Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 388 times. 57 solvers had a go at it. 49 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. Only 34 solvers got the full score.
Roses Are Red<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
1. The circled letters form a phrase that complements the title in a 21-2. Identify (7,3,4)
Ans: VIOLETS ARE BLUE
2. 2 theme words representing Greek and Roman symbols of love
Ans: EROS & CUPID
3. 2 theme words representing delicious treats apt for February 14th
Ans: CHOCOLATE & ECLAIR
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Answer | Annotations |
| 7A | Crazy native scratching backside with bark regularly gets colorful (7) | VIBRANT | NATIV(-E) BR* – CRAZY is the Anagrind |
| 8A | Pal makes beverage undiluted at first,its flat (7) | PLATEAU | PAL*TEA U |
| 9A | Regularly evolve to get adjusted, its a feeling (4) | LOVE | eVoLvE tO * |
| 10A | Cold drink in lodge ,short and sweet (9 ) | CHOCOLATE | C HO COLA TE(-L) |
| 12A | 9 to enter cold/hot showers finally and change (5 ) | COINS | C O(love ) IN S( showers at first ) |
| 13A | Need ears to be tuned for 9 song (8 ) | SERENADE | NEEDEARS* |
| 15A | Cut short Indian sarong for a breather ( 4 ) | LUNG | LUNG(-I) |
| 16A | Symbol of 9 in cinema used perhaps in dances originally (5) | CUPID | Acrostic |
| 17A | Regular prose with some meter in verse (4) | POEM | Pr Os E M |
| 18A | Times are changing and other similar things (2,6) | ET CETERA | ET CET ARE* |
| 20A | Speech – promotion , get ready !(5) ! | DRESS | ADDRESS – AD |
| 21A | Fast in vain ,finally lose sweetheart ( 9 ) | VALENTINE | VA (LENT) IN E ( finally lose ) |
| 22A | God of 9 ,emerged, moved East, to the front (4) | EROS | ROSE ( E moves up ) |
| 24A | American doctor smuggled notes for lover ( 7 ) | ADMIRER | A D MI RE R |
| 25A | Final tweets by American university on X – Head-over-heels (7 ) | SMITTEN | S MIT TEN |
| 1D | Pass mostly large mounted VIP vehicle (4) | LIMO | OMI(-T)L<< |
| 2D | Say , hello or hi from girls gathering around decorated tree at home (8) | GREETING | G TREE* IN G |
| 3D | Bags holding a bit of nuts, chips say (6) | SNACKS | S N ACKS |
| 4D | Like ripe tomatoes ,can develop rot at first in garden patch (5,3) | BLOOD RED | B LOO D R ED |
| 5D | Last straw regularly in grasp (6) | ATTAIN | lAsT sTrAw IN |
| 6D | Daughter had appointment (4) | DATE | D ATE |
| 11D | Mix sop and hoagie,they help swallow (9 ) | OESOPHAGI | SOAPHOGIE* |
| 12D | Where you could press a suit? (5) | COURT | CD |
| 14D | Things on the bottom ,doctor say sees at first (5) | DREGS | DR EG S |
| 16D | Oddly calmed wife missing solution for detergent (7) | CLEANER | CLE ANSWER-W |
| 17D | Introduces things kept under wraps? (8) | PRESENTS | DD/CD |
| 19D | Dessert served up from imperial cellars (6) | ÉCLAIR | Rev Tel impeRIAL CE llars |
| 20D | Not practical to have lots of paper in empty diary (6) | DREAMY | D REAM Y |
| 21D | Rig say , leave damaged partly (4) | VEDA | Telescopic |
| 22D | Beasts of burden , ten in one possibly (4) | OXEN | X in ONE* |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 57 solvers, only 49 completed fully and 34 got the full score. Each of the following scored 144 points (Grid Score – 137, Bonus – 7).
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Harish T K
Himanshu Rajurkar
Ian VanderSchee
Jose A
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhusudan H
Melissa McSeismal
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Narayan Mandyam
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Paul Henderson
Prakash Arumugam
Ramesh Swaminathan
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Ratna Rao
Samit Kallianpur
Samraat Saxena
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sohil Bhagat
Sparsh Sinha
Steve Gunter
Supriya Mithal
Tejas Siddharth
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Vinayak Rao Ekbote
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a great rating of 8.29. It got 9 perfect 10s (18% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
-
-
- Cold drink in lodge ,short and sweet (9 ) – 17 votes
- Speech – promotion , get ready !(5) – 12 votes
- Cut short Indian sarong for a breather ( 4 ) – 10 votes
- Final tweets by American university on X – Head-over-heels (7 ) – 10 votes
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Thanks Amygadala – An awesome debut by Aashwina Mouli who is setting her first solo grid. Although she is a seasoned solver and has set jointly in our Cryptic Crossroads collections, this is her first solo attempt. Nicely done. Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|---|
| Arun Hiregange | Fabulous puzzle. It was difficult to pick just 3 favourite clues because as I figured them out slowly I had a new favourite every time 🙂 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Lovely Valentine gift |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Enjoyable grid |
| Rathnakumar V | Nice easy puzzle, loved solving it.,Grand debut, hoping to see more grids from you |
| Veera Raghavan | Very nice puzzle. Tough to choose favorites. |
| Ian VanderSchee | Fun puzzle! Some challenging clues and a nice theme for February. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Very nice valentine theme grid |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice debut Ashwina. Enjoyed solving ! |
| Priya Shyam | Wonderful grid, simple and neat clues. Loved it |
| Sohil Bhagat | Nice crossword with some great surfaces. A quick solve though – would have liked some more tricky clues |
| Sparsh Sinha | Some wonderful clues and nice theme setup |
| Supriya Mithal | Very enjoyable theme and grid,look forward to more grids from Amygdala |
| Abhay Phadnis | An enjoyable puzzle. I liked the way the theme was brought it without making it overbearing. |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | Very nice puzzle with a clear theme. Enjoyed many clues. |
| Madhup Tewari | Got one wrong and realised it immediately after submitting but that how it is. Very enjoyable puzzle. |
| Madhusudan H | Lovely puzzle. |
| Mona Sogal | Great debut… sweet and romantic :)all the best for your future grids!! |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | NICE DEBUT |
| Prakash Arumugam | Delightful clues with a few providing the Aha moment. Thank you |
| Raja Venkatasubramanian | Loved it |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Nice and topical with some good crisp clues. Enjoyable solve. |
| Ramki Krishnan | Smooth grid – and an easily identifiable theme. Looking forward to more grids from Amygdala! |
| Samit Kallianpur | Congratulations on a good debut. Nice theme too! |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Simple and sweet! Keep them coming AM! |
| Venkatesan P. | Neat and smooth. |
| Venkatraghavan S | Nice breezy puzzle fit for the occasion |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Nice themed puzzle perfect for the Valentine week! |
| Ashit Hegde | Nice fairly straightforward grid, only wish there were more charade /anagrams and fewer letter selection clues |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | Nice |
| Koteswar Rao | APT FOR THE “SOLVER”!!! |
| Max Jackson | Nice appropriate theme well handled.12, 18ac, 12dn puzzling |
| Narayana Swamy D | Nice clues |
| Narayanan R | Nice Grid |
| Paul Henderson | Puzzle was enough fun. Last steps a bit odd – wouldn’t have thought an ECLAIR would be a Valentine treat, but it’s better than SNACKS, if we’re sticking with comestibles. And surely a DRESS or a SERENADE could be described as ‘delicious’. Too much to feel confident choosing. |