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The 1ACross 7th Anniversary Gridfest was a tremendous success. It has grown leaps and bounds since the first edition in 2015 when we had 35 participants solving 13 grids. The numbers speak for themselves.

Gridfest Stats (excluding the Practice Puzzle which had over 100 submissions):

Registered Participants = 143

Number of times puzzles were attempted  = 2,929

Number of valid submissions = 2,189

Number of ALL-CORRECT submissions = 1,226 

Solvers:

On average, we had  90 participants submitting each of the 25 grids –  around 2,200 submissions during the period. All-correct responses averaged 55% and ranged from 17% for Grid 8 (Triple One) to 88% for Grid 14 (Fare for Beginners).

Since participants could solve at their own pace and time, the number of all correct entries was quite high as expected.

The enthusiastic response from the participants and their comments are a testimony to the high quality of the contest and especially that of all the grids that were up for solving.

Final Leaderboard – Snapshot – 1ACross 7th Anniversary Gridfest, 2021

SR(Strike Rate) – Is a measure of the Accuracy Score, Calculated by dividing Cumulative Score / Maximum Score

At the end of the month long contest, Mona Sogal has emerged as the Champion. She stands unbeaten at the top slot with a remarkable record of zero errors during the entire Gridfest thus maxing the score.

Anirudh Sahni, Kenny Koh and Samit Kallianpur share the second place. Each of them made 1 error which was related to bonus questions at the end of the grids.

The third place goes to Madhup Tewari, who had 1 error and also missed the time bonus on another grid.

Congrats to all the winners. The full leaderboard can be viewed at the end of this post

Setters:

The Gridfest was run in two stages and we had 25 grids from 30 setters after two dropped out (since they were unable to incorporate the feedback / changes required within the original deadline).  20 grids were solo efforts of setters and 5 were joint efforts by pairs of setters. 21 setters are based in India and 9 setters are based outside India (in UK, Germany, Australia, USA, Thailand and Bahrain).

All the grids in the Gridfest were run anonymously and the Setter’s identities were not disclosed – so that the solvers could judge each grid on its own merit and not on earlier expectation.

Over a two week period prior to the Gridfest, each grid was subject to close scrutiny by me as well as the Gridfest co-ordinators viz., Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Ramki Krishnan and Satyen Nabar. The experienced team not only provided value-add to each setter but also gave a lot of guidance and valuable suggestions throughout the contest. It was possible to run this successfully only because of their huge support.

Each solver was requested to assign 3 ratings for each grid.  Difficulty, Entertainment Value and Overall Quality (on a scale of 1-10). The Average scores for Entertainment Value and Quality for each grid were then converted to a COMBINED score and a final score on 100 was arrived for each grid.

Here are the stats for the Top 10 grids.

FINAL STATS FOR SETTERS  – 1ACROSS GRIDFEST 2021
Grid # Puzzle Setter(s) # Entries All correct All correct % Difficulty Quality Ent. COMBINED #10s %
18 The Endgame Hypatia 74 36 49% 83.9 86.6 85.8 86.2 30%
21 A Novel Puzzle Dr. X 85 57 67% 67.3 84.2 87.0 85.6 25%
10 Wise Lovers Sceptic Cryptic 91 40 44% 65.8 85.4 85.6 85.5 21%
25 Across the X Y of  Z KrisKross 81 37 46% 62.9 83.3 87.4 85.4 23%
24 The Games are Afoot Brothers of Construction 79 34 43% 66.8 81.9 82.9 82.4 18%
3 The Perfect Gift Ambrosia 97 63 65% 70.2 82.9 81.3 82.1 14%
16 Dcrypt Avtaar 87 60 69% 72.5 82.6 81.3 82.0 17%
1 Down to Earth Goldiloks 107 48 45% 56.3 81.2 80.8 81.0 19%
13 Major Missing Metacryptix 93 78 84% 59.0 81.0 79.8 80.4 13%
11 Stellar Slumber Scarlet 90 34 38% 68.9 79.9 79.8 79.8 13%

It was a very close contest and all the grids had very good feedback from the solvers.

In first place with the highest rating of 86.2 is Hypatia’s “The End Game” (Grid 18).  The Grid had a NINA in the shape of “7” for the Seventh Anniversary. The Across clues were neither in their correct locations nor provided with enumerations. The Across solutions were linked by a pattern and like a jigsaw, these had to be fitted in their correct locations by identifying the pattern. The Grid had the fourth highest difficulty rating (after Zero Sum, The Secret Seven and Toil & Trouble). It had the highest quality rating and the third highest Entertainment rating (after Across the XY of Z and A Novel Puzzle). It also had 30% of the solvers giving it a full score.

The second place is shared by three grids Dr. X’s “A Novel Puzzle”, Sceptic Cryptic’s “Wise Lovers” and “Across the XY of Z” by Kriskross.

“A Novel Puzzle” (Grid 21) featured two hidden clues which had to be cracked like a Whodunnit to reveal a secret theme. There was intrigue as solvers had to hunt for hints and fully unravel the mystery. The Grid was ranked fourteenth  – indicating a medium level of difficulty. It had the third highest quality rating (after “The Endgame” and “Wise Lovers”) and the second highest Entertainment rating (after “Across the XY of Z”). It also had 25% of the solvers giving it a full score.

“Wise Lovers” (Grid 10) was an entertaining puzzle with a theme that had to be identified based on generic definitions in the clues.  The Grid was ranked 16 for difficulty – putting it in slightly lower than the average difficulty. It had the second highest quality rating (after “The Endgame”) and the fourth highest Entertainment rating (after “Across the XY of Z”, “A Novel puzzle” and “The Endgame”). It had 21% of the solvers giving it a full score.

“Across the X Y of Z” (Grid 25) was the last grid in the Gridfest. This themed grid had  special hidden messages that gave useful clues to crack the title and the theme. The Grid was ranked 20 for difficulty – on the easier side of the spectrum compared to most of the other grids. It had the fourth highest quality rating (after “The Endgame”, “Wise Lovers” and “A Novel puzzle”) and the highest Entertainment rating. It had 23% of the solvers giving it a full score.

In third place with a rating of 82.4 is “The Games are Afoot” (Grid 24) by the Brothers of Construction. It had a topical theme for 2020 and the theme was well woven in both clue surfaces and the grid. At the core of the grid was a NINA and there were special theme entries that needed to be identified by the solvers.

Congrats to all the winners.

Although they did not score highly in the contest, there were two exceptional grids which were my personal favorites. They also made the competition pretty hard and intensely fought.  One is Zero Sum by Bingo which had a mindboggling concept of letters being switched in and out of the grid entries. It was also the most discussed grid in social media. The second was Secret Seven by Eclogue which had seven NINAs in one puzzle. An amazing grid construction specially put together by Eclogue for our 7th Anniversary, it was also the grid that pretty much jump started the Gridfest.  Kudos to the setters of both these grids.

Top Clues:

Based on the number of votes, here are the 25 top favorites out of nearly 750 clues  in the contest.

Clues

Setter Grid Clue % Votes
Avtaar Dcrypt Where those who arrive late get fired (11) 18%
Dr. X A Novel Puzzle It’s easy Doctor Watson, elementary to begin with (2,5) 16%
Mathrix Point A to Point B Cried miserably to quietly suggest case for emotions: joy and sadness, for example (6,9) 15%
Saral Such Event Rival acquiring hotel back for daughter’s jubilee (11) 13%
Avtaar Dcrypt Mobile phone – a miracle – it can take pictures too (7,6) 13%
KrisKross Across the X Y of Z Rise and fall, say, of tragic hero, extremely meritorious (8) 13%
The Director Tinsel Town Lacking knowledge if there was nothing here? (8) 12%
Scarlet Stellar Slumber A frozen water body? (7) 12%
Sideswipe Grid 5 Extremely enthusiastic musical style embracing the origin of hip-hop and disco ​perhaps (9) 12%
Sideswipe Grid 5 Serve coffee brewed with mint and it’s like one thing leads to another (6,6) 12%
Eclogue The Secret Seven As toffee is cut in Cyprus (5) 12%
Silicon Gent Toil & Trouble Brewer peeled nettles behind tree (9) 12%
Sceptic Cryptic Wise Lovers Celestial showers! (10) 12%
Junior Fare for Beginners He gave a famous Tea-party. The rat! (3,6) 11%
Dot and Dash Crosscurrents Protection from price-rise? Upset US replacing Head of Finance (10) 11%
Sceptic Cryptic Wise Lovers They are inclined to stress (7) 10%
Ambrosia The Perfect Gift Letting a single mingle? (7) 10%
Saral Such Event Announce on air “Setter leaving with a parting word” (8) 10%
Mathrix Point A to Point B Scratching the head when somehow they serve indefinitely positioned ruler (5,3,7) 10%
Metacryptix Major Missing Regulator of sorts briefly guaranteeing change of hands (7) 10%
Bingo Zero Sum Game Lemons and bananas may be sliced by one here! (10) 10%
Hypatia The Endgame Whew! edit nothing vulgar in movie (4,4,3,4 10%
Hypatia The Endgame If you get it, this can’t be right! (8) 10%
Ambrosia The Perfect Gift ‘Help’ by Paul McCartney, for example needs no introduction (6) 10%
Brothers of Construction  Gamesareafoot Like about half of this puzzle, inspired by Pierre de Coubertin’s article about sport (8) 10%

Sponsors: 

Paytm was the Event Sponsor. Finding a corporate sponsor for an intellectually stimulating challenge is virtually impossible.  A huge thanks to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm for readily agreeing to sponsor the event. It was this backing which gave us a confidence boost right at the outset and made it possible to conduct this event on a large scale.

We also thank Amuselabs – particularly Mr. Sudheendra Hangal  for providing the Event platform which made it possible to collate the huge volume of submission data that is needed to run a competition of this kind. Also, thanks to Yash Joshi for all the technical support and troubleshooting.

In addition, we also had the support from our patrons at 1ACross.  Most of them have backed Gridfest 2.0 as well and they were on board from the word go. They have also been generous with their voluntary contributions and we are truly grateful to each of them for their continued support.

  1. Venkatraghavan Sahasranaman
  2. Nilesh Parmar
  3. Ashit Hegde
  4. Jyothish Balakrishnan
  5. Amrita Majumdar
  6. Loks Subrahmanyam
  7. Aashwina Mouli
  8. Anirudh Sahni
  9. Mona Sogal
  10. Ramesh Swaminathan
  11. Santha Ramachandran
  12. SSv Avtaar
  13. Venkatesan Perumal
  14. Veera Raghavan
  15. Anonymous Member of 1ACross

Last but not the least, I would like to express my appreciation to all the participants – the enthusiasm with which each of you took part was a delight to the organizers and made all the effort truly rewarding.

Prizes:

Total prizes of USD 900  (USD 450 for each category) had been announced for the top solvers and setters.  We have increased it to USD 1,100 (USD 200 for the 1st place, USD 100 for each second place winner and USD 50 for the third place winner).   In additon, we would be picking 25 lucky winners for each of the puzzles by draw of lots. They would each receive vouchers worth USD 10 / INR 750 or equivalent and a copy of Cryptic Crossroads Volume 3 (upon its release).

We will be contacting the winners regarding the prizes.

Here’s the Final Leaderboard of the 1AC 7th Anniversary Gridfest

RankParticipantSRTotal25242322212019181716151413121110987654321
1Mona Sogal100.00%4212176170166178177161155164163168172170178163150179172177158167166161160180181
2Anirudh Sahni99.74%4201176170166178177161155164163168172170178163150179172177158167166161160180170
2Kenny Koh99.74%4201176170166178177161155164163168172170178163150179172166158167166161160180181
2Samit Kallianpur99.74%4201176170166178177161155164163168172170178163150179172166158167166161160180181
5Madhup Tewari99.50%4191176170166178177161155153163168172170178163150179172177158167166161160170181
6Lakshmi Prakash99.48%4190176170166178177161155153163168172170178163150179172166158167166161160180181
6Prakash Arumugam99.48%4190176170166178177161155153163168172170178163150168172177158167166161160180181
8Keith Williams99.43%4188176170166178177161155164163168171170178163150179172177158167166161148169181
9Venkatraghavan S99.29%4182176170166178177161155164163168172170178163140179162167158167166161160180181
10Ashit Hegde99.12%4175176170166178177161155164163168161170178163139179172175158167166161160167181
11Shruthi Ravi98.96%4168176170156178177161155164163168160170178163150179172165158167156161160180181
11Supriya Mithal98.96%4168176170156178177161155164163168172170178163150168172166158165166161160180171
13Harish Kamath98.60%4153176170166167177161155164163168172170178163150168172164147167166161160180168
14Swathi Ravi98.53%4150176159156178177161155164163168162159178163150179172167158167156161160180181
15Narayan M98.29%4140176159156178177161155164163168172170178163150168172177158167154161149163181
16Aashwina Mouli98.05%4130164159156178177150143164163168172170178163150179161174158167166161160180169
17Mohsin Ahmed98.01%4128165170166178177161144164151156172170168163150179172159158167166161150180181
18Anicha Reuban97.96%4126176160156168177161145164153168162170178163147179172177158167156158150180181
19Lata Muthanna97.74%4117176157154178177161155153153168172170178163131179172177158152151161160180181
20Kolluru Koteswara Rao97.67%4114176170166166177161155164163168172158178163150179172163145156153161160170168
21Nick Loader97.65%4113176158149174166161155152163168162170178163138179162166158167166161160180181
22Tejas Siddharth97.48%4106176170166168177161141153163168172170167163138179172165158167155149160167181
23Himanshu Rajurkar97.34%4100176170154178177161155153163168172170178153139179162164158167151161160162169
23Rajeev Menon97.34%4100163170153167177161155154151168172170178163139179172167147156156161160180181
23Vasant Srinivasan97.34%4100176170166167177149155164163168161170167163139179172164158147166161148180170
26Loks Subrahmanyam96.98%4085176159100163177161155164163168172170178163150179172167158157156161160180176
26Narayanan R96.98%4085164170147161177161155164151168162170178153150168172164158167156161160167181
28N Anantakrishnan96.84%4079176159156163177161142164151168172170178163139173161158158167152161160180170
29Al Sanders96.82%4078164159156167177144155153163156172170178163150165172177158154153161150180181
30Akshay96.70%4073164170144178177161143153163157172170178163138179172164158167147161160163171
30Karthik96.70%4073176170152167177150142164149168172170178163139169172157158156153161160180170
32Avtaar96.04%4045176159166167177146155164151161172170167152140167172163158167152148160169166
33Madhusudan H95.85%4037164158145166177161155153149153172170178163139179172159145167166161148167170
34Venkatesan P95.73%4032166159151164166161155153147168158170178163139167160162158151166161160180169
35Arvind Ramaswamy95.47%4021164158126164177161143164149168172170178163150179161164158157153151150170171
36Amrita Majumdar95.42%4019162155132164177161155152151157172159178163150167160165158167150161153169181
37Jyothish Balakrishnan95.37%4017165170152164177161155148147168157170178163150168162163147156166161132167170
38Biju Sudarsan95.32%4015176170148164177161155164151168161170178153139167161158148150154151150170171
39Deepak Gopinath94.99%4001164159127165177146155153149168172170167163135168172164158156166161160164162
40Anand Ranganathan94.61%3985164151142166177146155164154168172170178152134168159153158167130161160167169
41Shatajeet Gandhi94.47%3979164158124160166150155152145168162170167152137179172162158155154161160180168
42Nilesh Parmar94.42%3977163158147167177145155153123168162170178163139179156157158157143161148180170
43Neelima Rai94.40%3976166160147166167151145152151158162170178153139169162160148147156161160167181
44Sohil Bhagat93.78%395017617079168177151155154153158114170178153150166162166158156154161160180181
45Ganesh Nayak93.07%3920165159134158167150155141151168172170168163139168152165144154139151149168170
46N. Rengaswamy92.97%391616417037178177161141154145168162170178152138167172166158148155161160166168
47Sree Sree92.55%38981641581531671771611551641521581721701781631401681610158167166161150164171
48Ian VanderSchee92.45%3894163132122163177161155146151168150170178151138156172141147167147143160169167
49Ranjani Srikanth92.28%3887163151148155162161142151148144131170178146139168158160145156166161146169169
50Ramesh Swaminathan92.24%38851761586616717716115515085168162170178163136168172157158152152161160166167
51Melissa McLachlan92.02%38761641700164177161155152163168172159178163135167172164158149154161143159168
52Shrikanth T91.76%3865163160146162159161142151144168134170166152139166158156148154145150145164162
53Debasmita Basu91.38%384916215891164167151141151150157110170163163138168161163158156151161160169166
53Usha Dronamraju91.38%384916317061163160150144136130168160170178151139179161156158143151161160168169
55Magi Venkat91.33%384715416068151150149144151151168149159168163137168172163145155166161160165170
56R Nagendra Prasad91.24%384316215863162162161143143137157148170178148134168172157158150153150160180169
57Lakshmi Vaidyanathan91.14%38391601579716216416114015415115677170178163137168161163144167151161160170167
58Dean Sherman89.77%378116614794167160150144154118149160170168163139166135134158156122161160159181
59Neha Goregaokar89.67%377716410887157162142139148142156162170168163134159162158146155147161145180162
60Alanckrit Jain89.32%3762176156120167156151140152138156137160168149139169122159148147132147136167170
61Ratna Rao89.27%376016014501681671611430163168172170178163150166172165158156166161147180181
62Camelia Oberoi89.22%375816615701681771501430153168159170178163150168172164158156166161160170181
63Divita Gupta89.17%3756176157122167156150140152138155137160168149139167122159148142132147135168170
64Aneerooth88.56%37301631581560167150142154104158157159168153150179162165145156154149149165167
65Gopal D87.49%3685164159521531661611435212115693170166163140168162162158167148150150180181
66Lewis Shipp86.99%3664152160661631621381451540158125170178163139168146157147148156161160180168
67Sandhya Paruchuri85.26%35911761569416417716114513121560170178153140168161158148156156151150169171
68Kumaresh K R84.85%3574176159016717716115516404698170178163127179172167158155156137160168181
69Veera Raghavan83.24%3506164147016116616115513901680170178152136179157155158147166150160168169
70Liari82.34%3468154157016216201440144156172170178151118168172150148155137161160168181
71Dr S Venkatesh81.67%3440156157156017715114215411021571591671531501791628146167154150149168166
72Vinay Chindu81.43%34300066162162151143129103156119170178163150169157156158136132161160180169
73Steve Tregidgo80.46%3389166159401661610014413413616216016815313716779156148157154151143167181
74Sanjoy Gupta80.20%337816515801661671491440821580170178138139169123164147146156161148180170
75Shubha Chatterjee77.90%328116415752971331311301001331471091591581219915995158137147110132113169171
76Viveca Bhatkal77.30%32561540015915416112000150133170178146137167158156158148153148145180181
77Shashwat Salgaocar75.21%316801280178014314201511580160168163140169162167158167156151160180167
78Binay Kumar Patra73.88%311216515501651481391550144168017017814913715300146147150161143168171
79Gayathri Viswanath73.81%310915815601461481611440006916017813762167160156158148156151145168181
80Narayana Swamy D71.44%300914315001111501406406815613317017810911314183133128129112128145163162
81Kabir Firaque70.94%2988000015316101450158101170178151137179161163158148156161160180168
82Arvind Kannabiran69.61%29321641701551781771611551641631681721701781530000001160143164181
83Meera68.90%29020000162150142001581721701781531391681621158156151161160180181
84N Jayakumar66.55%28031540001541411380015601701781531331630163158149151161145168168
85Pavan Kumar Vaitheeswaran63.01%265414112007310212214050981119115016813113900137148770161160166169
86Vinayak Ekbote61.78%2602000000000156161170178163137167172159147167154161160169181
87Veena Venkataraman60.92%2566000000001531680170168153137167162161147157153161160180169
88Eddie Looby59.14%2491000000000168102160166146137167162166148154166150160169170
89James Leaver56.55%23820000000000161160168163139167172158147157156151145167171
90Jyotsna50.02%21070000000000961601541531221561461581489186150138168181
91Ramakrishna Easwaran48.05%2024000017701420015601701661491299001581390161133165170
92Neha Cherian40.91%172300000000000001411381681721521471561391610168181
93Spiffytrix37.96%1599000000000000015301791620158155156151150164171
94Sujatha22.41%9440000000000015915900000000161142162161
95Diwakar Menon21.34%8990000000000000000000130138151143169168
96Maya Sharma16.69%70300000000000000000013300130119162159
97Ponsuganth Muthuraman12.70%53500000000000000000000013567163170
98Sashi Shankar12.63%532000000000001451480011400125000000
99Arun Kumar11.28%4750000000000000000601480015101700
100Amita11.06%4660000000000000000001461500000170
101Venkatasubramanian Raja10.66%4490000000000000000000000134166149
102A. Joseph Amirtharaj9.81%413000000000001600960000000000157
103Srikrishna Sriram7.55%31800000000000000000000000154164
104Smita Kolhatkar6.67%28100000000000012700000000000154
105Throopan Nair4.30%181000000000000000000000000181
106Tulika Das3.85%162000000000000000000000000162
106Vinoo S3.85%162000000000000000000000000162
108Paul Vong3.49%147000000000000000000000000147
109Ami Deokar2.92%123000000000000000000000077046
110Narayanan Ganapathy1.99%8400000000000000000000000084

Notes:

  1. Max Score  for all puzzles  = 4,212
  2. Strike Rate % = Cumulative Score / Max Score
  3. Scores for participating setters for their own grids has been finally adjusted based on their Strike Rate across all other grids.

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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