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The Master’s XI<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
- Q1: Who is the Master referred to in the title? (6,9) ANS: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
- Q2: 11 entries that are part of The Master’s XI ANS: THE LADY VANISHES, REAR WINDOW, REBECCA,
MARNIE, VERTIGO, THE PARADINE CASE, THE BIRDS, I CONFESS, PSYCHO, ROPE and MARY
Annotations
| Across | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 7 | Suspense movie’s set has arrived at last — it’s heavenly (3, 4, 8) | THE LADY VANISHES | HAD D ITS HEAVENLY* (arrived at last: D) |
| 9 | One often airborne flies Boeings regularly (4) | IBIS | fl(I)es(B)oe(I)ng(S) |
| 10 | James Stewart’s film on Darwin shot by Orson Welles initially (4, 6) | REAR WINDOW | RE DARWIN* OW |
| 11 | Du Maurier wrote about her disobedient student missing college in California (7) | REBECCA | REBE(-l) C(C)A |
| 13 | A film that has Sean Connery’s Newton boring Madame Curie (6) | MARNIE | MAR(N)IE |
| 15 | A country once spending millions for land (4) | ASIA | A SIA(-m) |
| 16 | Son lost temper every now and then (5) | OFTEN | (-s)OFTEN (temper = soften) |
| 17 | Scene of a little conflict at border (4) | CLIP | C LIP |
| 19 | Playing cards passed around (6) | SPADES | PASSED* |
| 21 | Very ill tiger beginning to overcome dizziness (7) | VERTIGO | V TIGER* O |
| 22 | Excessive love for water drained Hungary and ultimately parched country (10) | HYDROMANIA | H_____Y + D + ROMANIA |
| 26 | Tennis champion exposed graft at academy (4) | RAFA | (g)RAF(t) A |
| 27 | Catherine Spaak largely led topless cast in courtroom drama (3, 8, 4) | THE PARADINE CASE | CATHERINE SPAA(_) (_)ED* |
| Down | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 1 | Not each hired beast performs in creature feature (3, 5) | THE BIRDS | HIRED B(-ea)ST* |
| 2 | Spooner’s party knocked down planks placed on top of dam (10) | FLASHBOARD | Spoonerism for BASH (party) FLOORED (knocked down) |
| 3 | Radiation shortly starts to enter another part of the eye (4) | UVEA | UV (radiation) + EA (initial letters) |
| 4 | Whistleblower rejects room — it’s cold and damp (4) | SNOW | SNOWDEN – DEN |
| 5 | It identifies what’s published in Iceland, Belgium and Norway (1, 1, 1, 1) | ISBN | IS + B + N |
| 6 | Oil of orange flowers brought back from Brazil or England? (6) | NEROLI | Hidden in Reverse |
| 8 | Artistes give up acting after ‘Horrible Bosses’ (9) | DIRECTORS | DIRE + (-A)CTORS (definition: bosses) |
| 12 | Fourth segment of play perhaps not quite working (3, 2) | ACT IV | ACTIVE – E |
| 13 | Small profit by master playing organ in India (5, 4) | MINOR GAIN | M (ORGAN IN I)* |
| 14 | Benaud’s out of Europe to meet Remarque — he’s famously wealthy (6, 4) | RICHIE RICH | RICHIE – E + ERICH |
| 18 | Declaration of guilt by superstar feels oddly disingenuous in the end (1, 7) | I CONFESS | ICON + F_E_S + S |
| 20 | Lunatic doctor chops monkey’s tail (6) | PSYCHO | CHOPS Y* |
| 23 | A string of Wagner operas (4) | ROPE | Hidden in Plain Sight (HIPS) |
| 24 | Scottish Queen and King entertained by old British PM (4) | MARY | MA(R)Y |
| 25 | New publicity bonanza ultimately resulting in nothing in America (4) | NADA (Definition: 26Ac) | N AD (bonanz)A |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Each of the following scored 155 points (Grid Score = 143 and Bonus points =12)
Arvind Kannabiran
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Deepak Gopinath (Col.)
Himanshu Rajurkar
Jyothish Balakrishnan
Koteswar Rao
Kumaresh K R
Lakshmi Prakash
Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H
Melissa McSeismal
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan Rangamani
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Ratna Rao
Samit Kallianpur
sandhya paruchuri
Sparsh Sinha
Tejas Siddharth
Veena Venkataraman
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S.
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent score of 8.73. It got 12 perfect 10s (30% of those who rated). The lowest score was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
- Suspense movie’s set has arrived at last — it’s heavenly (3, 4, 8) – 12 votes
- Playing cards passed around (6) – 9 votes
- Excessive love for water drained Hungary and ultimately parched country (10) – 9 votes
Thanks Aquifer for this thrilling puzzle. Hitchcock is an absolute favourite of mine and I was awed at how many themed entries you managed to fill into the grid. Also appreciate your taking a lot of time and feedback in perfecting each clue. The results are obvious for all to see.
Our next puzzle will be “Mili Julie” a debut grid from Inswinger and it will be published today Sunday 18th June.
Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Arvind Kannabiran | what a wonderful puzzle, thanks for this! thoroughly enjoyable solve with superlative clues! |
| Debasmita Basu | So many them words. Amazing feat |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | A fitting tribute to the Master. |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Wow ! You managed to put many theme words. Lovely grid ! Enjoyed solving it |
| Mona Sogal | It’ amazing how the setter managed to get so many theme entries in the grid (enviable!) I loved the way the clues are set.. simple and effective |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Superb movie themed grid |
| Rathnakumar V | Outstanding GRID, |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Excellent clues! Very entertaining puzzle! |
| Venkatesan P. | Fun Grid. Great entertainment. |
| Ashit Hegde | Great puzzle , several great clues a Great effort (including so many theme entries) |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | I thought this was a fab puzzle, very entertaining, and no small achievement in packing in so much thematic stuff (and therefore I accept MINOR GAIN which may not otherwise be considered a legit grid entry). Nicely composed and well thought out clues. The theme does jump out fairly early, not what the master of suspense would have wanted?! Many thanks for the challenge |
| Ian VanderSchee | Some very challenging clues. Enjoyed this one very much!! |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | Rather easy one. Could have been tougher. |
| Nilesh Parmar | Very nice theme |
| Sparsh Sinha | Loved it |
| Veena Venkataraman | Nice themed grid. |
| Veera Raghavan | Very good puzzle. Great job to accommodate 11 theme titles into the grid. |
| Al Sanders | Fun theme! |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Yet another beautiful themed grid from Aquifer. Got to know more about Hitchcock films while solving the theme entries! Great fun. |
| Koteswar Rao | Good to see many Hitchcock movies covered in a grid. Thanks. |
| Madhusudan H | Enjoyed it, thank you. |
| Narayana Swamy D | Nice puzzle with good clues… |
| Narayanan Rangamani | SUPER |
| Ramki Krishnan | Lovely puzzle with many of my favourite movies in the theme! |
| Samit Kallianpur | Some really nice clues in there! Fun grid. |
| Tejas Siddharth | Nice |
| Venkatraghavan S. | Lovely films puzzle as always |
| Max Jackson | Easier than most, with so many titles, most of which I knew. 11ac wordplay awkward. I particularly liked 20dn. |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Nice and smooth. Easy but delightful bonus. |
| Rajesh Aerat | Had a lot of fun . |