Stats -We had a great response to “The Secret of the Naga’s Arm” and there were 30 submissions for this puzzle. Of those who submitted, 22 got the full grid score of 28 and twenty got the maximum possible score of 31. Here’s the Solution grid
The following questions were asked at the end of the puzzle..
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- Which solution and its corresponding grid word are homophones of each other?
- What are two other anagrams of the answer to 24A?
- 10 and 11 stirred one’s deepest emotions (12)
The correct answers to these were
(1) BRAKE/BREAK
(2) ASPIRED and DESPAIR
(3) HEARTSTRINGS
Here are the Annotations.
Across:
1 Late princess has moderate illness (7) DI S EASE, DISEASE* = SEASIDE
5 Wraps strips around the tail (5) ROBS<<E, ROBES* = SOBER
8 Play the ball or wait? (5) DD, SERVE* = VERSE
9 I left entrails scattered around beastly headgear (7) ENTRAILS-I*, ANTLERS*, RENTALS
10 Alternatively gird with trendy silver-lead beams (5) GR IN S, GRINS* = RINGS
11 Dangers of heartbreak for vacant teenagers (7) HEART* TS, THREATS* = HATTERS
12 Lets political leader walk away from contents (6) PLEASES-P, LEASES*=EASELS
14 Broadcasts the first of six tape recordings addressing multiple points (6) STR + E,W,S, STREWS*=WRESTS
17 Show genuine coverage of jerk doing a U-turn (7) REAL<<TIC<, RECITAL* = ARTICLE
19 Will everybody be quiet to start with? (5) SH ALL, SHALL* = HALLS
21 Winter rainfall embraces the land (7) T, TERRAIN* = TRAINER
22 Do away with Cockney woman’s proviso (5) RID ER, RIDER*=DRIER
23 Draw around footprint (5) DD, TRACE* = CRATE
24 Quietly promoted and commended (7) P RAISED, PRAISED* = DIAPERS
Down:
1 Some start to follow ever-changing shifts (5) VEER* S, VEERS*= SEVER
2 Following is in a clique (7) A RING<<IS, ARISING* = AIRINGS
3 Away team must meet Austria to start with (5) A+SIDE, ASIDE* = IDEAS
4 Understand that your introductions must be cordial (6) HEAR T(hat) Y(our), HEARTY*=EARTHY
5 The original argument for back-stabbing? (7) T REASON, TREASON*= SENATOR
6 Holiday opportunity (5) DD, BREAK*=BRAKE
7 Rest’s disturbed by heartless Somali relatives (7) S(omal)I+RESTS*, SISTERS* = RESISTS
12 Continue going over chapter that is frilly in the extreme (7) LAST<<C IE, LACIEST* =ELASTIC
13 No talking as central characters from Glee come in (7) SINCE<<(g)LE(e), SILENCE* = LICENSE
15 Concerning an archive of Balzac, Tolstoy or Henry James, perhaps (7) RE A LIST, REALIST* = SALTIRE
16 When wrapped around lard stuffing, venison becomes sweeter (6) DEER<<(l)AR(d), DEARER*=REARED
18 A touching overture to revoultionary tune (Chambers) (5) ARIA<<T, ATRIA*=TIARA
19 Tough and sticky ending for the man who gave us Tess (5) HARD Y, HARDY*=HYDRA
20 Blushes in the middle of electro sessions (5) T, ROSES*=SORES
Here is the scorecard (sorted by score and then in the order of submissions received)
Congrats, once again to Kishore, who has maintained “the impossible to beat’ position by being the first one to submit an all correct entry and to all of you who managed to “max” the score.
27 people rated the puzzle as “Excellent” and the remaining 3 rated it “Good”. Thanks Hasslethymi, for a brilliant puzzle. It was mindboggling to imagine how this was pulled off and was really fun to solve.
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.