Annotations.
Across:
1 Leaves – goes back carrying a bit of string under tension (8) – DESERTS< around S
6 “No females allowed” street? A girl is behind it (4) – ST A G
9 African back-room? (4) – ROOM<
11 Amidst wild liana, male turns into beast (6) – M in LIANA*
12 Stake buried in Italian territory (4) – T
13 Pioneers of souvenir manufacturers using gold are pleased with themselves (4) – S M U G
14 State: “A short Frenchman follows donkey” (5) – ASS A M
15 Father joins partners to make vessels (4) – PA NS
17 Capture in Sumatra port (4) – Telescopic
21 Can in Saskatchewan produces pong (5) – S(TIN)K
24 Perhaps, you can drive this at high speed – back and forth… (7) – RACECAR<>
25 Unites noblemen after loss of consecutive letters (5) – KNIghTS
27 Average time for section (4) – PAR T
28 Cut tails of animals in Africa with pickaxe at first (4) – S N A P
29 Church event followed by American chief in the USA? (5) – MASS A
32 Empty glassess have, er, some mucosal tissue in the mouth (4) – G(UM)S
37 Latin and North Australians likely to blow top in Italy (4) – ET NA
38 Flat surface of animal seen outside India (6) – LAM(IN)A
39 Tie back and get space (4) – MOOR<
41 Only male returned weapons (4) – STAG<
42 Model wearing re-designed dresses gets sweet offerings (8) – T in DRESSES*.
Down:
1 Southern sailor’s hero (4) – S TAR
2 Express anger about mode of transport (4) – DD
3 Bridge, not one in European country (4) – SPA(i)N
4 A long dash from one end of emporium to another (2) – E….M
5 Death ruins mood (4) – MOOD*
7 Saint goes back, carrying butter, in vehicles (5) – RAM in ST<
8 G-man met a tipsy door operator (7) – (G MAN MET A)*
10 Indian politician’s tune? (4) – RaGa
15 Look and hear, little dog (4) – HP ~peke
16 Contractor leading Indian batting long ago (4) – CD
18 Summarise “MP gives up democracy at first” (5) – REdCAP
19 Fast bowler’s a top achiever in preventing runs, for starters (5) – P(ACE)R
20 Tax-men in the US begin to irritate Republican senators (1,1,1) – I R S
21 Indian’s address in southern Rhode Island (3) – S RI
22 Mira Nair’s country (4) – T
23 Retain King’s English record (4) – K E EP
26 Man returns with alien – a German displaying id (7) – MAN< ET A G
30 Marts flummoxed by such phones (5) – MARTS*
31 10 rejected jelly-like substance (4) – 10<
33 Spirit’s low down at first (4) – MOO D
34 I left Spain agitatedly to get forty winks (4) – SPAiN*
35 Fibber’s forged Lira (4) – LIRA*
36 God’s collecting initially tailless rodents (4) – RA(T)S
40 Yours truly can be seen in advertisement (2) – Telescopic.
Here is the scorecard (sorted by total score and then in the order of submissions received)
We have a new topper on the leader board. Congrats to P.Venkatesan who submitted the first all correct entry and to all others who managed to “max” the score.
20 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent”, 15 rated it “Good” and 4 rated it “Average”. Thanks to “The Oracle” for an entertaining puzzle and an amazing grid fill, that was mind boggling.
33 words in the grid were picked atleast once as favorites by the solvers. The top 3 clues in the grid were for Racecar (15 votes), Stressed (11 votes) and Nametag (7 votes).
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.