Stats -We had a great response for “007 Preparing for a kill” and received 42 submissions, 3 more than last time. Of those who submitted, 32 got the full grid score of 30 while only 9 people got the maximum possible score of 34. Here’s the Solution grid.
The solvers had to answer the following questions after solving the grid:
After a short time, look down
Pick up the pieces at the bottom
Muddled? The hint is in the title
You will find what you seek
THE ?P? ??T? ???S??D
(1) FITB: THE ?P? ??T? ???S??D (3,3,4,7)
(2) Nina that covers part of 20 (5)The correct answers are
(1) THE SPY GETS DRESSED – From T+ Anagram of last letters of all Down clues (EGSDTSPYREEEDHSS)
Reference to header – 007 was always immaculately dressed i.e. “Dressed to kill”
(2) SHOES (which cover FEET (part of 20A))Here are the Annotations.
Across:
1 Every now and then, drunk fan’s beginning to irritate the dancers entering during breaks (2,4,3,6) – IN (during) {(FANS* + I T D )} STARTS (breaks)
9 Drug for runny nose is manufactured here in Rwanda’s capital (7) – (HERE IN R(-wanda))*
10 Country lady seen moving ahead (7) – SEEN*+GAL (lady)
11 “Mr. India”, Sir, is rocking (3) – SIR *
12 Difficult to contact one who resigned from the Board on Friday, at the close (2-9) – EX-DIRECTOR (one who…Board)+ (-frida)Y
13 Funny thing with horses…they don’t let you sleep properly (10) – THING*+MARES (horses)
15 Fake notes are withdrawn for incentive (4) – SPUR(-ious)
18 Authentic, Byzantine sketches without frames (4) – -skETCHes*
20 The bottom parts of the body…Ali’s hidden weakness ? (4,2,4) – FEET (The bottom…body)+ OF CLAY (Ali’s)
23 Staff kept in touch about the inauguration of attack weapon system (3,3,5) – WAND (staff) in BORROW (touch) around A(-ttack)
25 Gong’s sound is 10dB (3) – Homophone of BELL
26 Writer from the East is strangled by fat cat (7) – POE (writer)<<< in LARD (fat)
27 Hearing about one’s victory everyday (7) – I, V in TRIAL (hearing)
28 The lady doctor helped re-send Venus’s comb (9,6) – SHE+(HELPEDRESEND)*Down:
1 Basically part of a hearing, say, on the radio (2,7) – Homophone of IN (part of) A SENSE (hearing, say)
2 Rolling 200m trimmed cloth cut and imbued with a touch of indigo (7) – FURLONG (200 m) – (clOth) around I
3 Stir is crushed…revolutionary sect breaks into three (8) – STIR*+SECT*
4 Bill follows a man in front (5) – A+HE+AD(Bill)
5 Puzzle I set in daily of repute originally, is fiendish (9) – (i+SET+IN+D O R)*
6 Wraps nuts with nice, peeled bananas (6) -(NUTS+ (-nICe))*
7 Democrat leaves Leftist alliance to form a new coalition (7) – REDGROUP (Leftist alliance)-D
8 Fine and soft air around barren hill (5) – SKY (air) around -h(IL)l
14 The Great Dane relaxes…he’s passed out after dropping his head in agony (9) – (DANERELAXES- ((-h)ES))*
16 Colour of the Queen’s blood, maybe ? (5,4) – Punny CD
17 Unlimited coffee cups with whipped cream (3-5) – -cOFFE-e around WITH*
19 Why is cow restless in it’s pen? (3,4) – COW* in HOME (it’s pen)
21 Thrown around, I drummed up support (7) – LOBBED (thrown) around I
22 Sell when CA shifts houses (6) – T
23 Gutless boys have everything but this (5) – B(-oy)S around ALL (everything) semi&lit
24 After returning, guest vomitted four pieces of bread (5) – (vi)SITOR<<<The first entry was submitted by Koteswara Rao but it was not the first all-correct entry since he hadn’t spotted the NINA. Following him were Anirudh Sahni, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Raju Umamaheswar and Nagendra Prasad, who were all caught and bowled mostly by the NINA. It was left to Venkatraghavan Sahasranaman, who submitted 6th to submit the first all-correct entry. The last all-correct entry was received from Lakshmi Prakash, who submitted the 21st entry.
Congrats to the 9 awesome people who managed to max the score.
Here is the scorecard (sorted by total and then in Alphabetical order)
We requested folks to rate the puzzle on a scale of 1 (Lowest) to 10 (Highest). The puzzle got a good score of 8.25 and got 3 perfect 10s.
26 out of the 30 clues were picked at least once as favorites. The top 3 clues were for “Feet of Clay” which got 12 votes, “How come” which got 18 votes and “Off White” which got a whopping 19 votes. One person liked all the clues and didn’t pick a favorite, while another solver didn’t vote for any clue.
Although many solvers had been tricked by the questions, it didn’t stop them from giving responses and I for one, thoroughly enjoyed those. So, we had “The spy gets worsted,0° roasted, smashed, crushed, rousted and even trusted! One put the spy with bobsled, but the clear winners were those who went with “The Spa bath crushed” (How?) and “The Spy hits unasked” (We asked for that one, I guess:).
Very few people gave shoes for the spy. Instead, he had three Roose(s) (Is that a word?), 3 Royal(s), 3 Alexa(s) – possibly singing the title songs, one LOBBIED, PATH and FEET – clearly missing the Enum hint, ENTER, SEITE(?? is that a word?), RETIE, FLEET, FLEON(!), SOCKS AND SPURS. The clear winners went with Fanny and Balls!! – And I have absolutely no idea how they got those, but the Spy, I must say, might’ve happily accepted.
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.
