Game of Throne – Results

Stats – We had only 16 solvers completing and submitting the grid. Of those who submitted only 7 managed to get the maximum possible score of 171 including the Bonus.

Click Here for the Puzzle Post 

This was one of the toughest puzzles that I have had the privilege of hosting in 1ACross. Since we are planning to release Cryptic Crossroads Volume 3, I have decided to include this puzzle in the collection. Hence, we will not be publishing the answers and annotations as yet and we will be releasing it in the book instead.

Results:

Congrats to the solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.41. It got 5 perfect 10s – i.e 31% of  those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 3.

Top 3 Clues:  The most favorited clues were those for “PERT”  (6 votes), HALO and JAMBS with 3 votes each.  26 clues in the grid got atleast 1 vote each.

Thanks to Bingo for this mind boggling puzzle  which had so many layers to it. It was an honor to run it in the blog and we look forward to publishing it in Cryptic Crosswords Volume 3.

Comments on the Puzzle

1. One of the most intricate puzzles I’ve solved. The instructions were intimidating at first, but it was fun figuring out the layers of the puzzle one by one. It took me a while to get the annotations of some clues too (came across a lot of new words and phrases in the process), but the a-ha moments were worth it. It will be interesting to know more about how the setter went about setting such a complex but well-made puzzle.
2. A tour de force of setting, with the multiple layers of puzzles and crafty clues. The theme and the hidden instruction were a delight to discover. Also one of the hardest grids I’ve done, with obscure words, uncommon word senses and ambiguous indicators on top of missing letters, but very satisfying to complete.
   I thought a few clues should have been fairer. e.g. 4d is an obscure word AND the wordplay clues the 2-letter word BE of which 1 letter is missing. Then there should be no connectors like “”to””.
3. Lord have mercy! Now please excuse me, while I go pick up the pieces of my exploded head.
4. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
5. Interesting puzzle
6. Grid was really challenging but also found many clues unnecessarily complicated.
7. Amazing grid and theme. Tough and enjoyable at the same time.
8. Extremely complex/ some vague definitions/ was a tiring exercise overall …but on the other hand setter has managed to come up with a brilliant grid, theme, complex instructions to top it all.. kudos to this super effort
9. VERY TOUGH
10. There’s a lot to unpack here. Firstly, not that it’s the puzzle’s fault but I’m not a big fan of starting in a completely different way. I prefer the end game/different idea to gradually reveal itself or be left till the end. I also found the instructions hard to follow and not well separated – this might just be me though. Even once I had the idea, I was constantly getting confused between the different methods. I felt there were too many different methods being demanded, again though, my opinion. I didn’t like using non cryptic clues to fill in the border and find the extra letters. I thought the no Bs and Ks things was a nice bit of help though. Now onto the clues: of course, some I liked, some I didn’t. Wordplay criticisms might be misplaced as I can only guess at the annos. Let me just go clue by clue: Across: 10. Nice wordplay, cannot work out what surface is saying. 11. Great clue. 13. Surface is very strange and is ‘in relation’ being used as a hp indicator? I have never seen this usage and don’t like it. 14. Nice surface, not a fan of using two outside letters of a synonym, though slightly more excusable when the synonym has 3 letters altogether, 15. Wordplay is okay but I don’t understand the surface. 17. Excellent clue. 18. Fantastic clue. 19. Another awesome clue. 21. Nice wordplay, ‘baffling’ feels like it should be ‘baffled’ in surface but this would mess up the wp. 22. Great wordplay. I don’t understand the surface. 24. Fantastic wordplay but I don’t get the surface. 27. Excellent wordplay, surface almost there but ‘activity’ sticks out 29. Lovely wordplay and surface almost there but ‘break’ doesn’t read as ‘prison break’ but ‘rest break’. 30. Wonderful wordplay and I get the ‘pot calling kettle black’ idea in surface but not so amusing and more just random to me. 31. Beautiful clue. 35. Love this one too. 37. Another lovely clue and surface but felt that ‘somebody’ is too vague for the quite obscure ‘nob’. Same for 38, a lovely wordplay and passable surface but way too vague a definition. 39. Not a fan of the surface, really just a bunch of political gobbledygook that’s not actually saying anything. 40. Awesome clue. Okay, now the Down: 2. Not a fan of ‘turn’ as anagrind. Not setter’s fault as it’s in lists but only a reversal indicator to me. turns into/turns bad, yes. Turns, no. Surface is okay. 3. Surface is a bit strange- why ‘bloom’? 4. Wp fine. ‘love to live’ sounds strange in surface. 5. Great clue. 7. Superb clue. 8. Would have preferred more than a ? for a def by example ind. 11. ANA too vaguely defined by collection of stories imo. 12. Not a bad clue 6 was okay too but rearing sticks out without a subject or being ‘before’ the playing in the surface. 16 is fine. 20. Def seems inaccurate and I don’t like arch and an anagrind, especially when it’s not arched or arching. 23 is nice. 26 is really good. 28 is classy. 32 def is super vague. Assuming argentine refers to silver, lunar refers to shape not colour of the moon so I’m totally lost, surface is too silly to be respected as well. 33 has an okay surface but pie means mixed not corrupted. 34 is okay. 36 is tremendous. Lots of potential here 😀
11. This is a brilliantly crafted puzzle with several layers of complexity. There were a few obscure words, uncommon abbreviations but this is an enjoyable masterpiece
12. Extremely tough puzzle, but very satisfying in the end. Requires patience, lots of reference lookups, and finally sheer pigheadedness to not give up!
13. Unbelievably brilliant creation by the most talented setter I have the privilege to know. The sheer quality of clues, the idea, the grid construction, the detailing…just mind-boggling. Was a pleasure to crack it all. Thanks Bhala.
14. Overcomplicated puzzle, more or less impossible to solve. Vague definitions, vague wordplay, and vaguer entries, and a vaguer theme. Surfaces did not impress. The perimeter was also not cryptic?
    Also, ocs is a word?”
15. Very tough clues. Equally tough is the concept. A great work.
16. I have nothing to say to the best setter I’ve seen. Superb grid.