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Here is the solution grid:
Annotations (Across)
7 Cut off hate finally? That’s hard (6) SEVERE. Def- That’s hard,cut
off- sever, hate finally- e
8 Finally escapee put inside prison surrounded by very large seas (6)
OCEANS. Def- water bodies, Finally escapee-e, put inside-insertion, prison-can, surrounded- containment indic, very large-OS
11 Even if so absurd, admitting facts initially is upsetting (9)
OFFENSIVE. Def- upsetting, absurd-anagrind, Evenifso*, admitting –
container indic,facts initially- f
12 American leading that woman escort (5) USHER. Def-escort,
american- US, leading- positional indic, that woman-her
13 Overturned vehicles burn (5) SMART. Def- burn, overturned- rev ,
vehicles- TRAMS<-
15 Happy bubbly aunt overwhelmed by gift (9) FORTUNATE. Def-Happy, bubbly- anagring for AUNT, gift-forte ,overwhelmed-containment indic
16 Toys with beads outside ball oddly spinning (7)
Def- toys,spinning-anagrind, beads outside- c/c indic, ball oddly- bl
18 Exclusive electronic register comprising transcripts indexed from the beginning (7)
ELITIST. Def- Exclusive.electronice,register-list, comprising- container indic,TI
20 Tenants abusing dissenter (9) RESIDENTS. Def- tenants, abused-anagrind, dissenter*
23 Empty container with skinless beet left in wicker basket (5) CREEL.
Def- wicker basket, empty container- cr, skinless beet-ee, left-l
24 Approaches new listeners (5) NEARS. def- approaches, new- n,
listeners- ears
25 Byzantine patterns enthral saint in parts of church (9)
TRANSEPTS. Def- in parts of church, byzantine- anagrind, patterns*,
enthralled- containment indic, saint-S(6)
27 Big cat quietly escapes from opening, entering ground almost (6)
COUGAR. def- big cat, quietly- p opening- gap-p , entering –
container indic, ground- court- almost- cour
28 Remove top of knot from broken packet containing red rug (6)
CARPET. Def- rug, top of knot-k, broken-anagrind, packet-p ,
containing- container indic, red- r
Annotations (Down)
1 Flip blade (4) LEAF. DD
2 One beaten up inside old African province, concerned with babies (8)
NEONATAL. Def- Concerned with babies, one beaten upone*, inside- insertion, old african province- NATAL
3 Break from hollow routine life for a change (6) RELIEF. Def-break, hollow routine-re, life for a change- life*
4 Happen to regret following Halley, say (4,4) COME TRUE. Def-happen, to regret- rue, following- positional indci, Halley, say -Comet
5 Translate, e.g. Tulu language (6) TELUGU. Def- language,
translate- anagrind, egtulu*
6 Worker with human resources associate to get quote for fuel (10)
ANTHRACITE. Def- fuel, worker- ant, human resources associate-
hra quote- cite
9 Bearing in mind, make a call after study by team (11)
CONSIDERING. Def- bearing in mind, to make a call- ring, after-positional indic, study- con, team- side
10 Scholar of Asian culture mostly listens to AIR curiously (11)
ORIENTALIST. Def- scholar of asian culture, mostly listen- liste, to
air – to air,curiously- anagrind
14 A group around capital of Bangladesh organise road for envoy (10)
AMBASSADOR. Def- envoy, a-a, group-mass, around-c/c indic, capital of Bangladesh-B, organise-anagrind, road*
17 Army in Delhi often took risk for statesmen (8) SENATORS. Def-statesmen, army in Delhi-SENA, often- letter picking – ToOk RiSk
19 Included one drop of silver, gold on small cutters (8) INCISORS.
Def- cutters, included- inc, one-I, drop of silver,-s, gold-or,
small-s
21 Daughter scratching head, begins developing plan (6) DESIGN.
Def- plan, daughter-d, scratching head, begins- egins, developing-anagrind
22 Case lacking popular opinion (6) STANCE. Def- opinion. Case-instance, popular-in, lacking- del indic
26 Lyricist sent back opera expert on vacation (4) POET. Def-lyricist, opera- op, sent back- rev indic, expert on vacation -et
Bonus Questions:
What’s the theme that can also be deduced from this clue – Angle is strong and hard on both sides (4) F (IS) H
Identify 7 theme words in the Grid.
Ans: Any 7 of the words.. DAB, BASS, EEL, COMET, GAR, CARP, TUNA, IDE, SENATOR, TOR, LEAF
Scorecard: (Revised*)
| Participant(s) Name | Total | Grid Score | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aashwina | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Avtaar | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| BINAY KUMAR PATRA | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Dave Williams | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Ian VanderSchee | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| kolluru koteswara rao | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Lakshmi Prakash | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Madhup Tewari | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Max Jackson | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| mona sogal | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| NARAYANAN R | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Prakash Arumugam | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Ramki Krishnan | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Ratna | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| RATNAKUMAR V | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Samit kallianpur | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Satyen Nabar | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Supriya Mithal | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Tejas Siddharth | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| VENKATESAN P. | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Venkatraghavan S | 156 | 148 | 8 |
| Al Sanders | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| anand ranganathan | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Ashit Hegde | 155 | 147 | 8 |
| Debasmita Basu | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Deepak Gopinath | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Madhusudan H | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Sparsh Sinha | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Vasant Srinivasan | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Veera Raghavan | 155 | 148 | 7 |
| Dr S Venkatesh | 154 | 148 | 6 |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | 154 | 146 | 8 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | 153 | 146 | 7 |
| Himanshu Rajurkar | 151 | 148 | 3 |
| Ranjani Srikanth | 151 | 148 | 3 |
| D NARAYANA SWAMY | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Ganesh Raman | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Keith Williams | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | 148 | 147 | 1 |
| Kumaresh | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Maya Sharma | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Meera | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| PRASAD RV | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| R Nagendra Prasad | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Shrikanth | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Sohil | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| sree sree | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Sriram | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Usha Ramesh | 148 | 148 | 0 |
| Kabir Firaque | 147 | 147 | 0 |
| N Rengaswamy | 146 | 146 | 0 |
Note: Some of the theme words were not part of the original list provided by the setter and were verified and added later. The bonus scores that were shown earlier were not adjusted for these. The Scorecard has now been revised*.
Congrats to the 24 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.05. It got 7 perfect 10s. The lowest score was 4.
Favorite Clues: The Top 3 clues were
Happen to regret following Halley, say (4,4) – 13 votes
Break from hollow routine life for a change (6) – 9 votes and
Several clues with 7 votes each
Comments / Feedback: Here’s the feedback from our solvers
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|
| Excellent grid. But theme words are a difficult to find. |
| Not so tough but very interesting |
| good puzzle, but the theme and theme entries really make it shine. |
| Excellent Grid |
| Simple and elegant grid! |
| Entertaining puzzle. |
| Entertaining |
| A delightful puzzle with beautiful clues. A bit on the easier side but great fun. |
| Lovely grid , very enjoyable,smooth and elegant clues ,Saral and fun |
| Entertaining with a lot of fish.Enjoyed. |
| Easy and Simple and Enjoyable |
| Great theme selection. |
| Nice and easy grid |
| Superb grid to start with. Many nice clues with superb surfaces. |
| FUn grid! |
| A couple of surfaces aside, a neat puzzle |
| Delightful puzzle |
| Good one |
| Nice and easy. Could have done with some more misdirection to make it slightly more challenging. Theme is very well done and nicely hidden too. |
| Not sure if I’ve got the theme answers right, but an easy pleasant solving experience |
| Nice one |
| Good puzzle. Bonus questions were challenging. |
| Well thought out clues. Couldn’t get the theme. |
| Easy to solve. Nice theme. |
| Smooth clues with nice wordplay. RELIEF was my COD. Main grid could be solved quickly but finding the themed words took time (would not have got the theme without the clue for FISH)! One themed fish IDE appears in 2 of the answer words. |
| Really nice to read clues with plausible surfaces. LOI was 1d, which took an age to spot! |
| Super Fun “Saral / Easy” grid with a cleverly embedded theme! Thanks for the fun Saral! |
| This one was pretty easy. Never found the seventh fish though |
| Nice puzzle but rather easy. Technically correct clues, surfaces are fine. Liked the theme a lot. Good fun! |
| Simple clues but several nice surfaces. Bonus was not so Saral |
| Fun grid and fun theme |
| An easy cryptic from Saral |
| I didn’t recognise any theme until the bonus questions. Ide appear twice. Nice puzzle. |
| Catching them[fish] was easy. I am afraid there could be other fish hidden in the clues |
| Nice puzzle and theme |
| Interesting |
| Nice puzzle. Endgame was a little less satisfying than the puzzle itself, having to find lesser-known three- and four-letter words that fit the theme. |
| An enjoyable grid to solve |
| Good |
| Smooth and nice solve. Devious theme words and nice pun on the title! |
| Could not make out the theme |
Thanks to “Saral” for a fun, entertaining puzzle with a clever theme. Looking forward to more puzzles from you in our blog.
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