Stats -Only 10 people managed to submit the completed grid for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 8 got the full score of 30. Most people managed to get all the answers to the bonus question correct as well.

Here’s the Solution grid

The description of the puzzle read “Animals had crept into ten of the answers in this grid. Can you find them all..”.

These animals (including some birds and insects) found hidden among the solution words were

1. Ass 2. Moose 3. Gnu 4. Seal 5. Orca 6. Cat 7. Bee 8. Owl 9. Ant 10. Ram

Here are the Annotations.

Across:
1 Gala skating segment from former Russian territory (6) T
5 Cut off follower of Garcia? (8) DD
9 Tranquillises outliers – extraordinary measures? (8) (TRANQUILLISES-LIERS)*
10 Keen old king tossed in turbulent sea (6) (TUT>> SEA*)
11 Norwegian, perhaps, cutting everything in field? It’s not to be worried about (5,5) F(AL(SEA)L)ARM
12 Boundless river belonging to US? (4) (c)OURS(e)
13 Cam and rotor constructed in one machine (8) (CAM+ROTOR)*
16 Tie a vessel following case of cancer (6) CR+A+VAT
17 Plant type of beans around Liechtenstein at first (6) LI + MUNG<<
19 Low in pot, daughter left (8) VA(MOO)SE+D
21 Branch of cheese without advocate? (4) LIMB(urger)
22 Drink red ale, perhaps (6,4) GINGER + BEER
25 Northern girl’s fiance is salaciously, secretly, going around (6) Rev T
26 Suffering and depressed amidst unopened wrapping (8) (b)ALING << LOW.
27 Bank notes invested in horses, randomly (8) E+A >> HORSES*
28 Country of citrus production (6) CITRUS*

Down:

2 She’s selling central air (5) L+AURA
3 Bobby, perhaps, is also on board (5) S(AND)S
4 Maria translated into account what Jesus spoke (7) MARIA* >> AC
5 Paradise Lost: a novel leading to anguish (7) (PARADISE-A)*
6 Feeble menial, collected by The Agency, returned (7) CI(MEAN)A<< 7 Maybe gun control is child’s play (3,6) DD 8 By the sound of it, everything Erdogan perhaps dined on is hash (9) ALL TURK ATE HP 14 Moving to Nigeria in spring? (9) TO NIGERIA* 15 Some bastard framed you and me following bound volumes (9) SOME* >> NIB+US
18 Hatemonger, without her treatment, became comic villian (7) (HATEMONGER-HER)*
19 Gave confused gathering a Windows OS and Outlook (7) GAVE* << A+NT
20 Robert, perhaps, is after a leader? (7) CD
23 Inferior, slow flying saucers (5) B + SLOW*
24 Reportedly, next game console causes boredom (5) ON WII*

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

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

2 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent” and 8 rated it “Good”. 16 clues in the grid got picked atleast once in the top 3 favorites voted by the solvers. The clue for “Vamoosed” was picked by 7 out of 10 solvers, as one of the favorites

Thanks a lot to elmith (Darren) for an interesting grid. We hope to host more of your puzzles in future as well.

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.