Stats The puzzle page was loaded 299 times. 68 visitors had a go at it and 36 solvers managed to complete and submit. Of those who submitted, 24 managed to get the maximum possible score of 155.
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Trapped<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
- What is the quote? (4,2,3,7,5) FEAR IS THE HIGHEST FENCE (Nina)
- Name the source of the quote (7) NICHOLS (Nina)
- First of the two related words in the puzzle (14) CLAUSTROPHOBIA (Clue Acrostic)
- Second of the two related words in the puzzle (14) CLEITHROPHOBIA (Clue Acrostic)
Annotations
| ACROSS | |||
| # | Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 8 | Comprehends pictures containing directions (6) | SENSES | SE(NS)ES |
| 9 | Leftward passage leads to upstairs den, briefly accommodating Fahd’s successor (8) | ABDULLAH | (HALL+U+D+B+A)< |
| 10 | Addressed large court on vacation – appallingly rude (8) | LECTURED | LargE CohorT + RUDE* |
| 11 | Unusual clone has one woman (6) | NICOLE | I in CLONE* |
| 12 | Spy or chief of espionage confused predator (6) | OSPREY | (SPY OR E)* |
| 13 | Transform pie chart for inscription on a building (8) | EPIGRAPH | PIE*+GRAPH |
| 14 | Removed top from that revolutionary model’s cutting implement (7) | HATCHET | THAT-T+CHE+T |
| 17 | Oversized drums I rest my shirt over (7) | TYMPANI | (I+NAP+MY+T)< |
| 20 | Performer near row containing head of Academy (8) | COMEDIAN | COME+DI(A)N |
| 22 | Holding essentials of estate, shockingly wrongful (6) | TAKING | esTAte shocKIngly wroNGful |
| 24 | Obtain vestments (clothing) to empower (6) | INVEST | obtaIN VESTments |
| 25 | Boisterously rubs hair to improve image (8) | AIRBRUSH | (RUBS HAIR)* |
| 26 | In returned greeting, record one who denies authority (8) | NIHILIST | IN< + HI + LIST |
| 27 | Ailing insect returns, consumed by incomplete escape (6) | FEEBLE | F(BEE<)LEE – E |
| DOWN | |||
| # | Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 1 | Cold symptoms found inside, if ever spotted (6) | FEVERS | iF EVER Spotted |
| 2 | Lacking familiarity, coteries meandered (8) | ESOTERIC | COTERIES* |
| 3 | Early art sale from the south exhibiting “Off the Rails” (6) | ASTRAY | earlY ART Sale < |
| 4 | Initially rather confused in a mess (7) | RADDLED | R+ADDLED |
| 5 | Tin deity, strange name (8) | IDENTITY | (TIN DEITY)* |
| 6 | Hobart makes it smooth, not ending with hesitation (6) | SLICER | SLICK-K+ER |
| 7 | Restrain chasing dogs – it’s a state of panic (8) | TAILSPIN | TAILS+PIN |
| 15 | Oklahoma character developed an idea? No! (3, 5) | ADO ANNIE | (AN IDEA NO)* |
| 16 | Pollux, for one, returning quick to partially succeed (4, 4) | EVIL TWIN | LIVE< + “TO WIN” – O |
| 18 | Hermann Hesse perhaps assumes concrete edging is all in, say (5, 3) | POKER BET | PO(KERB)ET |
| 19 | “On Eloquence in the Vernacular” author follows a nationalist slowly and steadily (7) | ANDANTE | AN+DANTE |
| 21 | Blissful endings of warfare and woe; beginnings of normality in ceasefire (6) | EDENIC | warfarE anD woE + Normality In Ceasefire |
| 22 | If in short order, put up menu (6) | TARIFF | IF in FRAT< |
| 23 | Argentina salsa contains some occlusive sounds (6) | NASALS | argentiNA SALSa |
Scorecard
| Participant(s) Name | Grid Score | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Sanders | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Arvind Kannabiran | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Ashit hegde | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Debasmita Basu | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Himanshu Rajurkar | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Irwin Appel | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Lakshmi Prakash | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Madhup Tewari | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Max Jackson | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Mona Sogal | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Narayanan R | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Prakash Arumugam | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Ramki Krishnan | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Samit Kallianpur | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Sohil | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Sparsh Sinha | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Supriya Mithal | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Tejas Siddharth | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Usha Ramesh | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Venkatesan P. | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Venkatraghavan S | 148 | 7 | 155 |
| Deepak Gopinath | 147 | 7 | 154 |
| Dr S Venkatesh | 148 | 6 | 154 |
| Ratnakumar V | 147 | 7 | 154 |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 148 | 5 | 153 |
| R Nagendra Prasad | 148 | 5 | 153 |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | 146 | 7 | 153 |
| Santha Ramachandran | 146 | 7 | 153 |
| Ratna Rao | 147 | 5 | 152 |
| Sree Sree | 145 | 5 | 150 |
| Veera Raghavan | 143 | 7 | 150 |
| Madhusudan H | 140 | 7 | 147 |
| Binay Kumar Patra | 145 | 0 | 145 |
Congrats to the 36 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.39. It got 7 perfect 10s (19% of those who rated). The lowest score was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top 3 clues were
- Hermann Hesse perhaps assumes concrete edging is all in, say (5, 3) 11 votes
- Blissful endings of warfare and woe; beginnings of normality in ceasefire (6) 9 votes and
- Oversized drums I rest my shirt over (7) 8 votes
Thanks Mathrix (@ivschee) for a clever grid. Nice theme with an apt NINA and a Clue Acrostic and a very enjoyable solve.
Here is what our solvers said…
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|
| Lovely grid to solve after the break |
| Perfectly designed. |
| Brilliant! |
| Very enjoyable clues and concept , I am always amazed at the skill involved in hiding themed words and sentences not only in the grid but the list of clues as well. Resonates specially since I’m severely claustrophobic. The second word is new to me. |
| Very entertaining puzzle. Lovely clues. |
| Highly Challenging |
| SIMPLY BRILLIANT |
| Fun puzzle, very smooth entries given the constraints of the theme |
| Great! Very hard to get the two related words, but when I got them, it felt terrific! |
| Was an interesting fairly easy grid |
| Nice clues and a very enjoyable puzzle. |
| Some obscure words…loved the NINA.. |
| SOME VERY TOUGH CLUES MAKES THIS ENJOYABLE. |
| None |
| Excellent puzzle. Beautiful clues. Skillfully crafted to produce nina and designed clues to form the words from the initial letters. |
| fun puzzle, thanks |
| Loved the theme and the grid. Fun solve. |
| Fun grid/ liked the theme and the revealing of the two 14 letter words |
| SUPER |
| Very enjoyable and a brilliantly crafted thematic puzzle |
| Nice grid with many smooth clues. It helped that I could spot the nina early – helped to fill in the letters for some of the clues. The clue acrostics were also well done! |
| Good grid! |
| Nice |
| Nice clues! Enjoyed doing the puzzle. |
| None |
| Very enjoyable. Great construction of the grid and a clever Nina + brilliant two long bonus words! |
| Liked the theme |
| Good one |
| esoteric bonus |
| Ingenious puzzle |
| Nice set of clues. Surfaces can be worked on. |
| Nice puzzle. Quotaion unfamiliar. |
| I think I’ve said this before, but surfaces can definitely improve. Otherwise good puzzle. |
| Nice puzzle with many interesting elements in clueing, grid entries and theme. I really couldn’t find any 14 letter words from clues that are required for the last 2 bonus questions, even taking overlapping letters, will be interesting to see the answers. Many good clues, though some surfaces were not credible, eg POKER BET, and Hobart for SLICER didn’t resonate, perhaps an Americanism, but minor quibbles in the overall scheme of things |
| Good puzzle. Was clueless about 16D and did not fill it. |
| Wouldn’t rate this puzzle amongst the best ones we’ve seen on 1AC. Some clues need a bit more refinement and I think the theme could have been more deeply integrated. Would have preferred to have themed words as entries rather than an acrostic across clues. That might have also improved clue-ing by removing that one constraint. |