Stats The puzzle page was loaded 484 times. 101 visitors had a go at it and 46 solvers managed to complete and submit. Of those who submitted, 33 managed to get the maximum possible score of 145.
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Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
- What is the theme? (6) ANS: MOVIES / CINEMA (Although some folks had answers such as “films” which did not match the enum, points were awarded. “Horror” was incorrect since only 7 entries happen to be horror films. The Grid was 100% themed on movies.
- Any 1 of 4 other lights that belong to the genre of 22 Across ANS: DEEP BLUE SEA, TERROR TRAIN, DEAD CALM, THE ORDER. Points have also been awarded to BLUEBEARD and DELIVERANCE which, although not in the Setter’s original list were verified as valid answers.
Annotations
| ACROSS | ||
| Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 6. Low in speed swimming naked near where sharks appear (4, 4, 3) | DEEP BLUE SEA | BLUE (low) in SPEED* (-n)EA(-r) |
| 9. Say Sean Connery in “The Rock” (4) | HERO | Telescopic &Lit |
| 10. Western Engineering snowed under after top executive’s exit (3, 7) | RED SUNDOWN | (definition: Western), SNOWED UNDER* (–e) |
| 11. This French comedy from Versailles is very amusing, making audiences roar in applause from the beginning (4, 5) | VIVA MARIA | Acrostic |
| 12. Graduate students left in commotion (5) | BABEL | BA BE L (definition: commotion) |
| 14. Mythical creature’s smell or sound? (7) | CENTAUR | Homophone: SCENT OR << CENT AUR |
| 16. American cycle model top-class and fashionable (1 ,2, 4) | A LA MODE | A (American) + cycle MODEL A (top-class) |
| 18. Dresses stars after sex (5) | FACES | (definition: dresses), ACES (stars) after F (sex) |
| 19. Most vulgar, slippery character behind missile (4, 5) | BLUE STEEL | (definition: missile), EEL behind BLUEST (most vulgar) |
| 22. I am so very excited to have caught this frightener (5, 5) | SCARY MOVIE | I AM SO VERY* having C |
| 23. Classic heroine’s comeback in ‘Dream Merchants’ (4) | EMMA | Reverse telescopic |
| 24. Glimpses of Robert Redford in remake of ‘Tintorera’, a horror film (6, 5) | TERROR TRAIN | RR in TINTORERA* |
| DOWN | ||
| Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 1. Old Fred Astaire’s original dancing hat (6) | FEDORA | O FRED A* |
| 2. Show second episode on cricketer Trescothick, not opening and out of runs (9) | SPARTACUS | Cricketer Trescothick = MARCUS, S PART (episode) (-m)A(-r)CUS |
| 3. A fly and a djinn oddly star in fairytale (7) | ALADDIN | (Odd letter selection) |
| 4. Before sunrise, write last pair of love letters to divine beauty (5) | VENUS | VE before NUS<<SUN |
| 5. After most of decade in trouble, politician turns extremely quiet (4, 4) | DEAD CALM | (definition: extremely quiet), DECAD* ALM<<MLA |
| 7. Swing around, live free, take drug, start repenting, get redemption (11) | DELIVERANCE | DANCE (swing) around LIVE* + E + R |
| 8. Having consumed case of wine, lay sheets below top deck and have a pleasant sleep (5, 6) | SWEET DREAMS (definition: have a pleasant sleep) | lay = SET, sheets = REAMS, S(WE)ET D REAMS |
| 13. Double-barrel shot taking out primarily lecherous, obnoxious and ruthless wife-killer (9) | BLUEBEARD | DOUBLE-BARREL* (-l) (-o) (-r) |
| 15. Heath Ledger feature finally shot with hero playing communist revolutionary (3, 5) | THE ORDER | T HERO* DER<<RED |
| 17. Sri Lanka’s leaders agree to begin sinking ships of human traffickers (7) | SLAVERS (definition: ships of human traffickers) | SL AVER (agree) S |
| 20. Initially took difficult hike on road eventually leading to Chaplin project (3, 3) | THE KID (definition: Chaplin project) | T HIKE* D |
| 21. Returning from Qatar, I make Arabic film (5) | AMIRA | Reverse telescopic |
Scorecard
| Participant(s) Name | Grid Score | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aashwina Mouli | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Al Sanders | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Arvind Kannabiran | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Ashit Hegde | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Dave Williams | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Debasmita Basu | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Dr S Venkatesh | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Hawk | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Himanshu Rajurkar | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Ian VanderSchee | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Kumaresh K R | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Lakshmi Prakash | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Madhup Tewari | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Max Jackson | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| MONA SOGAL | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Nilesh Parmar | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| R NAGENDRA PRASAD | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Ramki Krishnan | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| RATNAKUMAR V | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Samit kallianpur | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Sparsh Sinha | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Supriya Mithal | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Tejas Siddharth | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Tulika Das | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Usha Ramesh | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Veera Raghavan | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| VENKATESAN P. | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Venkatraghavan S | 142 | 3 | 145 |
| Deepak Gopinath | 141 | 3 | 144 |
| NARAYANAN R | 142 | 2 | 144 |
| Prakash Arumugam | 142 | 2 | 144 |
| Priya Shyam | 141 | 3 | 144 |
| Ratna Rao | 141 | 3 | 144 |
| Sree Sree | 142 | 2 | 144 |
| Avtaar | 140 | 3 | 143 |
| Ganesh Nayak | 140 | 3 | 143 |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | 140 | 3 | 143 |
| Madhusudan H | 141 | 2 | 143 |
| Nicholas Loader | 142 | 1 | 143 |
| BINAY KUMAR PATRA | 140 | 0 | 140 |
One entry was incomplete and only the Bonus form was received.
Congrats to the 33 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.17. It got 6 perfect 10s (13% of those who rated). The lowest score was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top 3 clues were
- Mythical creature’s smell or sound? (7) 17 votes
- Old Fred Astaire’s original dancing hat (6) 13 votes and
- Show second episode on cricketer Trescothick, not opening and out of runs (9) 10 votes
Thanks Aquifer (@KabirFiraque) for a lovely grid. Done mostly manually, the grid fill which is 100% themed is mind boggling. The effort you put in for perfecting every clue and surface (during our many discussions) is commendable and it is difficult to believe this is only your second grid. Also, good luck on your new job which promises to be a lot of fun and do continue to challenge our readers with your entertaining puzzles.
Here is what our solvers said…
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|
| Excellent setting makes for challenge in solving |
| Wonderful theme and grid |
| 100% themed. Exquisite creation. |
| Wonderful Grid. Kudos to the setter |
| Entertaining fare! |
| Great clues. Enjoyed solving. |
| Enjoyed, impressive having all movie titles in grid |
| lots of fun, and use names of films and actors in so many surfaces was really well done. |
| Fun puzzle! It was the two ?A?E? answers that took the longest for me. |
| Nice easy grid . The movie theme was novel and interesting. |
| It’s amazing how all the grid fills are thematic. Would love to try one of this kind soon. The clues are simple but wholesome. I loved the puzzle |
| lovely conceptualisation and execution |
| ENJOYABLE CROSSWORD. |
| Loved it |
| Very enjoyable grid and theme ,and excellent clues.Amazing to have a grid containing all themed words. Thank you for the entertainment |
| Entertaining Grid |
| Fun theme! |
| Loved this all-theme-clues puzzle. Super fun cracking it. Wonderful effort. Some clues were really good. Thoroughly enjoyed. Hope I got the bonus and grid all correct. |
| Given the constraints, a very commendable effort. Enjoyable though simple grid |
| Liked the theme, although didn’t know most of the movies! Some clues were quite good too |
| Very nice clues and an enjoyable puzzle. |
| Loved the theme – the setter is clearly a connoisseur! Many nice clues with smooth surfaces. |
| Simple and fun! |
| Nice grid |
| Delightful |
| Enjoyed solving the grid! Nice clues. |
| Simple, interesting clues. Breezed through in no time |
| Lovely gridfill. Mostly nice surfaces as well |
| NICE ONE |
| Very enjoyable puzzle |
| Lovely grid! Enjoyed solving . |
| Great effort in having every clue as part of the theme. Kudos. Clues were well constructed with no redundancies and good surfaces. Only nitpick is that clues like 12A and 18A were difficult to get with crossings. Ideally at least half or more of any clue should be lights. |
| liked the theme |
| Nice… great effort to get every light into the theme |
| Had to guess 18a at the end; hope it’s right! There were some pretty obscure movies in here… |
| Enjoyable grid. There is an ambiguity about the theme. Surfaces can be improved. |
| A good number of thematic entries. |
| Excellent grid entries, lovely surfaces and smooth solve. Nice. |
| Nil |
| Nice easy puzzle, with an interesting theme |
| Good puzzle. |
| Will try resubmit with more detailed feedback later but apart from top-class = A in A LA MODE everything seems to work and be fair and lots of great surfaces and clever wordplays. Oh, seems like too many unches? Not enough crossing letters? Not sure what rules are on that. Oh, incredible work making the answers entirely themed entries. |
| Nice theme, though it becomes obvious a little way into the grid and know what to look for |
| Very impressive grid. |
| well-crafted grid |