Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 409 times. 41 visitors had a go at it. 29 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. 23 solvers got the full score.
One by One<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
Q1: What is the message from extra letters (5 words)?
Ans: SUPER TROUPER ABBA TRACK SIX
Q2: What is the thematic phrase (3 words)?
Ans: HAPPY NEW YEAR
A special shout out to Srishti of Amuselabs who helped to set up the “marching bands” modification to the puzzle that allowed the solvers to enter a solution to the Bonus question, all around the puzzle.
Annotations
| Ref | Clue and Annotation | Answer/ Entry |
Term with xtra letter |
Xtra Ltr |
|||||
| 7A | Subject to raise with child (4) | UPON | (s)ON | S | |||||
| subject to; UP + ON | |||||||||
| 8A | Telling the latest in public comes with loose tongue (6) | COGENT | TONG(u)E | U | |||||
| telling; C + TONGE* | |||||||||
| 9A | Dad spoils degenerate (7) | ATROPHY | (p)A | P | |||||
| degenerate; A + TROPHY | |||||||||
| 11A | Endeavours of some Tennessee kestrels (5) | SEEKS | K(e)STRELS | E | |||||
| endeavours; hips | |||||||||
| 12A | Doctor never charging men, a philanthropist (5) | DONOR | D(r) | R | |||||
| a philanthropist; D + NO inside OR | |||||||||
| 13A | Unusual irid, not opening in clusters like a lily (7) | CRINOID | NO(t) | T | |||||
| like a lily; IRID NO C* | |||||||||
| 14A | Light contact on sailor’s hat (7) | TARBUSH | B(r)USH | R | |||||
| hat; TAR + BUSH | |||||||||
| 20A | Drunkard takes shelter in icy shower (5) | SLEET | S(o)T | O | |||||
| icy shower; ST outside LEE | |||||||||
| 21A | Pony Club wanting starters trained in worthy manner (5) | NOBLY | L(u)B | U | |||||
| in worthy manner; ONY LB* | |||||||||
| 22A | Humorous sketch about Republican head lying about denial (7) | CARTOON | TO(p) | P | |||||
| humorous sketch; CA + R + TO + NO reversed | |||||||||
| 23A | Gold sent round before is turning brighter? (6) | ROSIER | ER(e) | E | |||||
| brighter; reversals of OR and RE IS | |||||||||
| 24A | Barge in to boast with a trace of smugness (4) | SCOW | C(r)OW | R | |||||
| barge; S + COW | |||||||||
| 1D | External variable escaping you time after time (5) | OUTER | ER(a) | A | |||||
| external; OU + T + ER | |||||||||
| 2D | Pure-bred animal at first differently raised (8) | UPREARED | (b)RED | B | |||||
| raised; PURE RED A* | |||||||||
| 3D | National reserves in secluded spots (5) | NOOKS | (b)OOKS | B | |||||
| secluded spots; N + OOKS | |||||||||
| 4D | Divine fluid I love brought in daily (5) | ICHOR | CH(a)R | A | |||||
| divine fluid; I + O inside CHR | |||||||||
| 5D | Push from X having grand success (3,2) | EGG ON | (t)EN | T | |||||
| push; EN outside G,GO | |||||||||
| 6D | Final words from author in stern voice (5) | ENVOI | STE(r)N | R | |||||
| Final words from author; hips (5) | |||||||||
| 10D | Footwear from freshly cut wood, new sabot (8) | SNOWBOOT | S(a)BOT | A | |||||
| footwear; WOO N SBOT* | |||||||||
| 15D | Distant root essentially spreading a little lower? (5) | ALOOF | (c)ALF | C | |||||
| distant; OO inside ALF | |||||||||
| 16D | Obfuscate Kip with Kipling’s character (5) | BEDIM | (k)IM | K | |||||
| obfuscate; BED + IM | |||||||||
| 17D | Open vessel with acid (5) | START | S(s) | S | |||||
| open; S + TART | |||||||||
| 18D | Old boy in withdrawal craving hash (5) | BOTCH | (i)TCH | I | |||||
| hash; reversal of OB + TCH | |||||||||
| 19D | Special effects mean special issues (5) | FLOWS | F(x) | X | |||||
| issues; F + LOW + S | |||||||||
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 41 solvers, only 29 completed fully and 23 got the full score. Each of the following scored 118 points (Grid Score – 110, Bonus – 8).
Al Sanders
Anantakrishnan N.
Anirudh Sahni
Ashit Hegde
Himanshu Rajurkar
Ian VanderSchee
Koteswar Rao
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Roland Rance
Samit Kallianpur
Tejas Siddharth
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent rating of 9.13. It got 10 perfect 10s (35% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 1.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
-
-
- Drunkard takes shelter in icy shower (5) – 8 votes
- Dad spoils degenerate (7) – 7 votes
- Doctor never charging men, a philanthropist (5) – 6 votes
- Humorous sketch about Republican head lying about denial (7) – 6 votes
- Obfuscate Kip with Kipling’s character (5) – 6 votes
-
Thanks Bhala – what a fitting finale to this season. I really enjoyed solving this and the ABBA connection was a delightful surprise to find and unravel. Hats off to your creativity. Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Anantakrishnan N. | As usual, a great puzzle with multiple layers. Fitting end to the year. |
| Anirudh Sahni | As with all Bingo’s puzzles involving dropped letters, making certain of each anno was a challenging exercise in itself. The final answer was not obvious even after getting most of the extra letters, which made the solve especially satisfying. A delightful surprise to conclude the year. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Brilliant intricate grid. Felt this one was a little easier than Bingos usual grids |
| Madhup Tewari | This puzzle is yet another masterpiece by Bingo. The phrase from extra letters, the peripheral phrase and the theme come together so well, it seems magical! The clues were hard but not fiendish. All in all, a superb puzzle! |
| Madhusudan H | Since there aren’t any adjectives left to describe the greatness of Bingo’s grids, I will just say – THANK YOU and WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR ! |
| Mona Sogal | Great puzzle to end the year with.. fantastic mental work out… NOW IT’S TIME FOR ME TO WISH SOWMYA, BINGO, AND ALL THE CRUCIVERBALISTS HERE A ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’ |
| Rathnakumar V | Another brilliant grid from Bhala sir, he has this uncanny knack of setting grids like these, please continue your fabulous job sir, very interesting to solve.What a thinking to put those lines into the grid , Happy NEW YEAR TO ALL…! |
| Venkatesan P. | Nice Theme and wonderful idea. Clues are a little bit tougher yet enjoyable. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. |
| Venkatraghavan S | Super puzzle for the season. Merry Christmas and Happy One by One |
| Narayana Swamy D | Fantastic and Imaginative Cluing |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Engineering marvel! A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!! |
| Al Sanders | Very clever theme, nice that with the density of thematic material there still weren’t too many obscure answers |
| Ian VanderSchee | Love the extra challenge of having to remove letters from wordplay. As an ABBA fan, I loved the endgame! (Was this published 24 days early?) 😉 |
| Koteswar Rao | WHAT A FABULOUS ENDING TO THE YEAR! THANKS BINGO! OF COURSE, A LITTLE EASIER OFFERING. |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | NONPAREIL |
| Narayanan R | Excellent Grid – Kudos to the setter |
| Nilesh Parmar | Lovely grid to end the year |
| Prakash Arumugam | Extremely entertaining puzzle to solve. Thank you for this! |
| Samit Kallianpur | Good one! Tough to crack, and a nice theme! |
| Tejas Siddharth | Loved it. Would have loved to have solved it faster though, with the ABBA connection. Nice puzzle 🙂 |
| Sohil Bhagat | Loved the challenge. Had to google the album, the song and the lyrics but it was worth it at the end to complete the perimeter (I was blind to the possibility that the top left corner could be anything other than a Y). One quibble – I feel stupid but I only find an extra O in 5D instead of the extra A that should be as per the phrase. Not sure if my parsing is incorrect or there’s an issue in the clue |
| Ashit Hegde | Another brilliant puzzle from Bingo but just 1 rung below his usual works of genius. |
| Max Jackson | The “work” took a bit of finding, but overall a nice puzzle with some tricky clues. |
| Ramki Krishnan | Easier than Bingo’s usual puzzles, and a pleasure to watch the messages getting built letter by letter! |
When will the first crossword of 2025 be released? Looking forward to it. Thank you.
Will be starting on Sunday 12th.