Stats The puzzle page was loaded 626 times. 142 visitors had a go at it and 50 solvers managed to complete and submit the grid. Of those who submitted 24 managed to get the maximum possible score of 147 including the Bonus.
A Time to Produce Fruit <<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
NOTES: NINA is highlighted in Yellow. The Red squares highlight the most frequent wrong answers by solvers. This includes the Y of LAYS which has been covered by the NINA.
Bonus Questions:
- What is the NINA? (7,7) – ANS: STANLEY KUBRICK
- Identify 6 theme words – ANS: STRANGE, LOVE, SPACE, ODYSSEY, GLORY and SHINING
- How is the title linked to the theme? (3 words) A = A; Time = clock (verb form); Produce = work (verb form); Fruit = orange; A Clockwork Orange is another Kubrick film
The Setter had another question which we did not run, which is
In the context of the theme, fill in the blanks: “By What Means “——– —–” acquired the Style and Title of “—– ——”
You are welcome to post the answers in the comments section. We will announce the name of the first solver who gets it correct after a couple of days.
Update: It is “By what means Redmond Barry acquired the style and title of Barry Lyndon”. Congrats to Satyen Nabar who got it right.
Annotations
| Across | Answer | Explanation |
| 7 Upbeat sounds heard near yard (4) | rosy | ROS (HP ~rows) + Y |
| 8 Travels with passionate desire, footloose (5) | rides | {DESIR[–e]}* |
| 10 Carriage from eastern America carrying two kings (4) | ekka | E (K K) A |
| 11 Sadly, others not having right spirit (5) | ethos | {OTHE[-r]s}* |
| 12 Posh luxury car belonging to financially stable neighbour (8) | surround | S(U RR)OUND |
| 13 Mix many old drinks near empty cookhouse (8) | coalesce | C O ALES CE |
| 15 Leading nerve doctor in America causes paralysis (5) | numbs | N U(MB)S |
| 17 Producer of oil (crude) – diesel infused with nitrogen (7) | linseed | N >>{DIESEL}* |
| 19 Principal of college learnt dancing (7) | central | C + {LEARNT}* |
| 22 Grand royal party without a celebrity (5) | glory | G + {ROY[-a]L]* |
| 24 More spirited royal couple entering this place, say (8) | heartier | HEA(R TIE)R (~HP HERE) |
| 26 Son quite nervous for interview (8) | question | {SON QUITE}* |
| 28 Quiet walk around edge of lake (5) | peace | P(E)ACE |
| 30 Prepares drug while talking (4) | lays | HP ~LACE |
| 31 Primarily non-violent Jain turning into a mercenary (5) | ninja | N + {JAIN}* |
| 32 Plant very well run by associate (4) | okra | OK R A |
| Down | Answer | Explanation |
| 1 Olive surprisingly giving up ego to get affection (4) | love | {OL[-i]VE}* |
| 2 Disease carried by messy philistines (8) | syphilis | Hidden |
| 3 Seizes marijuana outside entrance of park (6) | grasps | GRAS(P)S |
| 4 Journey initially onerous – travelling north to south in Sydney (7) | odyssey | O {SYD[-n+S]EY}* |
| 5 Renovation of theatre for “Macbeth” (6) | reform | Hidden |
| 6 Crime to steal $1000 coat (4) | skin | S(K)IN |
| 9 Unknown area beyond the banks of Surat (7) | strange | S T+ RANGE |
| 14 Outstanding player finally quitting Olympic sport (5) | owing | [-r]OWING |
| 16 Briefly catch sight of expert in play (5) | space | SP[-y] + ACE |
| 18 Blue Nile, say, can be heavenly (7) | elysian | {NILESAY}* |
| 20 Perhaps badger Harry Potter to get hold of a wand eventually (8) | tetrapod | A>>{POTTER}* +D |
| 21 Hugging husband at home, Carol is radiant (7) | shining | S(H IN) ING |
| 23 Some jobs essentially torment (6) | obsess | Hidden |
| 25 Ask a friend to safeguard immature pet (6) | appeal | AP (PE[-t] AL |
| 27 State that ultimately protects revolutionary (4) | utah | Hidden in Rev |
| 29 Bank near ground (4) | earn | {NEAR}* |
Results – Score card
| S.No | Particpant | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anicha Reuban | 147 |
| 2 | Arvind Ramaswamy | 147 |
| 3 | Ashit Hegde | 147 |
| 4 | Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 147 |
| 5 | Camelia Oberoi | 147 |
| 6 | Ganesh Nayak | 147 |
| 7 | Jyothish B | 147 |
| 8 | Keith Williams | 147 |
| 9 | Lakshmi Prakash | 147 |
| 10 | Lata Muthanna | 147 |
| 11 | Loks Subrahmanyam | 147 |
| 12 | Madhup Tewari | 147 |
| 13 | Madhusudan Hanumantha Rao | 147 |
| 14 | Mona Sogal | 147 |
| 15 | Mukundala Balasubramanyam | 147 |
| 16 | Narayanan R | 147 |
| 17 | Nick Loader | 147 |
| 18 | Nilesh Parmar | 147 |
| 19 | Satyen Nabar | 147 |
| 20 | Spiffytrix | 147 |
| 21 | Supriya Mithal | 147 |
| 22 | Vasant Srinivasan | 147 |
| 23 | Venkatesan P. | 147 |
| 24 | Venkatraghavan S. | 147 |
| 25 | Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | 146 |
| 26 | Ramesh SS | 146 |
| 27 | Anirudh Sahni | 146 |
| 28 | Debasmita Basu | 146 |
| 29 | Himanshu Rajurkar | 146 |
| 30 | Nagendra Prasad R. | 146 |
| 31 | Ratna Rao | 146 |
| 32 | Samit Kallianpur | 146 |
| 33 | Shashwat Sinai Salgaocar | 146 |
| 34 | Tejas Siddharth | 146 |
| 35 | Usha Dronamraju | 146 |
| 36 | Sandhya Paruchuri | 145 |
| 37 | Max Jackson | 145 |
| 38 | Rathnakumar V | 145 |
| 39 | Raghavan S V | 144 |
| 40 | Sree Sree | 144 |
| 41 | Ian Vanderschee | 144 |
| 42 | Rengaswamy N. | 141 |
| 43 | SSv Avtaar | 139 |
| 44 | Mohsin Ahmed | 138 |
| 45 | Arun | 136 |
| 46 | D Narayanaswamy | 135 |
| 47 | Geoff Lee | 134 |
| 48 | Jane Selby | 128 |
| 49 | Smita Kolhatkar | 127 |
| 50 | Maya Sharma | 125 |
Note: 5 players scored “0” bonus points since they did not complete the bonus questions.
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 8.47. It got 6 perfect 10s – i.e 13% of those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 7.
Favorite Clues: Here’s the distribution of favorites picked by the solvers.
Thanks to “The Zodiac” for an entertaining puzzle with elegant surfaces, sound cryptic grammar and a well knit theme. Looking forward to more puzzles from you in our blog. Here are the comments from our solvers
Comments on the Puzzle
A time to produce fruit Query
| SNO | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nice surfaces |
| 2 | Very nice surfaces, would have been even more enjoyable if the clues were a bit tougher |
| 3 | One or two clues seemed iffy |
| 4 | Not sure Lays/lace are homophones (if the answer is correct lol) |
| 5 | Thanks |
| 6 | Excellent puzzle!! Some very clever clues!! |
| 7 | Good one |
| 8 | Gentle workout with good surfaces |
| 9 | Nice Puzzle |
| 10 | Very nice clues in an engaging puzzle. The theme words could have been more widespread. |
| 11 | Liked that the surfaces were clean and flowed naturally without trying too hard |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Well structured clues. Not much of a difficulty in solving |
| 14 | A satisfying grid with well constructed clues and a novel theme. |
| 15 | Great puzzle |
| 16 | Excellent puzzle. Was a joy to solve. Cleverly crafted Anagrams. |
| 17 | Excellent Puzzle! |
| 18 | Simple and precise clues! |
| 19 | Nice themed puzzle. Enjoyed solving |
| 20 | Enjoyed the grid. Several good clues. Lovely theme. Some words are in the title of the same movie, making the bonus questions mildly ambiguous. |
| 21 | Awesome Grid |
| 22 | Wonderful puzzle, enjoyed it! |
| 23 | Excellent clues ,simple but elegant.Very enjoyable grid and theme . |
| 24 | rosy and lays..bit iffy.. loved the theme and the clue surfaces…could not find reference for bank = earn/ smooth and breezy puzzle |
| 25 | excellent grid |
| 26 | Good puzzle. Surface work is very good too though not many wow surfaces . |
| 27 | Fantastic |
| 28 | Nice clues, neat surfaces, lovely theme. Overall, very good. |
| 29 | Bonus question should not be vague. It should be atleast somewhat easy to make solvers attempt it. |
| 30 | Excellent puzzle. Well crafted and enjoyable. |
| 31 | Enjoyed solving this grid. Thanks for the great grids this year – my first year solving 1Across Grids. Wish the 1Across team happy holidays and a very happy 2022. |
| 32 | Love the grid. |
| 33 | Smooth surfaces; enjoyed solving. |
| 34 | Space = play is a bit confusing |
| 35 | Nice fairly easy puzzle |
| 36 | Fairly basic but well constructed puzzle. Some homophones debatable |
| 37 | I liked the difficulty level – not too easy and not overly hard |
| 38 | Classic puzzle |
| 39 | Entertaining! |
| 40 | Nina tells me I have 30ac wrong, but I can’t find an better answer. |
| 41 | Really liked this. Great variety. Nice surfaces. Lovely wordplay. Fun theme and nina. One issue is that lays and lace are not homophones for much of the English speaking world. Only other one I have doubts about is ‘ROSY’. I can see the definition and the ‘y’ but where does rows/rose hp come from? Hopefully not ROWS as in commotions (pronounced rouse). |
| 42 | Simple & crisp constructions. Enjoyed solving. |
| 43 | Nice clues, theme and nina. Was stuck on two clues for a long time (7A and 29D), still not 100% convinced about the anno/def. |
| 44 | Thank you |
| 45 | Mostly easy but a few curveballs and some clever innovations. Not sure 30a uses dictionary words. |
By what means Redmond Barry acquired the style and title of Barry Lyndon