Stats The puzzle page was loaded 424 times. 99 visitors had a go at it and 46 solvers managed to complete and submit. Of those who submitted, 25 managed to get the maximum possible score of 165.
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Time A Dozen<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
- Correlating the title and answers , identify the theme (6) ANS: MONTHS
- Identify any 5 of TEN themed entries: ANS: – The ten themed words had the first three letters of months in them. JANITOR, FEBRILE, SMART, APRON, MAYO, JUNGLE, JULEP, SLAUGHTER, HORSEPLAY, OCTET
Annotations
| # | ACROSS – CLUE | SOLUTION | ANNO. |
| 1 | Queasy? Swig coke at regular intervals (4) | SICK | SwIg CoKe |
| 3 | Town official’s not finished dressing (4) | MAYO | MAYO(-r) |
| 6 | Acute pain (5) | SMART | DD |
| 10 | Sour tacos served up for the game (9) | AUTOCROSS | (Sour tacos)* |
| 11 | Weapon from gunnery essentially for protection (5) | APRON | weAPon fROm gunNery |
| 12 | Girl’s expertise includes Gents clothing (7) | GARMENT | G AR(MEN)T |
| 13 | Jade in a turquoise casing ,deposited by individual in front (7) | SATIATE | SAT I (in front) A T(urquois)E |
| 14 | Season some watermelons (4) | TERM | waTERMelons |
| 16 | Unknown initiate replaces individual in song medley (6) | JUNGLE | JINGLE – I + U(nknown) |
| 18 | Most miserable place?on the contrary, it’s beautiful (3) | LEH | HEL(l) << |
| 21 | Former President’s case dismissed?that’s suspect(3) | RUM | tRUMp |
| 22 | Guard’s diffident about working with Vice- President at first (6) | CONVOY | C(ON V)OY |
| 23 | Commercial artist retires this month (4) | ADAR | AD AR<< |
| 25 | Caretaker Jack’s article on bread’s getting reviewed(7) | JANITOR | J AN ITOR<< |
| 27 | Iron residue mainly found in digestive fluid causes burning(7) | FEBRILE | FE B( R) ILE |
| 29 | Ray Charles avoids Switzerland ,curiously (5) | LASER | ch ARLES* |
| 30 | Lost interest in a plain suit designed for important missionary (5,4) | SAINT PAUL | (A PLAIN SUIT -I)* |
| 31 | Study in silence, say (5) | PIECE | hp peace |
| 32 | This place is really popular to spend time (4) | SOHO | SO HOt |
| 33 | Demand blood report , evidently typed in seconds(4) | LEVY | Second letters of words |
| # | DOWN – CLUE | SOLUTION | ANNO. |
| 1 | Earl’s thug goes berserk, causing bloodshed (9) | SLAUGHTER | (Earls thug)* |
| 2 | Outfit in box moved right to the end (5) | CATER | CRATE ,R -> cater |
| 4 | Order given in March?(5-4) | ABOUT-TURN | CD |
| 5 | Love, just the same, can be a haven(5) | OASIS | O AS IS |
| 6 | Dog guards a duck and a weasel(3 ,5) | SEA OTTER | SE( A O)TTER |
| 7 | Sent by plane,the Reverend’s animal was in distress (9) | AIRMAILED | Spoonerism mare ailed |
| 8 | Bit of pain when wife leaves(5) | TINGE | T(-w)INGE |
| 9 | Group therapy expected to cure OCD – beginners taken up!(5) | OCTET | Reverse Acrostic |
| 15 | Recall organized crime to cover up misdeed at base (9) | REMINISCE | REMI(NIS<<)C* E |
| 17 | On vacation, persuaded husband to eat boiled food.Excellent- that shows sincerity (4,5) | GOOD FAITH | G{( OODF)* AI}T H |
| 19 | In the beginning, Hamlet or Macbeth perhaps, showcase extremely suggestive buffoonery (9) | HORSEPLAY | H OR (SE) PLAY |
| 20 | Cots without a scratch(4-4) | SCOT–FREE | RA Cots |
| 24 | Pacify a graduate, extremely tense (5) | ABATE | A BA TE |
| 25 | Drink juice (no ice)with a dash of liquor, enjoy prawn starters(5) | JULEP | JU(-ice) L E P |
| 26 | Removing cover,checks for hazards(5) | RISKS | (-f)RISKS |
| 28 | Setter’s time for reflection (5) | IMAGE | IM AGE |
Scorecard
| Participant(s) Name | Total | Grid Score | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aashwina | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Al Sanders | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Ashit Hegde | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| BINAY KUMAR PATRA | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| D NARAYANA SWAMY | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Dave Williams | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Deepak Gopinath | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Ganesh Nayak | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Irwin Appel | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Lakshmi Prakash | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Madhusudan H | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Mona Sogal | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Prakash Arumugam | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| R NAGENDRA PRASAD | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Ramki Krishnan | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Ratna Rao | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| RATNAKUMAR V | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| samit kallianpur | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| santha | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Shashwat | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Tejas Siddharth | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Venkatraghavan S | 165 | 158 | 7 |
| Krishnan Anantheswaran | 164 | 157 | 7 |
| Max Jackson | 164 | 157 | 7 |
| Priya Shyam | 164 | 157 | 7 |
| Dr S Venkatesh | 163 | 156 | 7 |
| Ian VanderSchee | 163 | 156 | 7 |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | 163 | 156 | 7 |
| Madhup Tewari | 163 | 156 | 7 |
| NARAYANAN R | 163 | 158 | 5 |
| Veera Raghavan | 161 | 158 | 3 |
| VENKATESAN P. | 161 | 158 | 3 |
| Kabir Firaque | 160 | 158 | 2 |
| Avtaar | 159 | 158 | 1 |
| Hawk | 158 | 158 | 0 |
| Himanshu Rajurkar | 158 | 157 | 1 |
| N Rengaswamy | 158 | 158 | 0 |
| Sparsh Sinha | 158 | 157 | 1 |
| Sree Sree | 158 | 158 | 0 |
| Usha Ramesh | 158 | 158 | 0 |
| Ranjani Srikanth | 157 | 157 | 0 |
| Gaurav | 156 | 156 | 0 |
| Sreelakshmi | 154 | 148 | 6 |
Congrats to the 25 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good score of 8.4. It got 11 perfect 10s (25% of those who rated). The lowest score was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top 3 clues were
- Ray Charles avoids Switzerland ,curiously (5) – 10 votes
- Former President’s case dismissed?that’s suspect (3) – 9 votes
- Most miserable place?on the contrary, it’s beautiful (3) – 8 votes
Thanks Mythical for a fun theme and an entertaining grid that was a pleasure to solve.
Here is what our solvers said…
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|
| Very Smooth, nothing too obscure, liked the theme but odd that there were only 10 themers given the title |
| Excellent Grid |
| Nice one |
| Smooth grid, theme, clues. 10/10 |
| Lovely puzzle, neatly hidden theme! |
| Excellent puzzle. For me, challenging but ultimately doable. (not sure all answers are correct) |
| Enjoyable crossie. Misspelt REMINISCE. |
| Beautiful arrangement of first ten theme words |
| Could not parse the title satisfactorily. Enjoyed the puzzle. |
| Great grid but could not get the theme |
| Excellent |
| Nice innovative grid |
| SUPER CROSSWORD AND THEME |
| Excellent. Very precise clue surfaces and a well hidden bonus |
| Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with many smooth clues! Difficult to choose only 3 favourites. Took a bit of “time” to spot the theme but the “dozen” helped 🙂 Nicely hidden in the answers. |
| Lovely clues, mostly great surfaces. Was a breeze, but a pleasure nevertheless |
| Nice puzzle. Excellent clues |
| The clues are interesting and some of them challenging, but the theme is difficult to get |
| Nice puzzle and was happy to see elements in wordplay and definitions that contrasted well from surface meaning. Good workout. In the bonus questions it is incorrect to say (as has also happened in other puzzles) ‘entries’ for part entries or sections from overlapping entries. I’m generally fine with cryptic references to make it interesting, but ‘entry’ has a specific meaning in crosswords and as such this makes it more misleading/confusing, than misdirecting, to try and interpret it otherwise |
| nICE tHEME |
| Fun theme, though got it with A Little Help From Friends 🙂 |
| NICE PUZZLE |
| Nice theme and good puzzle, enjoyed solving it. |
| Smooth and fair… cute theme |
| Delightful clues with an interestingly disguised theme |
| Nice grid! Smooth surfaces..very enjoyable! |
| Entertaining. .Word play for IMAGE could have been better. |
| Fun grid. Liked the theme |
| Nice theme. Some very entertaining clues. |
| Nice puzzle. Very nice clues. |
| CREATIVE THEME |
| Nice breezy puzzle. Not sure I got the theme. Cryptic grammar eg 25A could have been better. |
| Good |
| Nice clues! Enjoyed solving the grid. |
| From the perspective of a big novice – a fairly simple, straightforward and friendly puzzle! Most of the surfaces also seem to work quite well. I don’t know if I’m nitpicking – but the punctuations in the clue can be just a touch more refined (word, comma, then space). Thank you – this made me feel like I have the capacity to come close to finishing a crossword and the theme was good too! |
| Nice themed.took some time to get it. |
| Mixed bag of clues. |
| Fantastic themed grid. Enjoyable |
| Good |
| I couldn’t understand 7dn, but air-mailed seemed the only thing to fit, which didn’t help with the totally incomprehensible 18ac.It took some time to see the theme. |
| Some nice challenging clues – thank you! |
| Some decidedly iffy definitions; shame about the punctuation/spacing problems in the clues. Nice theme idea though |
| Enjoyed it. |