Wormholes – Solutions, Annotations & Results

Stats – We had 51 submissions – a great response for an amazing puzzle.  Of those who submitted 42 managed to complete the grid with zero errors and 28 went on to get the maximum possible score of 125. Here’s the completed grid.

The following questions had to be answered by the solvers..

13 06 08 05 06 (… overlooking space.)
Murakami novel features this tragic traveller (5) A: LAIKA

Name another traveller seen crisscrossing the wormhole portals (10) A: ENTERPRISE

You can access the Grid with solutions Here – Clicking Reveal ALL will show you the solutions, annotations and the answer to the bonus question.

Here’s the Score Card (sorted by total and then alphabetically). Congrats to  the 28 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a spectacular score of 8.90. It got 19 perfect 10s – i.e 37% of  those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 5.

Top 3 Clues:  The most favorite clues were for “REVUE” with 14 votes, “ADDLED” with 10 votes and “WHIPS”, “ALI” and “PRAISE” with 8 votes each.

Hope you all enjoyed the brilliant puzzle. Thanks for  your support and wonderful comments. Sharing these comments with our readers..

Comments from solvers:

1. Another Amazing grid , a Challenge and very satisfying to complete,the graphics when you’re right are fun
2. Liked this a lot. The only real fault is the plethora of short grid entries (some of which don’t need solving at all as they are fully checked). The method of deriving LAIKA at the end is certainly novel. Enjoyed – thanks!
3. A simple puzzle, but +1 for being somewhat innovative.
4. Super grid and theme
5. Very novel and challenging
6. Many Hard and new words
7. Very innovative , very entertaining ,
8. Good one, thanks !
9. Great one! Always come up with new ideas 🙂
10. Very entertaining. Loved the way the wormholes worked.
11. Simply superb
12. enjoyable grid
13. Incredibly innovative. Many thanks!
14. Very clever idea!! Love the space theme!
15. crisp cluing
16. Superb.. Yoko Ono .. songwriter ? ok.. activist ? ok .. singer ? Wikipedia is wrong. Setter has to listen to her on John Lennon’s Double Fantasy (if he can tolerate it( and then admit he was in error 🙂
17. Excellent puzzle. Didn’t get the “overlooking space” thing…
18. Good fun, great grid!
19. Very craftily devised puzzle, innovative and educational too. Clues themselves yielded fairly easily, would have been up for a stiffer challenge, but nicely done. I suppose the 2 letter words could not be avoided due to grid constraints. Spent more time on the first question of the endgame than the whole puzzle – brilliant idea and deception, and a wonderful ‘find’ for the surface. The one flaw seemed to be in 20d, where the answer is not really the ‘core’, unless I’ve missed something.
20. Sky is the limit for Viresh!
21. Wonderful challenge.
22. What a grid! Amazing concept! How could he/she even set this grid and the questions! However, the def. for “VEIL” – “Show” –did not add up.
23. I don’t normally venture beyond standard blocked puzzles; but was relieved to find this pleasantly doable!
24. nice one
25. Superb Superb
26. I really enjoyed the grid construction and the hidden words. I’m not sure if I have a case of the Mondays, but I really struggled with some of the parsings or definitions. I don’t see how ‘VEIL’ can mean ‘show’, for example. I can’t parse SHORTS or TREE at all!
27. Nice puzzle! Quick solve, and a fun theme.
28. Enjoyable puzzle
29. Clues were nice and easy. Superb concept and grid construction with the thematic elements. Re. 17a, doesn’t VEIL mean the opposite of SHOW?
30. Superbly crafted puzzle!
31. Was such fun…loved the wormholes
32. Lost
33. Lovely conceptualisation
34. Great innovation
35. Great entertainer.. great clues.. felt the SHORTS clue to be a bit unfair.. (clever though)
36. BRAINY PUZZLE
37. Too convoluted for mental balance! We need to keep our sanity intact, in an otherwise stressful life!
38. Too Vague for me. just filled in some words before submitting!
39. Excellent puzzle. Thoroughly enjoyed solving.
40. Great creativity!
41. LAIKA took some finding as I was looking on the wrong place. Nice crossword.
42. Entertaining and innovative puzzle
43. Relatively speaking time stood still trying to solve this puzzle
44. Technically sound piece of art.
45. Very clever clues. I couldn’t get the bonus questions.
    “46. Loved the ingenious multiple layers of thematic construction and final surprise. Entertaining surfaces. The only flaw is an excess of hidden word clues (eight in all).”
46. Always a pleasure solving Viresh Ratnakars grids
47. Really enjoyable, loved the concept!
48. It was fun to see the wormhole hoppers unfolding, thank you!🙏🏻
49. Creative, innovative, mind-boggling, amazing
50. Wonderful educational puzzle!