Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 521 times. 67 solvers had a go at it. 52 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. Only 27 solvers got the full score.
2nd<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
1-5. 5 of 6 themed entries hinted by the title of the grid
Ans: SECOND, HELP, ASSIST, LOWER, MOMENT, ENDORSE (Pitched In is incorrect because of the tense – only PITCH IN can be a synonym)
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 1A | Firm boards deliver support (6) | SECOND | Se(con)d |
| 4A | Benefit of dope? – it’s fantastic! (6) | ASSIST | [Ass + its*] |
| 9A | Diagram shows where the Taj Mahal is (4) | AGRA | Hidden word |
| 10A | My, o my! Mere suffering can make an unforgettable event (4,6) | CORE MEMORY | Cor + [o my mere]* |
| 11A | Starting late, I’m home in time for a shake (6) | MOMENT | (-I)m (-h)ome (-i)n + T. |
| 12A | Creature ate a tern at sea (8) | ANTEATER | [Ate a tern]* |
| 13A | Reportedly, noise from field helped (7, 2) | PITCHED IN | Hp of pitch din |
| 15A | First of all, mix acid, yolks and a little oil, to make it (4) | MAYO | Acrostic |
| 16A | Nurse involved in multiple homicides after retirement (4) | HELP | Hidden in Rev. |
| 17A | The Reverend says “Request diner for a utensil” (9) | EGGBEATER | Spoonerism of beg eater |
| 21A | Cash ran out ultimately…Ruined! This stinks! (5,3) | TRASH CAN | [Cash ran (-ou)t]* |
| 22A | Coaxes a lad sweetly, to consume greens (6) | SALADS | Hidden word |
| 24A | Oh, this soup is exotic in Rome…honest! (10) | MINESTRONE | Composite anagram. [Oh + minestrone]* = [in Rome honest]*. |
| 25A | Evenly chopping wood, Ron got tired (4) | WORN | Alternate letters in W(-o) o (-d) R (-o) n. |
| 26A | During fasting, ate a unique type of cake (7) | GATEAU | Hidden word |
| 27A | Faint from hunger finally in bar (6) | STARVE | [Sta(r)ve] |
| 1D | Italian dudes performing in orgies, shot the climax in Rome (7) | SIGNORI | [(In orgies)* – e] |
| 2D | Bring to a halt with clutch, say (5) | CEASE | Hp of seize |
| 3D | According to Spooner, lab worker’s about to get something to wear (7) | NECKTIE | Spoonerism of Tech nigh |
| 5D | An Arab for one, recalling the end of bygone days (6) | SEMITE | E + times << |
| 6D | Letters from mail used often in autobiography? (1,2,6) | I AM MALALA | Letter bank of ‘Mail’ |
| 7D | Blow up supply or depot (7) | TORPEDO | [or depot]* |
| 8/14 D | What’s one way of making Clint Eastwood a tad nervous? (8,4,1,4,5) | BREAKING INTO A COLD SWEAT | Reverse Anagram |
| 16D | Giving a gun to a Cockney could be damaging (7) | HARMING | Cockney. ‘Arming’ |
| 18D | Mode of transport that’s extremely smart and most efficient (7) | BUSIEST | Bus + i.e + s t. |
| 19D | Advocate and criminal snored by the middle of judgement (7) | ENDORSE | [Snored* + e] |
| 20D | Right away, I create fancy drink (3,3) | ICE TEA | [R – (I create)*] |
| 23D | Unwrap roses, say, in sink (5) | LOWER | (-F)lower(-s) |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 67 solvers, only 52 completed fully and 27 got the full score. Each of the following scored 154 points (Grid Score – 159, Bonus – 5).
Al Sanders
Anantakrishnan N.
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Harish Kamath
Himanshu Rajurkar
Ian VanderSchee
Jose A
Koteswar Rao
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhusudan H
Melissa McSeismal
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nilesh Parmar
Paul Henderson
Prakash Arumugam
Ramesh Swaminathan
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Samraat Saxena
Sparsh Sinha
Supriya Mithal
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Viraj Divecha
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a great rating of 8.53. It got 13 perfect 10s (25% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 5.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
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- What’s one way of making Clint Eastwood a tad nervous? (8,4,1,4,5) – 19 votes
- Firm boards deliver support (6) – 15 votes
- The Reverend says “Request diner for a utensil” (9) – 14 votes
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Thanks Gridzilla – A very enjoyable 2nd (rather third) grid. Can’t wait for 3rd, 4th etc:) We had a fabulous response from our solvers with the highest participation in recent times. Keep them coming. Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Second to none! |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Very nice grid with just the right amount of difficulty |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Lovely grid |
| Rathnakumar V | Nice & simple. In fact Bonus has 7 words, Second, ASSIST,HELP, LOWER, MOMENT,ENDORSE & Pitched in can also mean 2nd, |
| Srinivas Venkatesh | Enjoyed the cryptic and the challenge |
| Tejas Siddharth | Hard to select only 3 clues for favourites! Many beautiful surfaces |
| Veera Raghavan | Fairly easy grid. Doubtful about all theme words conform to the title’s meaning |
| Al Sanders | Nice puzzle, some excellent clues. Would be good to make sure the different clue types are well distributed so that there aren’t too many of one type |
| Anantakrishnan N. | Excellent puzzle with lovely clues |
| Arun Hiregange | Wonderfully enjoyable! |
| Harish Kamath | Excellent grid. Got stuck in the top left corner for a while but the subsequent aha moments made up for it. |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle |
| Mona Sogal | Nice smooth surfaces.. very enjoyable grid ..loved the letter bank clue 🙂 |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Good one! |
| Sparsh Sinha | Some wonderful clues and some toughies. |
| Veena Venkataraman | Nice easy grid |
| Venkatesan P. | Nice grid |
| Venkatraghavan S | Lovely puzzle. And to think this is only Gridzilla’s second |
| Arvind Kannabiran | was a fun puzzle.thanks. |
| Ashit Hegde | Straightforward clues (barring a few), Overall good surfaces. |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | Very nice and enjoyable grid with a mix of easy and challenging clues. Great surfaces all round. I felt 27A a bit iffy in terms of def. |
| Madhup Tewari | Great clues in this very smooth puzzle. |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | Nice Grid |
| Paul Henderson | Rather a lot of anagrams but some splendid ones. The Eastwood one is a nice find and gets us away from the usual OLD WEST ACTION one. |
| Prakash Arumugam | Excellent puzzle with a simple yet nice surface. |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Good mix of easy and tricky clues, Variety in word play. Challenging and enjoyable |
| Ramki Krishnan | Very nice grid! |
| Shailesh Tipnis | Top notch setter, looking forward to next grid by him! |
| Steve Gunter | 6-down is a brilliant clue! I do not understand the wordplay in several clues, therefore not a perfect 10. |
| Supriya Mithal | Enjoyable grid with excellent clues |
| Viraj Divecha | Lovely grid as always…great clues! |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Loved many clues.. enjoyed solving. |
| Bamboozled | The enumeration for 8,14 (8,4,1,4,5) was wrong. |
| Binay Patra | Good one. I enjoyed solving this grid. |
| Narayana Swamy D | Nice clues |
| Narayanan R | Good one |
| Koteswar Rao | ENJOYABLE |