Stats – The puzzle page had 660 views. We had 41 solvers completing and submitting the grid. Of those who submitted 35 managed to complete the grid with zero errors and 26 went on to get the maximum possible score of 157.
Here are the instructions for the Puzzle:
The wordplay in all down clues yields an extra letter not required for the answer. These letters, in
clue order, provide a hint to a thematic title which should be identified (3,6,3,4)
Additionally, four thematic names (2 first names and 2 last names) symmetrically appearing in the
grid should be identified/highlighted. Answer lengths are 4,4,7,7 respectively.
Chambers 2016 is the primary reference. Two entries are proper names…
Click here for the PDF Version
Bonus Questions
- The Hint picked up from the down clues
- The name of the suspense novel
- The 4 thematic names featured in the grid
Click Here for the Annotations:
Across: 2 BLAME CHAPIE* , 10 NAIL* inside PLY(layer of wood); def: Bluntly, 11 R(rule) inside CAN(Canada); def: measure of mature Brit, ie herring, brit being the young one of herring, 12 HIPS in reverse from HUMAN LUNGS; def: bone, 14 A DEn(study-N point) PT(exercise); def: master, 15 SUNNY(Gavaskar nickname) + SIDE(border); def: Positive outlook, 16 reversal of NOISE(sound) with P(pressure) for E(energy); def: elementary particle, 18 PIT(mine) H(first letter of host) inside E(English) ET(and in French); def: tag, 20 VENT(opening) + A(area) inside LR(both sides); def: of abdomen, 21 PI(holy) SEA(hp of SEE) R(runs) outside G(government); def: a mess, 24 PO R (two rivers) TRAY(plateau, an ornamental tray); def: depict, 26 WANTED(desired) less T(but, ultimately); def: declined, 27 GASH(rent) OLDER(earlier); def: fuel container, 31 DA(rev of notice AD) TUM(belly); def: fact, 32 reversal of AVE(way) L(Luxembourg); def: some overseas currency, 33 pUKES(brings up) less P(softly removed); def: small guitars, 34 INS(insurance) outside SOLE(exclusive); def: liners going under arches, CD, arches relating to feet, 35 SOILS CUSTOM*; def: seats for 3, ie pianos in 3 down.
Down: 1 O(ordinary) PUbS(bars); def: musical composition – (B), 2 oIL(fuel) L(left) US(American) E (base); def: Mishandling (O), 3 PI(detective, pvt investigator) + rev. of SOoN(shortly) outside A(ace); def: instruments – (O), 4 kEY(vital) outside NV(Nevada); def: this sin (K), 5 mALES(men); def: porters, perhaps (referring to porter ales) (M), 6 HEAD(intellect) GaIN*; def: direction (A), 7 BREaTH(whisper, excluding A) RENd(tear); def: fellow members (D), 8 rev of PAL(friend) SEe(date); def: pass (E), 9 ENTITy(being, excl last letter) rev of DEaL(as given); def: qualified (A), 13 RIsER(one coming up) outside P(power); def: more mature -(S), 16 POP(explosion) + AtDUMP*; def: fried crisp (T), 17 SET AIRiNG*; def: thankless people (I), 19 ACt CRIME*; def: of China, ie of fine porcelain (T), 20 AlAS (sadly) inside VA(Virginia); def: port (L), 22 HeAL(cure) LOO(can); def: raise an outcry (E), 23 dJ(disc jockey) pEEVES(irritates-P, piano); def: butler, going by the book, ref PGW (D), 25 Alternate letters from OuT of dArK fUn; def: insulting term for Jap geeks (F), 28 HUT(shed) outside iN; def: pursuit (I), 29 OlD(aged) SO(accordingly); def: cry of surprise, aged-archaic indicator (L), 30 reversal of ARm(weapon) + SH(silence); def: hasty (M).
Answers to the Bonus Questions:
1: Book made as titled film
2: One Across, Two Down (The name of the book which was made into “Diary of the Dead”
2: Manning, Maud, Rendell, Vera
Here’s the Score card (sorted by total and then alphabetically)
Congrats to the 26 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent score of 9.17. It got 17 perfect 10s – i.e 41% of those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 6.
Top 3 Clues: The most favorite clues were for “SUNNY SIDE” with 11 votes, “HUNT” with 10 votes and “POPPADUM” also with 10 votes.
Hope you all enjoyed this fun puzzle. The grid construction with the high level of checking and throwing in the themed NINA – was all done manually over several days. The PDM on seeing “One Across, One down” unfold from this intricate puzzle with the hints from the Down clues (and help from google) was amazing. Just brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you Bingo. Thanks to all our solvers for your support and wonderful comments.
Comments on the Puzzle
1. Nice challenge!! Not your average cryptic crossword – LOVED IT!!
2. Nice to tackle something really challenging. I’ve actually got this book on by TBR shelves (if I’d already read it, I might have spotted the relevant names sooner!)
3. Enjoyable – thanks.
4. Challenging but very enjoyable puzzle
5. Great puzzle, liked the down clues especially ,
6. great clues, great theme, right level of difficulty. At par or even better than many guardian genius crosswords.
7. An obscure book, but it is relevant to this web page because of its title. Some clues are bit contrived to fit the theme. Otherwise, it is a very good effort.
8. Very enjoyable and challenging , many clues that were very satisfying to solve and parse. Great theme and concept. Now looking forward to read the book.
9. What a puzzle! Whatever I say will be about gilding the lily. Superb
10. Excellent and challenging as is expected from a Bingo puzzle
11. Had to google some clues 🙂
12. Fun grid!
13. Excellent as is to be expected from Bhala! Pleasure to solve, thanks buddy.
14. Challenging grid but gettable…enjoyed myself 🙂 must have been a lot of work for the setter..kudos!
15. Very good. Another nugget of general knowledge gleaned.
16. A delightful puzzle with moderate-hard difficulty level. 1-Across keeps getting better and better.
17. Brilliant grid and clues – enjoyed the solve thoroughly. Even the rare words were gettable from wordplay. The nina of course had to be googled!
18. Tough one requiring research.
19. Devious but fair so could get to it in the end. Some words were plain weird and required a lot of Googling…
20. Quite enjoyed this puzzle! Bingo’s clue surfaces in the past have been too dry for my taste (there are a few examples here too, like 7d, 9d), but there are some very picturesque surfaces in this one: 16d, 10a, 20a, for eg.). And the theme + gimmicks were a lot of fun to decipher.
21. Excellent Puzzle!
22. enjoyed the solving.
23. Very nice puzzle. Loved the clues – just the right level of difficulty. The theme is apt – though, would have preferred it to be a more well-known movie / book since the part about finding the names was impossible without Wiki help
24. Fun brain teaser
25. Brilliantly crafted puzzle, very enjoyable!
26. As entertaining as a thriller!
27. Super
28. Hats off to the setter for this challenging puzzle. Must have taken ages to set this.
29. Wonderful challenge. I thought it was going to have obscure words, but there were not many, and it gave the solver a chance while still being challenging, hence was very enjoyable!
30. Superb brain-teaser
31. superlative!
32. theme was difficult, clues were excellent
33. Enjoyable and interesting grid! Smooth surfaces and wordplay. It’s hard to choose the top three clues. I liked the devious surfaces and the process of figuring out the extra letters in the down clues was fun.
34. Clues were nicely set, very challenging. I couldn’t get any of the bonus questions.
35. Very very tough grid but most enjoyable
36. Nice puzzle with some good clues. Message from down clues rather cryptic.
37. GOOD ONE
38. Perfect construction of the multiple layers of the puzzle, perfectly formed clues, leading to a surprisingly apropos book. A real treat though not as hard as Bingo’s last grid here.
39. Thanks for an enjoyable evening. I like your grids, tough & yet enjoyable.
40. AMAZING GRID MUST HAVE BEEM QUITE AN EFFORT TO CONSTRUCT THE DOWN CLUES.
41. Excellent skills in setting the grid. Fair but tough South East corner was toughest while left half fell in fair time.