Stats The puzzle page was loaded 439 times. 255 visitors had a go at it and 34 solvers managed to complete and submit the grid. Of those who submitted 25 managed to get the maximum possible score of 156 including the Bonus.
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Here is the solution grid:
NOTES: Thematic entries are highlighted in Yellow.
Bonus Questions:
- Extra letters from wordplay giving the “Form” (5,6,2,10) – ANS: LOWER FOURTH AT GREYFRIARS
- Extra letters from wordplay giving the “Creator” (5,8) – ANS: FRANK RICHARDS
- Identify 6 theme words – ANS: WHARTON, NUGENT, CHERRY, BULL, SINGH, BUNTER
The theme relates to the Billy Bunter schoolboy stories which first appeared in the early 1900s, featuring primarily the students of The Remove (the form in which the boys were studying) and published in The Magnet (an attraction).
Extra letters from wordplay give LOWER FOURTH AT GREYFRIARS (the official name for the Form) and FRANK RICHARDS (the author).
Thematic content included in the grid are the names of BUNTER(the central figure), and the ‘Famous Five’ comprising: WHARTON, Harry
NUGENT, Frank CHERRY, Bob BULL, Johnny SINGH, Hurree Jamset Ram
Annotations
| Across | Answer | Explanation |
| 3 Want to break loose unless husband sets free (10) | unshackles | (l)ACK inside UNLESS H*; def: sets free Extra L |
| 11 Evil spirit in extremes of inertia, no harm done (7) | ahriman | I…A N(o) HARM*; def: evil spirit EXTRA O |
| 12 Left behind good man (4) | gent | (w)ENT after G; def: man EXTRA W |
| 13 See boring place and leave quickly (4) | scat | C inside S(e)AT; def: leave quickly EXTRA E |
| 15 Climber going over a new track (5) | liana | rev of A N (r)AIL; def: climber EXTRA R |
| 16 Thematic, Unclued (3,6) | the remove | NA |
| 17 Insurer becoming authorized by law (5) | licit | LIC (f)IT; def: authorized by law EXTRA F |
| 19 Australian environmentalist’s spirit saving deer (7) | greenie | GENIE outside R(o)E; def: Australianenvironmentalist EXTRA O |
| 21 We are gathered between couple lying about tangle (7) | oarweed | AR(WE)E inside rev of D(u)O; def: tangle EXTRA U |
| 22 Sweet roll from club, hot and light (4,3) | bath bun | BAT H BU(r)N; def: sweet roll EXTRA R |
| 25 Apart from Italian name, retrospective vintage car (7) | bugatti | BU(t) rev of IT TAG; def: vintage car EXTRA T |
| 27 Remains inside, on account of which becomes feeble (5) | washy | ASH inside W(h)Y; def: feeble EXTRA H |
| 28 Thematic, Unclued (3,6) | the magnet | NA |
| 32 Latin Bible in palatial building out of bounds (5) | itala | pAL(a)TIAl*; def: Latin Bible EXTRA A |
| 33 Instrument to gather right bait (4) | lure | LU(t)E outside R; def: bait EXTRA T |
| 34 General idea behind second stop in Glasgow (4) | sist | (g)IST behind S; def: stop in Glasgow EXTRA G |
| 35 A heartless ruler raises dues (7) | arrears | A R…R (r)EARS; def: dues EXTRA R |
| 36 Settle lease changing mosaic (10) | tessellate | SETTLE LEAS(e)*; def: mosaic EXTRA E. |
| Down | Answer | Explanation |
| 1 A filthy place after women were no longer employed (4) | wast | W A ST(y); def: were, no longer employed ie archaic EXTRA Y |
| 2 Not very religious about fish and chips, happy to get soups in Russia (6) | shchis | (f)ISH CHIPS – PI*; def: soups in Russia EXTRA F |
| 4 Canister raised by derricks essentially containing nitrogen (6) | nitric | rev of TIN de(r)RICks; def: containing nitrogen EXTRA R |
| 5 Five emissaries rounding up some piratical character (4) | smee | HIPS in reverse S(i)MEE; def: some piratical character EXTRA I |
| 6 Forbidden for Muslim to injure (4) | harm | HAR(a)M; def: to injure EXTRA A |
| 7 Lake getting green after current leaves watercourse (7) | culvert | CU(r) L VERT; def: watercourse EXTRA R |
| 8 Blank resignation letters inhibiting trainees (8) | learners | LEA(s)ERS outside R….N; def: trainees EXTRA S |
| 9 After opening champagne, perhaps filled with pleasure? On the contrary, boredom (5) | ennui | wINE outside (f)UN all reversed; def: boredom EXTRA F |
| 10 Beginning to yield ground deserting one reportedly (8) | statedly | STA(r)T YiELD*; def: reportedly EXTRA R |
| 14 Group of motorists having ripped around Gateway of India? (5) | toran | TORN outside A(a); def: gateway of India EXTRA A |
| 17 Cast in stone’ circumvented by political influencer (8) | lobbyist | LOB I(n) ST outside BY; def: political influencer EXTRA N |
| 18 Sword chipped by Greek crystal (8) | cutglass | G(k) inside CUTLASS; def: crystal EXTRA K |
| 20 The barn area transforming monastic territory (7) | abthane | THE BA(r)N A*; def: monastic territory EXTRA R |
| 21 Exterior in ormolu hiding interior layer (5) | outer | O….U T(i)ER; def: exterior EXTRA I |
| 23 Small bird of prey breaking cage to leave (6) | eaglet | (c)AGE* LET; def: small bird of prey EXTRA C |
| 24 In France dear Harry occasionally gets ruddy (6) | cherry | CHER (h)aRrY; def: ruddy EXTRA H |
| 26 BBC release (5) | untie | (a)UNTIE EXTRA A |
| 29 Rare earth extracted in small quantity for fertiliser (4) | marl | RA(r)e inside ML; def: fertiliser EXTRA R |
| 30 Notice planet passing over sun reflecting glow (4) | aura | A(d) URAnus; def: glow EXTRA D |
| 31 Fly up leaving base for trial (4) | test | rev of TSET(s)e; def: trial EXTRA S |
Results – Score card
| S.No | Participant | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anicha Reuban | 156 |
| 2 | Anirudh Sahni | 156 |
| 3 | Ashit Hegde | 156 |
| 4 | Ganesh Nayak | 156 |
| 5 | Geoff Lee | 156 |
| 6 | Ian VanderSchee | 156 |
| 7 | Jonathan Lay | 156 |
| 8 | Keith Williams | 156 |
| 9 | Kumaresh K R | 156 |
| 10 | Lakshmi Prakash | 156 |
| 11 | Lalitha Rathnakumar | 156 |
| 12 | Madhup Tewari | 156 |
| 13 | Max Jackson | 156 |
| 14 | Mohsin Ahmed | 156 |
| 15 | Mona Sogal | 156 |
| 16 | Narayanan R | 156 |
| 17 | Prakash Arumugam | 156 |
| 18 | Ramki Krishnan | 156 |
| 19 | Sandhya Paruchuri | 156 |
| 20 | Satyen Nabar | 156 |
| 21 | Sohil Bhagat | 156 |
| 22 | Sree Sree | 156 |
| 23 | Supriya Mithal | 156 |
| 24 | Tejas Siddharth | 156 |
| 25 | Venkatraghavan S | 156 |
| 26 | Irwin Appel | 155 |
| 27 | Madhusudan H | 155 |
| 28 | Camelia Oberoi | 154 |
| 29 | Nick loader | 154 |
| 30 | Samit Kallianpur | 154 |
| 31 | Rathnakumar V | 153 |
| 32 | Venkatesan P | 151 |
Congrats to the solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
We had announced two prizes – one for the first all correct entry and one for a lucky participant. The first all correct entry was from Tejas Siddharth. The Lucky winner is Venkatesan P. They will each receive a copy of Cryptic Crossroads Vol. 3. Congrats.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.97. It got 13 perfect 10s – i.e 41% of those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 6.
Favorite Clues: Here’s the distribution of favorites picked by the solvers.
Comments on the Puzzle
| Num | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| 1 | Engaging, but a bit too obscure. |
| 2 | Great grid, it kept me interested till the end. Had to work hard for almost all the clues but the annotations came out smoothly. In the beginning, never thought I was going to finish it, given my poor track record on Bingo’s grids. Would be curious to know if this is one of his easier versions |
| 3 | I will try give detailed feedback later have run out of time now haha. Mostly great. |
| 4 | Very interesting puzzle. Needed some wikipedia help to figure out the theme – and once that fell into place, the puzzle quickly got resolved. Couldn’t completely parse a couple of the clues, but with the definitions, fairly sure of the answers |
| 5 | Slightly taboo theme these days, but quite good fun as a puzzle – thanks. |
| 6 | Where do I start? How do you fill a grid so efficiently and to have so many theme references? Superb Bingo grid as usual. Hats Off!! |
| 7 | tough grid..hats off to the setter for creativity! |
| 8 | it was mind numbing :).. but have to say quite genius |
| 9 | Amazing concept ,grid and ability to incorporate so many elements of the theme in multiple ways. The theme was completely unknown to me yet very doable,the idea of having unusual words in italics was very welcome.The clues are excellent as well.In all,a very challenging and enjoyable puzzle, very satisfying to crack.Kudos Bingo ,looking forward to more |
| 10 | Absolutely brilliant! |
| 11 | I loved it! As an American, it is difficult with so many Britishisms, but I understand that’s a given. My one suggestion would be to have fewer uncommon words – I love difficult clues, but when they result in such obscure answers, I don’t enjoy that as much. |
| 12 | Yaroo! |
| 13 | Extremely challenging solve, fun theme, fair clues |
| 14 | obscure words handled well.. iffy definitions and indicators.interesting theme |
| 15 | Brilliantly crafted and very enjoyable |
| 16 | Found it much easier than Bingo’s earlier puzzles. Could spot the theme early on (after getting L – W – R …) and that helped. Some of the difficult words had to be googled – no way I could have solved them just using wordplay! As is always the case with Bingo’s clues, even the answer was obvious due to crossing letters and definition, the annotations had to be done carefully and gave quite a few aha moments.Such an intricately crafted grid with so many layers to be unraveled must have taken a lot of effort – kudos to Bingo! |
| 17 | INTERESTING |
| 18 | An entertaining puzzle. Excellent clues. The preamble says that the thematic content comprising a central figure and a famous quintet should be highlighted/identified in the completed grid (7,6,4,6,6,5). Could not find any questions regarding this in the Bonus Form. |
| 19 | Wow! Impressive grid! The clues were clever and the endgame was spectacular! This one took me a while to complete, and the final result was very satisfying. |
| 20 | Excellent puzzle – amazing how you managed to fit in the theme, extra letters, and the ninas! Enjoyed it 100% |
| 21 | Good creative work. Thanks for the hard work in crafting this crossword. |
| 22 | a lot of the answers were hard to parse even when I knew the answer, think the grammar could use a bit of cleaning up. not the biggest fan of the theme but overall still quite enjoyable |
| 23 | I like the theme. |
| 24 | Tough but engrossing, very enjoyable, the grid is quite amazing. Great to see obscure words noted as such. |
| 25 | Another master-crafted puzzle from Bingo. Tricky and thoroughly enjoyable clues albeit easier than Bingo’s last two offerings at 1Across. Fun theme. |
| 26 | Excellent. Tough of course, since it took a bit of time to get used to the extra letter in the wordplay and a few uncommon words added to the difficulty but it was all great in the end. A satisfying solve and a very well constructed theme and puzzle. Thanks Bhala! |
| 27 | Some obscure definitions (which were highlighted of course) otherwise a delightful puzzle. |
| 28 | Very very tough as expected but great fun to solve |
| 29 | Brilliant |
| 30 | Really nice theme! Was fun to solve each step of the puzzle. |
| 31 | Very tough one, to be frank i could not get satisfactory anno.on some clues. |
| 32 | Excellent, fun puzzle! |