Stats The puzzle page was loaded over 350 times. 102 visitors had a go at it and 54 solvers managed to complete and submit the grid. Of those who submitted, only 37 managed to get the maximum possible score of 155.
Symphony<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Annotations (Across)
| # | Answer | Clue (Across) | Annotation |
| 1 | PIANO | Scotsman immersed in work about making this instrument (5) | IAN in OP<-. Def: this Instrument |
| 4 | CHOIR | Singers get round for a seat (5) | O for A in CHAIR |
| 9 | WATERFALL | Wall collapsed after charging rapids (9) | AFTER* in WALL. Def:Rapids |
| 10 | ORGAN | Doctor Ganesh hosting member (5) | Telescopic |
| 11 | ETHICS | Witches losing head, compromising morals (6) | (W)ITCHES*. Def: Morals |
| 12 | OBSERVE | Confused over stock exchange stopping notice (7) | BSE in OVER*. Def: Notice |
| 15 | POINT | Issue of dope consumed at home (5) | IN in POT. Def: Issue |
| 17 | LYRE | Instrument playing early without initial approval (4) | (EARLY-A)* . Def: Instrument |
| 19 | ROCK | Cork becomes stone! (4) | CORK*. Def : Stone |
| 21 | AIDE | Team suspends first step to get a helper (4) | A for S in SIDE. Def: helper |
| 22 | HYMN | Carol heard from him (4) | ~HIM . Def: Carol |
| 23 | TESTY | Delicious, when instead of a pinch of asafoetida elaichi basically is used, becomes disagreeable (5) | E for A in TASTY. Def:Disagreeable |
| 25 | PRELUDE | Opening schedule changed after school goes for publicity (7) | PR for SCH in SCHEDULE* . Def:Opening |
| 27 | QUARTO | Margins removed from quadrangle to get paper size (6) | (s)QUAR(e)+TO. Def:Paper Size |
| 29 | PILOT | Religious group leader (5) | PI+LOT. Def:Leader |
| 31 | UNHAPPIER | Union limits unrestrained hire including software, more regrettable (9) | U(nio)N+APP in HIRE*. Def : More Regrettable |
| 32 | DIRGE | Keen in going back, some forsake griddle (5) | Reverse Telescopic. Def:Keen |
| 33 | METRE | Encountered soldiers exhibiting tempo (5) | MET+RE. Def: Tempo |
| # | Answer | Clue (Down) | Annotation |
| 1 | PITCH | Throw tar (5) | DD. |
| 2 | APRICOT | Fruit at reduced cost, offer initially accepted (7) | PRIC(e)+O in AT. Def: Fruit |
| 3 | ORAL | Lesson involving no maths at first, it is said (4) | (m)ORAL. Def: Said |
| 4 | CELLO | Instrument firm secured went down wanting force (5) | (f)ELL in CO. Def: Instrument |
| 5 | OBOIST | Old boys sit excited around ring, see musician (6) | OB, SIT* around O. Def:Musician |
| 6 | RAG | Mock tattered clothing (3) | DD |
| 7 | SWEET PEA | E- Waste with bits of plastic efficiently recycled in plant (5,3) | P, E in EWASTE*. Def: Plant |
| 8 | ONCE | Formerly inmate of prison cell (4) | Telescopic Def: Formerly |
| 9 | ROOM SERVICE | Door delivery of more covers setter ordered (4,7) | (MORE COVERS I*. Def: Door Delivery |
| 13 | PLAY | Quiet place for drama (4) | P+LAY. Def: Drama |
| 14 | INDIE | Unaffiliated pop group, say, stylish, to fade away? (5) | IN+DIE. Def: Un…..d pop group |
| 16 | RING | Surround band (4) | DD |
| 18 | KEYBOARD | Console chief punched loudly (8) | KEY+~BORED. Def: Console |
| 20 | TRUMPET | Announce bona fide member in bar (7) | TRU(MP)E T. Def: Announce |
| 24 | GUITAR | Kid going back over action not starting to exhibit instrument (6) | (s)UIT in RAG<-. Def: Instrument |
| 25 | PIPE | Instrument is ready right away after start of play (4) | (r)IPE after P(lay). Def:Instrument |
| 26 | EXUDE | Release old chap after stealing half a grand (5) | EX+(d)UDE. Def: Release |
| 28 | WHIM | Humour starts from wildly hilarious intimate moments (4) | Acrostic. Def: Humour |
| 30 | LID | Slip uncovered to reveal top (3) | (s)LID(e). Def: Top |
Bonus Questions:
Identify any 8 theme words in the Grid
Ans: Any 8 of the highlighted words in the Grid viz., PIANO, CHOIR, ORGAN, LYRE, ROCK, HYMN, PRELUDE, DIRGE, METRE, PITCH, CELLO, OBOIST, PLAY, KEYBOARD, TRUMPET, PIPE, GUITAR, INDIE
Scorecard
| Participant(s) Name | Total | Grid Score | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aashwina | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Al Sanders | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Arnold Reich | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Arvind Kannabiran | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Ashit Hegde | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Avtaar | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| BINAY KUMAR PATRA | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Dave Williams | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Ganesh Nayak | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Hawk | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Himanshu Rajurkar | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Ian VanderSchee | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| K K Rao | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Keith Williams | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Lakshmi Prakash | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Loks Subrahmanyam | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Madhup Tewari | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Madhusudan H | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Max Jackson | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| mona sogal | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| prakash arumugam | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Priya Shyam | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Ramki Krishnan | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| RANJANI SRIKANTH | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Ratna | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Samit kallianpur | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Sohil | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Sree sree | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Supriya Mithal | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Tejas Siddharth | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Usha Ramesh | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| VENKATESAN P. | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Venkatraghavan S | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| anand ranganathan | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| N Rengaswamy | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| NARAYANAN R | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| PRASAD RV | 154 | 147 | 7 |
| R Nagendra Prasad | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| RATNAKUMAR V | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| Sparsh Sinha | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| Alison Crutchfield | 153 | 145 | 8 |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | 153 | 145 | 8 |
| Deepak | 147 | 147 | 0 |
| SANTHA | 147 | 147 | 0 |
| Dr S Venkatesh | 145 | 145 | 0 |
| Aneeroorh | 144 | 144 | 0 |
| Jane | 144 | 144 | 0 |
| Smita Kolhatkar | 120 | 120 | 0 |
Congrats to the 37 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 7.62. It got 4 perfect 10s. The lowest score was 2.
Favorite Clues: The Top 3 clues were
Opening schedule changed after school goes for publicity (7) – 14 votes
Religious group leader (5) – 11 votes and
Quiet place for drama (4) – 10 votes
Comments / Feedback: Here’s the feedback from our solvers
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|
| Elaborately.planned and clued |
| Included a lot of musical lights. Beautiful. |
| Lovely easy grid |
| wonderful |
| Very enjoyable! Nice clues. |
| Simple and elegant puzzle |
| An enjoyable thematic grid |
| Nice one |
| Sound and musical |
| Nice grid |
| Lovely enjoyable grid. |
| Good puzzle overall |
| Very nice puzzle |
| Gentle and smooth. Theme was visible early on. Overall, a well constructed puzzle. Could have done with misdirection in a few of the clues. |
| Liked the surfaces of most clues. 23A, 31A are a bit long-winded. Not so difficult to solve once I solved a few and got crossing letters. |
| Good puzzle |
| It wasn’t until I completed the grid on the site that I realised ust how many thematic words there were; well done.Putting the clue numbers in the “favourites” list would make finding them easier. |
| Enjoyable puzzle |
| Great theme! enjoyed ! |
| Nice and easy |
| Fun grid! |
| Nice and easy grid, good clues . Enjoyable theme |
| Grid was easy and fun to solve -nice clues! |
| Nice |
| Super |
| A good mix of easy and difficult clues. |
| Nice smooth grid |
| If PITCH and PIPE are theme words indicating PITCHPIPE, this should be indicated. All the other instruments are clearly defined by one clue. |
| Simple grid but great fun |
| Nice easy grid. Several good surfaces |
| Pleasant clues; that unconnected section in the middle of the grid was a bit naughty though! |
| Nice easy puzzle, but I couldn’t quite figure out the purpose of the set of four four-letter words in the middle, and why they weren’t connected to the rest of the grid. |
| Fairly straightforward. The biggest problem for this grid is the central isolated area which really should be avoided. |
| Easier fare than what we have come to expect in 1Across grids, but a fun one to solve nevertheless! |
| Fun theme grid |
| Nice theme – easy to spot and very straightforward clues which had the answers falling in place quickly. (If you consider musical terms + instruments, there are many more themed words – good job in fitting them all into the grid)Using “setter” for “I” as part of anagram fodder was a bit indirect IMHO. |
| Very good job by the setter to craft a grid with so many music related words. Spotted multiple other references beyond the 8 instruments in the ‘symphony’. Found the clues a tad too easy though – and not a fan of the 4*4 center piece which is a completely distinct puzzle in itself. |
| Nice puzzle, with so many theme words as gridfill. Surfaces can definitely be improved. |
| Smooth and melodious like the title |
| some minor issues but good puzzle |
| Some nice clues. Surfaces could be more plausible. |
| Good show |
| Easy puzzle. But don’t like some of the connectors, they seem more like extra words than connectors. |
| Fine |
| Interesting. smooth- solving |
| Thank you. I finished it, so clearly the clues all work as hints, and that’s the most important thing. The three clues I selected had the best surface readings to disguise the wordplay. |
| Nice theme and coverage. However, did not like the island in the middle of the grid or the lack of symmetry. Too many clues had unclear surfaces. (Kid going back over action not starting to exhibit instrument: what does it mean?) |
Thanks to “Veeyares” on his debut in our blog with an entertaining puzzle.
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