GOTCHA2 – Solutions, Annotations & Results

Stats -We had a good response for “GOTCHA2” and received 37 submissions. Of those who submitted, 1 abandoned the grid half way. 22 got the full grid score of 36, and 19 people got the maximum possible score of 46. Here’s the Solution grid.

The solvers had to answer the following questions after solving the grid:

(1) List any 5 theme entries (answers only)
(2) What’s the Anno. for 2A?

The correct answers are

(1) The grid had as many as 18 themed words which included : 1.IRON THRONE, 2. IMP, 3.VALYRIA, 4.NEEDLE, 5.DOTHRAKI, 6. KHAL DROGO, 7.HODOR, 8.TARGARYEN, 9. DAENERYS, 10.AEGON, 11. BRIENNE, 12. SAM, 13. SEVEN 14. KINGDOMS( 13 and 14  work separately as well as together), 15. LORDS, 16. SPEAR, 17.SIN and 18. NOOSE. Any five of these were acceptable.

(2) I R ON(-e) THRO{(aego)N}E. One point each for correctly identifying I, R, ON(-e), THROE and aegoN

Here are the Annotations.

Across:

2 One king, one not quite fit, takes over 28’s ultimate seat of power (4,6) – I R ON(-e) THRO{(aego)N}E
7 Youngest Lion’s somewhat unimposing (3) – T
9 First off, rivalry destroyed a city in Essos (7) – (-r) IVALRY* A
11 Doctor with home-made bomb got scorched (5) – DR IED
12 Unnecessary to abandon ship for Arya’s companion? (6) – NEEDLE(-ss)
14 Race of hot,dark, savage invaders primarily (8) – (HOT DARK)* I(nvaders)
16 Chief of a group of 14 lakh’s injured, starts to deteriorate rapidly on journey (4,5) – LAKH* D R O GO
18 He echoes odd word essentially (5) – ecHOes oDd wORd, Semi &Lit
20 Tying the knot, this could be breathtaking? – CD
21 Great yarn about a royal family (9) – (GREAT YARN)*
22 The Mad King’s extremely naive daughter at the beginning , is Khaleesi now (8) – D AE{(N(aiv)E}RYS
25 Wastes 50 beasts, decapitated for nothing (6) – L ( ASSES- A+O)
28 One gal at war loses life at the front for him (5) – {ONE GAL – L(ife)}*, Semi &Lit
30 Lady’s been in cast protecting Renly at first (7) – B(R)IENNE*
32 Among traitors, a mate! (3) – T &Lit
33 Father accepting daughter’s end?He dies brutally,that’s foreseen (10) – P(-daughteR)OP HEDIES*

Down:

1 Number is, after subtracting one, divisible by two (5) – (-i)S EVEN
3 Mostly, Yara’s disguise leads to suspicion (3) – YAR(-a)*
4 Inexperienced mother’s short of time (5) – NA(-t)IVE
5 Finish off trip for free (3) – RID(-e)
6 This comes from the horse’s mouth? Absolutely,so we hear! (5) HP NAY
7 Setter’s mostly unresponsive to guesswork (4) – I DEA(-f)
8 Particle found in toxic potions contained a trace of radium (8) – POSIT(R)ON*
10 Invention of electricity improved life all around basically (3) – REVERSE ACROSTIC
13 10 perhaps invested in dairies,banks and food shops (5) – D(LIE*)S
15 Oddly buoyant vessel (4) – BuOyAnT
16 Daughter surrounded by rising fumes, following family’s orders (8) – KIN G(D)OMS<<
17 Removing Jorah’s skin to cure, with tip of sharp blades (4) – (j)ORA*(h) S(harp)
19 Well, “Lord of Light” in the end uses ladies’ fingers (5) – OK RA useS
23 Trial of previous husband in the morning (4) – EX AM
24 Beginning of eighth season, king is dying (5) – E(ight) AGE R
25 See, royal’s daughter and son are noble people (5) – LO R D S
26 Wrong one among partners? (3) – S(I)N
27 The Night King killed Viserion with this in skirmish outside entrance of Eastwatch (5) – SP(E)AR
29 When a person has short sleep (3) – T
31 First person to hear and see (3) – HP I

Here is the scorecard (sorted by total and then in Alphabetical order)

The first entry was submitted by Mohsin Ahmed and it was also the first all-correct entry.  The last all-correct entry was received from Anirudh Sahni.

Congrats to the 18 people who managed to max the score.

The grid had been manually designed by the setters Faten and Supriya with the goal of getting as many themed entries as possible. However this led to a number of “unchecked” squares in the grid, which is generally not acceptable for standard cryptics in our blog. Since this was realized by the still new setters only during the course of my review and reworking the grid would have required rewriting quite a few clues as well as sacrificing some of the themed entries, in the end, the setters took a call to run it as it is. Some of the solvers had pointed this out to us during the solving process and hence this explanation. The good response, as well as the very high number of 100% correct answers makes us believe that the presence of the unchecked squares did not make it unduly hard.   We requested folks to rate the puzzle on a scale of 1 (Lowest) to 10 (Highest). The puzzle got a  good score of 7.95, inspite of some low ratings which were outnumbered by a number of very high ratings.

30 out of the 36 clues was picked at least once as a favorite. The top 3 clues that emerged as favorites of the solvers were Iron Throne with 10 votes, Prophesied, Hodor, Seven and Kingdoms with 9 votes apiece and Eager with 8 votes.

What a fantastic treat from FaSupriya for GoT fans who are enjoying the new season and couldn’t have asked for anything better. We had more than the regular number of youngsters and the young at heart solving the puzzle, thanks to the theme.

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.