Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 578 times. 42 solvers had a go at it. 36 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. Only 19 solvers got the full score.
March<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
1. What is the message from extra letters in wordplay?
Ans: NOVELIST AND THE NAMES OF FOUR LITTLE WOMEN IN SHORT (Full points only if all the words are correct)
2-5. 4 thematic terms hidden in the grid?
Ans: MEG, JO, BETH, AMY
The theme refers to the book Little Women by Louisa M(May) Alcott. The dimunitives of the Little Women (four sisters) are Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, which are highlighted in yellow in the grid. The family surname March, and the name of the author in the unclued entry are highlighted in green. Extra letters from the wordplay in clues gives the message ‘NOVELIST AND THE NAMES OF FOUR LITTLE WOMEN IN SHORT’.
This puzzle in March is intended as a tribute to feminism and to commemorate the International Women’s Day which occurs in March. Fittingly, the surname, which has been used as the title, coincides with both.
Annotations
| Clue Ref |
Clue / | Answer / Entry |
Term with Xtra Ltr |
Xtra Ltr |
|||||
| Annotation | |||||||||
| 1 | Hopeless cases involving female staff running errands (6) | GOFERS | GO(N)ERS | N | |||||
| staff running errands; GONERS outside F | |||||||||
| 5 | Fortune saving English, fielder’s missed (3,4) | LET SLIP | L(O)T | O | |||||
| missed; LOT outside E, plus SLIP | |||||||||
| 10 | Pressurise one in fresh round (4,2) | LEAN ON | NO(V)EL | V | |||||
| pressurise; AN inside reversal of NOVEL | |||||||||
| 11 | Long time to stop at a stretch (2,3) | ON END | (E)ON | E | |||||
| at a stretch; EON + END | |||||||||
| 14 | Lions turn up for meets (4,4) | RUNS INTO | (L)IONS | L | |||||
| meets; LIONS TURN* | |||||||||
| 15 | Fit, courageous person in book, for example (6) | BELONG | L(I)ON | I | |||||
| fit; LION inside B, EG | |||||||||
| 17 | Messy moves limiting marks for awards (5) | EMMYS | MES(S)Y | S | |||||
| awards; MESSY* outside M | |||||||||
| 18 | A nanny nursing weak people at the finish, so to speak (2,2,4) | AS IT WERE | SIT(T)ER | T | |||||
| so to speak; A plus SITTER outside E | |||||||||
| 20 | Sampled fifty percent in chat counter, completely satisfied (6) | TASTED | S(A)TED | A | |||||
| sampled; (ch)AT reversed plus SATED | |||||||||
| 22 | Japanese game seen in Saigon, Bangkok to some extent (6) | GOBANG | SAIGO(N) | N | |||||
| Japanese game; HIPS | |||||||||
| 23 | Poor protester in sad human herd, grocer delivering nought (6-7) | HUNGER-MARCHER | HER(D) | D | |||||
| poor protester; (HUMAN HERD GROCER – O)* | |||||||||
| 26 | Allow people without money on board (6) | ENABLE | (T)ABLE | T | |||||
| allow; MEN + TABLE | |||||||||
| 27 | Lake to the west, port to east, centre of Lagos? (6) | GENEVA | (H)AVEN | H | |||||
| lake; reversal of HAVEN, E, G | |||||||||
| 30 | Charges of professional university opening new class (8) | ACCUSALS | AC(E) | E | |||||
| charges; ACE plus U inside CLASS* | |||||||||
| 32 | Simple home design? On the contrary (5) | PLAIN | PLA(N) | N | |||||
| simple; flipping of IN/PLAN | |||||||||
| 36 | Suffering American with silver tongue (6) | GLOSSA | (A)G | A | |||||
| tongue; LOSS A after AG | |||||||||
| 38 | Groups of supporting players high in promise (8) | RIPIENOS | PRO(M)ISE | M | |||||
| groups…players; IN PROMISE* | |||||||||
| 39 | Conviction of youth ends in life imprisonment (5) | TENET | TE(E)N | E | |||||
| conviction; TEEN plus E, T | |||||||||
| 40 | Loafer possibly receives periodical respect (6) | HOMAGE | (S)HOE | S | |||||
| respect; SHOE outside MAG | |||||||||
| 41 | Commit, in retrospect, the same fault, ultimately dull? (7) | ENTRUST | (O)NE | O | |||||
| commit; reversal of ONE plus T, RUST | |||||||||
| 42 | Pilot in position initially seen flipping forms (6) | STYLES | (F)LY | F | |||||
| forms; reversal of FLY inside SET, S | |||||||||
| Annotations (Down) | |||||||||
| Clue Ref |
Clue / | Answer / Entry |
Term with Xtra Ltr |
Xtra Ltr |
|||||
| Annotation | |||||||||
| 1 | Better half goes crazy wanting second playhouse (5,7) | GLOBE THEATRE | HAL(F) | F | |||||
| playhouse; (BETTER HALF GOES – S)* | |||||||||
| 2 | Swelling energy with protest jamming road essentially (6) | OEDEMA | DEM(O) | O | |||||
| swelling; E+DEMO inside OA | |||||||||
| 3 | Month over, year over, returning for love (5) | ENJOY | J(U)NE | U | |||||
| love; reversals of JUNE and YO | |||||||||
| 4 | Horse raced bags gold (4) | ROAN | O(R) | R | |||||
| horse; RAN outside OR | |||||||||
| 5 | Thematic, Unclued (6,1,6) | LOUISA M ALCOTT | – | – | |||||
| – | |||||||||
| 6 | Nut beginning to understand sharing nothing is boredom (5) | ENNUI | NI(L) | L | |||||
| boredom; EN plus U inside NIL | |||||||||
| 7 | Secures time for trial (4) | TEST | T(I)ES | I | |||||
| trial; TIES T | |||||||||
| 8 | Servings of beer perhaps raised, a bargain (4) | SNIP | PIN(T)S | T | |||||
| a bargain; reversal of PINTS | |||||||||
| 9 | American resident’s goal stopped by Republican base (7) | INTERNE | INTEN(T) | T | |||||
| American resident; R inside INTENT plus E | |||||||||
| 12 | Salad of melon, grape and a lot of star fruit (12) | POMEGRANATES | ME(L)ON | L | |||||
| fruit; (MELON GRAPE STAR – R)* | |||||||||
| 13 | Society, fair in India, standing up for charity (4) | ALMS | M(E)LA | E | |||||
| charity; reversal of S MELA | |||||||||
| 16 | ‘Wow’ rampant in hollow youth’s emphatic affirmation (4) | YEAH | A(W)E | W | |||||
| emphatic affirmation; reversal of AWE inside YH | |||||||||
| 19 | Ripped bullfighter runs away (4) | TORE | TORER(O) | O | |||||
| ripped; TORERO-R | |||||||||
| 21 | Devious ones appear taken aback about principle of logic (4) | EELS | SEE(M) | M | |||||
| devious ones; reversal of SEEM outside L | |||||||||
| 24 | Wedding rings and so on reflecting divine grace (7) | UNCTION | (E)TC | E | |||||
| divine grace; UNION outside reversal of ETC | |||||||||
| 25 | Granny and children dance in India (4) | NACH | NA(N) | N | |||||
| dance in India; NAN CH | |||||||||
| 28 | Light that is leading one, a latent influence (4) | EASY | (I)E | I | |||||
| light; IE A S(a)Y | |||||||||
| 29 | Face difficulty in contest (6) | VISAGE | S(N)AG | N | |||||
| face; SNAG inside VIE | |||||||||
| 31 | All there welcoming good son, a saint (5) | AGNES | (S)ANE | S | |||||
| a saint; SANE outside G, plus S | |||||||||
| 33 | Like rich ground meat in oily base one canned (5) | LOAMY | (H)AM | H | |||||
| like rich ground; HAM inside (OILY-I)* | |||||||||
| 34 | Draw or level (4) | TIER | (O)R | O | |||||
| level; TIE OR | |||||||||
| 35 | Trump ignoring extremes drawing in net, largely doubling tariff (4) | MENU | T(R)UMP | R | |||||
| tariff; reversal of (t)RUM(p) outside NE(t) | |||||||||
| 37 | Spoils learner on drinking binge (4) | LOOT | (T)OOT | T | |||||
| spoils; L TOOT | |||||||||
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 42 solvers, only 36 completed fully and 19 got the full score. Each of the following scored 178 points (Grid Score – 169, Bonus – 9).
Anirudh Sahni
Debasmita Basu
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Max Jackson
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Nilesh Parmar
Paul Henderson
Prakash Arumugam
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Samit Kallianpur
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sohil Bhagat
Tejas Siddharth
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a top notch rating of 9.33. It was rated a perfect 10 by 19 out of the 36 folks who voted (53%). The lowest rating was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
-
-
- A nanny nursing weak people at the finish, so to speak (2,2,4) – 9 votes
- Simple home design? On the contrary (5) – 8 votes
- Allow people without money on board (6) – 6 votes
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Thanks Bingo – I thoroughly enjoyed solving this grid – was so absorbing that I did it in one late night sitting. The Bonus elements were well weaved in to the puzzle and the tie in with March for International Women’s Day, as well as the surname of the Little Women was perfect. Can’t wait to see what you will come up with next 🙂
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Anantakrishnan N. | Excellent grid as usual! |
| Anirudh Sahni | Very enjoyable challenge. Learned some new things from figuring out the annos as well as the answers. 1d made me expect a Shakespearean theme; nice surprise as it turned out completely different. |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Had Super Fun solving this beautiful treat. Hope I’m submitting just in time before deadline! |
| Debasmita Basu | Excellent as usual |
| Ian VanderSchee | Wonderful challenge! I loved it! |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Brilliant and intricate as ever. |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | Excellent puzzle, was great fun to solve. Many good clues. Learnt a few new words. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | As always complicated fun and a great pleasure to solve |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle. |
| Madhup Tewari | Great puzzle as expected! Fantastic! |
| Mona Sogal | Wonderful grid as usual…one of my favourite books 🙂 |
| Narayana Swamy D | Novel way of clueimg…Very tough solving |
| Rathnakumar V | One of the best grids for sometime, very interesting, |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Another interesting brain teaser from Bingo! Loved it all the more since it is based on my favourite book as a kid. |
| Venkatesan P. | Great clues. Entertaining puzzle |
| Al Sanders | Nice theme and execution, a few too many obscure entries for my taste |
| Ashit Hegde | Another terrific grid from Bingo, though easier than usual, several wonderful clues with great surfaces |
| Koteswar Rao | As always, Bingo, synonym for entertainment |
| Madhusudan H | Always look forward to Bingo’s grids, never disappointed and always wowed by the creativity. |
| Max Jackson | Nice to have a barred puzzle. Very well checked too.41ac, 6dn, 28dn puzzling. |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | GOOD WORKOUT FOR THE BRAIN |
| Paul Henderson | Quite hard to choose good clues when they are of such a standard – fewer stand out! 24 very, very nice. |
| Prakash Arumugam | Tough puzzle but very enjoyable |
| Ramki Krishnan | Easier than Bingo’s usual puzzles and a joy to solve as usual. |
| Sohil Bhagat | Great challenge, as a Bingo puzzle always is. 38A was completely new to me and had me flummoxed for a while. Couldn’t parse 6D |
| Venkatraghavan S | Lovely puzzle as usual. Easier than normal for a Bingo grid. 🙂 |
| Narayanan R | challenging |
| Samit Kallianpur | Good mental workout, nice theme! |
| Sparsh Sinha | Interesting but tedious |
| Steve Gunter | I am baffled by 38 across and 35 down. |