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Turn of Phrase – Solutions, Annotations and Results

BySowmya

Aug 20, 2020 #1ACGrids, #1ACross, #Cryptics, #Mythical, #Puzzles, #Supriya Mithal, #Theme

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Stats – The puzzle was accessed 726 times by 350 solvers. Of these, 68 completed the grid as well as the bonus questions. Of those who submitted 50 managed to complete the grid with zero errors and 43 went on to get the maximum possible score of 204. We had a few first time solvers. Welcome to 1ACross.

You can play the puzzle in full screen mode here

Here’s the completed grid.

Here are the Annotations:

Across:
1. Hidden 4. G( LASS CH )IN 9. T(H)ICKER 10. DI(AGRA)M 11. B –(L)IKE (Sport)S 13. DD 15A (-H)OLD
16. Reversal all last letters 17. GAIN 19. LAY OR 21A Semi&lit Acrostic 23A GUES(-S) upseT 24A DD 25A Reverse Acrostic 26A SCOUR -O)* B(leach) 28A Reverse hidden word 29A PANCA(K)E* 31A W(O)E -k(ISME)t 33A C(APIN)*HAN D(uplicate) 34A CI(D)ER*

Down:
1D CD 2D DD 3D (-t)ASK 4D Acrostic 5D DNA* 6D S(-t)EALS 7D Spoonerism of Mar Honey 8D DEMAN(–d) 12D
SH(AD)E 14D (-p)OUNCE 18D (-d)ANGER 19D R( A T )IO 20D L END A NEAR 22D G ROW NUP 24D PL EASED 25D T(OP)IC
26D SPA IN 27D BOW(-L)ED 30D tolERAnce 32D pEACe

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

Ref. the TITLE as theme and use the circled letters in the grid to complete this: (3,2,1,6) A: MAD AS A HATTER

TOPHOF Here’s the Score card (sorted by total and then alphabetically).

Congrats to  the 43 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.1. It got 12 perfect 10s – i.e 18% of  those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 4.

Top 3 Clues:  The most favorite clues were for “HARMONY” and “CAP IN HAND” with 15 votes, “THICKER” and “GLASS CHIN” with 13 votes each and “WOE IS ME” and “NAMED” with 10 votes each.

Hope you all enjoyed this fun puzzle. Thanks to Mythical and to all our solvers for  your support and wonderful comments. Sharing these comments with our readers..
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Comments from solvers:
1. Nice surfaces. Enjoyable
2. Enjoyable grid with some tricky ones
3. That was a really fun puzzle! I enjoyed all the clues!
4. Easy one, but not sure about the bonus question
5. VERY GOOD
6. Smooth and easy
7. Fun grid! enjoyed it thoroughly!
8. nice
9. Perhaps a few too many ‘hidden’ and ‘initials’ type clues. Lots of short words – and 32d is a bit iffy, isn’t it? (What would have been wrong with using EAT and TUDOR, for example, instead?) Still, the clues for the longer phrases were nice.
10. Entertaining Puzzle!
11. Fairly good – I prefer fewer and longer entries in blocked grids unless there is a thematic reason, but that’s probably just a personal preference.
12. Fun.
13. nice one
14. Great job. Can’t see what the circled letters are spelling out, but the rest of it was nice, fair and doable. Many thanks!
15. Although reasonably simple, several clever clues. Enjoyed solving
16. Nice and enjoyable. On the easier side.
“17. Couldn’t figure the cryptic element in ET TU BRUTE. Many good clues with smooth surfaces”
18. NA
19. Loved this! Just the right amount of challenge!
20. Thank you, I loved it…
21. Nice grid and good bonus question.
22. Thanks for another great puzzle!
23. ENJOYED THE GRID. THANK YOU
24. A mix of good clues and some not so good, with wrong parts of speech or indicators, making it quite difficult to parse.
25. Good one. Some tough ones. Otherwise a breeze.
26. Some clues out of the world, others left me with a feeling of “not fair”. Overall, great puzzle
27. Fun puzzle!
28. Easy fun grid 🙂
29. Nice, smooth clues, very enjoyable puzzle!
30. Very nice puzzle.
31. WELL DONE!!!
32. Nice wordplay
33. Good
34. Testing Puzzle.
35. I found this to be an odd mix of very easy and quite difficult clues. Also some clues – especially 33a – make no sense as surface readings, but one or two are very clever, particularly 29a which is my favourite . I don’t think I have the right answer to 6d: it looks as if it should be obvious, but I can’t think of anything suitable that fits.
36. Very tough.. frustrating
37. Amazing and enjoyable puzzle
38. Great grid
39. LIVELY SOLVING
40. Very enjoyable
41. Great puzzle
42. Lots of fun, thought a couple of clues were a bit loose, but overall very enjoyable, thanks!
43. Very good puzzle. Liked HARMONY, NAMED, TWO
44. A clue or two I don’t fully understand. It took a long time to work out the bonus.
45. Pretty good, although some of the definitions used were a bit of a stretch.
46. My first at this – it was a great puzzle..
47. Nice set of clues!
48. We’ll constructed and challenging
49. Enjoyed it
50. Smooth puzzle
51. Great DDs, many enjoyable clues!
52. Good puzzle . Lovely surfaces
53. Nice clues, Mythical!
54. SUPER
55. Pure enjoyment.
56. Good fun
57. Enjoyed solving this!
58. A quick solve. Fun theme.
59. Easy puzzle.
60. NICE PUZZLE
61. Fairly easy enjoyable puzzle
62. Easy and fun grid!
63. Very nice puzzle. Enjoyed it.
64. A nice variety of clue types here, with some easy and some quite tricky. I didn’t understand a few of them, which may be due to differences in use of some words between India and Australia (eg stays, for takes time off), and am not sure if Glass Chin is Indian or just unfamiliar to me.
65. Nice puzzle, with a good mix of easy and not-so-easy clues
66. Nice
67. Found it a bit difficult
68. Thank you… enjoyed the clues

By Sowmya

Sowmya is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and independent financial consultant based in the Middle East (Bahrain). She is a puzzle editor at Amuselabs. She has set over 1,300 crosswords for various publications including over 1000 mini crosswords, cryptic crosswords (under the pseudonym Hypatia for The Hindu) and themed crosswords for Cat.a.lyst (part of The Hindu Businessline). Sowmya runs the Facebook group 1Across where seasoned cruciverbalists interact while setting and solving clues. She has published three compilations of crosswords viz Cryptic Crossroads Volumes 1, 2 and 3. She Tweets cryptic clues daily @somsram

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3 thoughts on “Turn of Phrase – Solutions, Annotations and Results”

  1. I solved the total grid and while submitting showed 200 points. Later I submitted the theme from the circled letters correctly. Please reevaluate my score.

  2. I had submitted the completed puzzle and answered the bonus question too. Wonder if my submission was not recorded because I do not see my name in the list of submissions

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