NOTE: The post has been amended on 28th Jan. 2024, after initially publishing on 27th Jan. 2024. Clue 22D has two equally valid answers EGENCE (in the original post) as well as EGENCY. The scores and leaderboard have been updated to reflect this.
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Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 264 times. 60 visitors had a go at it. Though 45 solvers completed the grid, only 43 solvers completed both the puzzle and bonus form, while 2 solvers did not submit the bonus form. The remaining 15 solved it partly or fully but did not submit. 23 solvers got the full score.
Family Reunion<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
Q1.After you complete the grid, look for instructions elsewhere in the puzzle on how to reunite 7 FAMILY members who have become separated.
One of these family members to be reunited is different from the others. What are the instructions?
ANS: READ FIRST AND LAST THREE COLUMNS
The first letter of each clue in clue order spell out READ FIRST AND LAST THREE COLUMNS. If read across the rows, but only the first and last three columns, the words UNCLE, FATHER, COUSIN, SISTER, NEPHEW, MOTHER, and NIECE appear.
Q2.Which re-united family member is different from the others and why?
ANS: COUSIN. The one that is different is COUSIN, as it is not gender specific.
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 8A | Recycled sun tonic lotions (8) | UNCTIONS | (SUN TONIC)* |
| 9A | Egg on vehemently until learner enlists at the beginning (5) | OVULE | On Vehemently Until Learner Enlists |
| 10A | Announced “fair chance” (4) | FATE | HP of “fête” |
| 11A | Daughter removed from crowd after huge strike involving old historian (10) | BIOGRAPHER | (BI(O)G+RAP)+HERD-D |
| 12A | Fred and Wilma, say, left in two-door conveyance (6) | COUPLE | COUP(L)E |
| 14A | Internally supplying single confinements in childbirth (6-2) | LYINGS-IN | suppLYING SINgle |
| 16A | Relatives of goldfinches move along the snow in fall, slipping at first (7) | SISKINS | SI(SKI)N+S |
| 18A | Submit anew letter containing Shakespeare’s finale (2-5) | RE-ENTER | RE(E)NTER |
| 20A | Tibetan’s neighbours in mundane, pale settlement (8) | NEPALESE | mundaNE PALE Settlement |
| 21A | Avoid epicures chewing ingredients (6) | ESCHEW | epicurES CHEWing |
| 23A | Numb, cold after the start (10) | MOTIONLESS | EMOTIONLESS – E |
| 25A | “Dark Lady” performer takes lemon grass, say, from educator (4) | CHER | TEACHER – TEA |
| 26A | Lancelot, for one, beheaded after dusk (5) | NIGHT | KNIGHT-K |
| 27A | Aural device for the vestibule? (8) | EARPIECE | CD |
| 1D | Single uprising involving Harold? Surround him with a circle of light (6) | ENHALO | EN(HAL)O |
| 2D | Testy employee has a complaint (4) | STYE | teSTY Employee |
| 3D | Twice the payout for stuntman protection? (6, 9) | DOUBLE INDEMNITY | CD |
| 4D | Heraldic star points to French island (7) | ESTOILE | E+S+TO+ÎLE |
| 5D | Restraint, for example, overcame ice user somehow (8, 7) | COERCIVE MEASURE | (OVERCAME ICE USER)* |
| 6D | Either point of a crescent moon could uncover secret plans initially (4) | CUSP | Could Uncover Secret Plans |
| 7D | Endings of adventure episodes I’ve let return to broadcast (8) | TELEVISE | (adventurE episodeS IVE LET)< |
| 13D | Correct pursing of lips for the audience (5) | PUKKA | HP “pucker” |
| 15D | Oddly, greenfinch is related to our heredity (5) | GENIC | GrEeNfInCh |
| 17D | Like the polar bear cub, one is at sea, wearing tag (8) | ICEBOUND | I(CUB ONE)*D |
| 19D | Updated in Nazarene wedding (7) | RENEWED | nazaRENE WEDding |
| 22D | Make eleven leave, demand state of necessity (6) | EGENCE | EXIGENCE-XI |
| 24D | Nemesis of Othello, Roman one previously (4) | IAGO | I+AGO |
| 25D | Shaving close has its perks at first (4) | CHIP | Close Has Its Perks |
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 153 points (Grid Score = 146 and Bonus points = 7). The 11 names updated after the original post have been marked with an *
Anantakrishnan N.*
Ashit Hegde*
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Deepak Gopinath (Col.)*
Jyothish Balakrishnan
Lakshmi Prakash*
Madhup Tewari*
Max Jackson*
Mona Sogal
Nagendra Prasad
Narayana Swamy D.
Narayanan R.
Nilesh Parmar*
Prakash Arumugam
Priya Shyam
Ramki Krishnan
Ratnakumar V.*
Samit Kallianpur
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sohil Bhagat*
Sparsh Sinha
Venkatesan P.*
Venkatraghavan S*
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent rating of 8.47. It got 8 perfect 10s (19% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
- Fred and Wilma, say, left in two-door conveyance (6) – 15 votes
- Twice the payout for stuntman protection? (6, 9) – 12 votes
- Daughter removed from crowd after huge strike involving old historian (10) – 11 votes
Thanks to Mathrix for this lovely puzzle to inagurate the very promising puzzling season 2024. I loved the unique theme idea and neat execution by Mathrix who has avoided obscure words while also delivering a Clue Acrostic and the NINA(s). A puzzle that was both brilliant and enjoyable. If you enjoyed the puzzle, you can check out more about Mathrix and his other puzzles for 1ACross HERE (About MATHRIX)
Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Venkatesh S. (Dr.) | Light pastime |
| Kabir Firaque | Very interesting puzzle. Mostly easy clues, which become easier once you spot how the combinations are to be made. |
| Ratnakumar V. | I expected , Brother somewhere but not to be, The bonus questions could have been more clearer, Nice start to NEW YEAR 2024. |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Highly creative work of art with family members included. |
| Arvind Kannabiran | very nice, thanks for the great kick off! |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle. Not sure about one bonus question. |
| Venkatesan P. | A good start for the year. |
| Priya Shyam | great clues. was a pleasure to solve. |
| Veera Raghavan | Excellent puzzle. Some challenging clues. |
| Sparsh Sinha | Interesting. Some were very twisty clues |
| Nagendra Prasad | NICE GRID AND FINDING THE INSTRUCTION WAS THE DENOUEMENT! |
| Tejas Siddharth | Nice and smooth, on the easier side. Not sure if the difference I spot is correct. Maybe one too many telescopic, if I had to make a complaint, but I don’t mind. Very enjoyable. |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Easy one! |
| Al Sanders | Fun theme, some good clues, not too many obscure entries given all the theme squares |
| Madhusudan H | Enjoyed solving both the grid and the bonus – brilliantly thought out. |
| Nilesh Parmar | Nice grid |
| Prakash Arumugam | Enjoyable puzzle with an interesting theme |
| Ramki Krishnan | Nice and smooth grid. Lot of telescopic clues made it easier than usual even though there were many new words. |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | To be surrounded by family members on your birthday is special, best wishes. Nice puzzle, the second bonus question seemed to be tricky and needed some extra thought |
| Venkatraghavan S | Nice and easy puzzle to start off the new season |
| Anantakrishnan N. | Very nice puzzle with interesting instructions for bonux |
| Samit Kallianpur | Nice and easy grid with a good bonus. |
| Mona Sogal | Easy grid– learnt some new words |
| Max Jackson | I didn’t see the family for some time, as I assumed “first (one) column etc.”I think 22dn could equally be EGENCE or EGENCY. |
| Narayana Swamy D. | Nice clues and finding the instruction was tricky |
| Narayanan R. | Good one to start this year puzzles |
| Ashit Hegde | Understandably, the quality of the clues suffer when a bonus puzzle is introduced . Too many telescopic and acrostics , too few charades for my liking |
| Arshad Nadamal | Liked: The two 15 letter cluesDidn’t like: Some words that are not commonly used: ENHALO, LYINGS-IN, UNCTIONS, CATO |
| Sohil Bhagat | Fun puzzle to start the year. Really liked Couple, Re-enter and Iago, among other clues. Egency was a new word for me, but was quite clear from the crossing letters and the cluing. 2 minor niggles though – a) there were a few too many telescopic clues for my liking, and b) I felt that the theme was a bit too obvious given the hint in the puzzle title and that we were told to look for the instructions |
| Koteswara Rao | good one |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Good one but found the theme tough to crack |