Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 452 times. 53 visitors had a go at it. 42 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. 39 solvers got the full score.
Double Trouble<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Annotations
| Ref. | Across Clues with // indicating the ‘join’ | Solution Words | Annotation |
| 8/11 | Plan to cuddle European female and knock back // smooth drink (6,6) | Refuse Liquid | 1) RUSE around E+F; defn= knock back.
2) DD. |
| 9/10 | Director ordered trooper to save a // son cruelly abducted by armed criminal set free (8,8)
|
Operator Ransomed | 1) TROOPER* around A; defn= director. 2) SON* in ARMED*; defn= set free. |
| 23/12 | English pirate’s plan after essentially getting // wide and stronger hunting vessel (6,6)
|
Thatch
Whaler |
1) HATCH after (get)T(ing); defn= English pirate.
2) W + HALER; defn= hunting vessel. |
| 13/20 | Silly lady, drunk, going topless in morning // running event? Bro, that’s not allowed (8,8)
|
Daylight
Verboten |
1) LADY* + (t)IGHT; defn= morning.
2) (EVENT BRO)*; defn= not allowed. |
| 14/16 | The bare models inhale // drugs after one gets hold of heroin for free (7,7) | Breathe
Unhitch |
1) (THE BARE)*; defn= inhale.
2) (C+H) after UNIT around H; defn= free. |
| 28/25 | Protest in High Court by ultimately crazy // crones troubled inspector (6, 6) | Outcry
Censor |
1) COURT* + (craz)Y; defn= protest.
2) CRONES*; defn= inspector.
|
| 27/26 | Stressed out in competition, guiding // driver in fog around old hill (8,8)
|
Tutorial
Motorist |
1) OUT* in TRIAL; defn= guiding.
2) MIST around (O + TOR); defn= driver. |
| Ref. | Down Clues | Solution | Annotation |
| 1 | Great! Aroused that woman to come together again (8) | Regather | GREAT* + HER; defn= come together again. |
| 2 | One in deep mess, cavorting around university with student (6) | Mussel | MESS* around U + L; defn= one in deep. |
| 3 | Tree-hugging environmentalists, gutted by glimpse of monstrous damage (8) | Besmirch | BIRCH around E(nvironmentalist)S + M(onstrous); defn= damage |
| 4 | Troublesome situation with ruffian losing head in hotel party (5-2)
|
Howdy-do | (-r)OWDY in (H+DO); defn= troublesome situation. |
| 5 | Truly perk up after consuming ecstasy (6) | Really | RALLY around E; defn= truly. |
| 6 | Surprising, right? One quid to drink excellent cocktail (8)
|
Daiquiri | (R+I+QUID)* around AI; defn= cocktail |
| 7 | In Milan at premiere, start to observe attractive person (6)
|
Modish | M(-ilan) + O(-bserve) + DISH; defn= in. |
| 15 | It’s dangerous to inhale dope after drinking strongest booze heartily (8) | Asbestos | ASS around {BEST + (bo)O(ze)}; defn= it’s dangerous to inhale. |
| 17 | Opinion about advanced bar code (8) | Notation | NOTION around (A + T); defn= code |
| 18 | Arrogant director wanting discounts in therapy (8)
|
Cocksure | (-d)OCKS in CURE; defn= arrogant. |
| 19 | Freak hit back in anger? Not new (7) | Anomaly | LAM ß in ANNOY – N; defn= freak |
| 21 | Ultimately intricate pictorial puzzle is hell (6) | Erebus | (intricat)E + REBUS; defn= hell. |
| 22 | Enthralled by actor, ridiculously sexy (6) | Torrid | Hidden word; defn= sexy |
| 24 | Introduce air into a cycle tyre on vacation (6)
|
Aerate | A + ERA + T(yr)E; defn= introduce air into. |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 53 solvers, only 41 completed fully and 38 got the full score. Each of the following scored 148 points (Grid Score – 148, Bonus – NA).
Aashwina Mouli
Al Sanders
Anantakrishnan N.
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Binay Patra
Danuta Rosendorff
Deepak Gopinath (Col.)
Harish Kamath
Harish T K
Himanshu Rajurkar
Ian VanderSchee
Jyothish Balakrishnan
Koteswar Rao
Lakshmi Prakash
Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H
Max Jackson
Melissa McSeismal
Mukund Jagannathan
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Ramesh Swaminathan
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Ratna Rao
Samit Kallianpur
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sohil Bhagat
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 rating of 9.1. It got 15 perfect 10s (39% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 7.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
-
-
- Silly lady, drunk, going topless in morning // running event? Bro, that’s not allowed (8,8) – 16 votes
- Plan to cuddle European female and knock back // smooth drink (6,6) – 12 votes
- Tree-hugging environmentalists, gutted by glimpse of monstrous damage (8) – 10 votes
-
Thanks Doc for an interesting puzzle with a new concept, seamlessly executed. It was great fun to crack it. Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Anantakrishnan N. | Excellent puzzle! Doc takes it to another level with his smooth double trouble clues. |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | Lovely puzzle with all the expected creative nuances and misdirections from a gifted setter. |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Double the fun too! |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Very nice challenging grid.Loved the double clue across entries. |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Lovely puzzle. Enjoyed solving 🙂 |
| Mona Sogal | amazing grid…extremely challenging and a great mental exercise…and such sensational surfaces… thank you for this Satyen! |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Enjoyable double dhamaka! |
| Rathnakumar V | One of the best Grids so far, hats off , double Dhamakaa… |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Challenging but double the fun! |
| Sohil Bhagat | Loved solving this puzzle. All of the Double Trouble clues were excellent with the two sides of the clue bending seamlessly into neat surfaces. Was able to make good pace through the puzzle initially, but 16a and 23a together took me as much time as the rest of the puzzle combined. |
| Sparsh Sinha | Loved the concept |
| Veena Venkataraman | Interesting brain teaser |
| Venkatesan P. | Liked the new concept. Merging of two clues with neat surfaces is simply superb. Wonderful clues as usual. Double entertainment indeed! |
| Al Sanders | Enjoyed the clue doubling concept |
| Ashit Hegde | Marvellous grid, great fun. Creating good surfaces for single clues is difficult enough , to create such smoooth surfaces for “double clues”, priceless! |
| Binay Patra | It’s a gigantic exercise– too intricate and eccentric. |
| Harish Kamath | Challenging..had trouble with a few |
| Harish T K | I think it was a very clever puzzle – a slightly more difficult puzzle to set may be to make the doube trouble pairs somehow matching with each other. Only thing I could think of is DAYLIGHT with say DARKNESS. Ignore me, I liked the puzzle |
| Ian VanderSchee | Great mix of easy clues and challenging ones. Loved it! |
| Koteswar Rao | Doctor always treats!!! |
| Madhup Tewari | Fantastic theme and execution in this puzzle. The compound clues have beautiful surface. Thanks a lot Doc for this delightful puzzle. |
| Madhusudan H | Very fair grid, nice workout for the brain. Learnt new words along the way ! |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | Cryptic Jugglery |
| Narayana Swamy D | Fantastic imaginations for cluing |
| Prakash Arumugam | Two clues merged with a great surface. Great fun! |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Double the entertainment. Intricate wordplay, lovely surfaces and innovative definitions. A few toughies such as 16A, 2,4,6,7D . Hope I got these correct. Enjoyed solving. |
| Rengaswamy N. | Enjoyable to solve |
| Veera Raghavan | Was going smoothly till I got stuck in the South East corner |
| Venkatraghavan S | Nice straightforward puzzle |
| Melissa McSeismal | I enjoyed the concept with the across clues and was grateful that each of the two joined clues wasn’t particularly difficult. I found some elements that didn’t match eg plan doesn’t equal hatch; guiding is a verb but tutorial is a noun; verboten is not an English word and there wasn’t any indication that the solution was a foreign word |
| Narayanan R | Doubly challenging too |
| Ramki Krishnan | Enjoyable grid with the right level of challenge! Amazed at how the two different clues were strung together seamlessly to form a smooth surface – kudos to the setter. |
| Samit Kallianpur | Nice grid and a good mental workout! |
| Max Jackson | The double clues made this trickier than most.Best clue picks are for half-clues 16 and 28c. |