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Stats -We had 23 submissions for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 50% got the full score of 32. Most people also managed to answer at least one if not both of the bonus questions asked as well..

Here’s the Solution grid

We had asked two questions at the time of submission. These were

1. Who / What’s the Hidden Figure?
2. Annotate Clue 6D.

For Qn 1, the answer was based on the NINA (highlighted above) – “Dorothy Vaughan”. Dorothy was an amazing African-American mathematician who worked for NASA and was one of the three women featured in the movie “Hidden Figures” (adapted from a book).

The answer to Question two is that it’s a “Composite Anagram”, as can be seen from the detailed Annotations below.

Here are the Annotations.

Across:
7 Rolling hill intervenes — adjust stabilizing propellor! (4,5) TOR<< in TAILOR
8 Master returning student’s comic (5) LORD<< L
9 Creator is melting the Arctic (9) THEARCTIC*
10 Too endemic wastage; area custodian closes water supply (5) Tail Acrostic
12 Rather occupied vacated studio by embracing a couple of usurpers (2,4) S(-tudi)o+B (us) Y
13 Threat lacking teeth ultimately is 29’s constant narrative (8) T(-h)REAT IS E (Euler’s constant)
16 “‘Transformation’ synonym, eh?” — classmate holding back (7) Rev T
19 Immoral subjugation cut down, broken by Rev.’s backing (7) SLA(Rev<<)Y
22 Important to check age in Alabama! (8) CARD IN AL
25 A kind of dating / chat app radically benefiting older, naive beginners (6) Acrostic
27 Existence to start when egg, finally, is released and moves to the tip? (5) Begin – with g moving to end
28 I am back in play, rest (9) RENDER<< (I AM<) 29 He had a remarkable identity, oddly lacking sexual fears (5) -s)E(-x)U(-a)L (-f)E(-a)R(-s) (referring to Euler’s remarkable identity relating three fundamental constants: e^(i \pi) = 1) 30 Smell washcloth in Christian Dior’s home (9) Rag >> France.

Down:
1 Spooner’s challenge: “Which person is Bob or Marcel?” (6) Spoonerism of Dare Who – Bob and Marcel are tyoes of hair do
2 Even if loath, hug awkwardly (8) LOATHHUG*
3 “The Black Cat” author to take a shot at another craft of his (6) POE TRY
4 Stay away from young man with a bit of temazepam under bed (7) BOY COT T
5 He wrote Galileo about church, in benign terms at first (6) RE CH >> B T (Galileo – Bertolt Brecht’s play)
6 An essay will reshape lines forever (6) CA – AN ESSAY WILL = LINES ALWAYS*
11 Bottom payroll supporting rising rent, say (4) LET<<+ L
14 Wrath of a country when its land is taken away (3) IRELAND-LAND
15 December 2016, perhaps, cruelly broke everybody’s hearts (3) (-cru)E(-lly) (-br)O(-ke) (-ever)Y(-body)
16 Titular character’s subplot? (3) T
17 My electric Zinoro car, at last! (3) Tail Acrostic
18 List of males with understanding, to start with (4) MEN U
20 Gulliver and a Houyhnhnm house gallery? (8)T
21 No limits on male company and support? This might be all about symbolic equality (7) (-m)AL(-e) GE BRA
23 Income exempted from rate limits below a line (6) A (-re)VENUE (re = rate limits)
24 Prospect of one from a Nordic country, reportedly half German (6) DANE (hp) GER(-man)
25 Small-scale currency manipulation (6) DD
26 “Like The Better Half?” “Honey, facts do not need casing!” (3-3) (-h)ONE(-y) (-f)ACT(-s)

Here is the scorecard (sorted by score and then in the order of submissions received)

Congrats to Kishore Rao, who was the first one to submit an all correct entry and to all others who maxed the score as well.

15 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent” and 8 rated it “Good”. 23 out of 32 clues in the grid got picked atleast once in the top 3 favorites voted by the solvers. The clue for “Euler” was picked by 7 out of 23 solvers, as one of the favorites. Carbon, Avenue and Alchemy each got 6 votes.

Thanks a lot to Gussalufz (Viresh) for this lovely puzzle. I particularly enjoyed the seamless connect with the movie and learning a bit about these amazing women in the process.

Did you enjoy the puzzle? Do you have any feedback for us or for the setter. Do comment in the blog and let us know.

By Sowmya

Sowmya is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and independent financial consultant based in the Middle East (Bahrain). She is a puzzle editor at Amuselabs. She has set over 1,300 crosswords for various publications including over 1000 mini crosswords, cryptic crosswords (under the pseudonym Hypatia for The Hindu) and themed crosswords for Cat.a.lyst (part of The Hindu Businessline). Sowmya runs the Facebook group 1Across where seasoned cruciverbalists interact while setting and solving clues. She has published three compilations of crosswords viz Cryptic Crossroads Volumes 1, 2 and 3. She Tweets cryptic clues daily @somsram

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