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The Family Woman<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid: 
The theme words are highlighted in the grid. While constructing the grid, I also took the chance to pay tribute to women by including a number of words that convey various roles / qualities / acts of women in the family and society. These were Guardian angel, divinity, engineer, player, hugs, encourages, emotional, serene, strong and admiration.
BONUS QUESTIONS:
- 5 of the themed entries (A) ANS: Any 5 of AUNT, SISTER, GRANDMA, NIECE, DAUGHTER and WIFE
- What message linked to International Women’s Day 2023 can be seen in the puzzle (6 words) ANS: – 1EMBRACE FAIRNESS IN EVERYTHING YOU DO (First letter acrostic from the clues)
Annotations
Editor & Co-ordinator: Qrypt on Y X
| # | Setter | First letter | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 1 A | Sabitha Satchi | E | Empty feelings surround afflicted Abel’s stories (6) | FABLES | F(able*)S |
| 4 A | Heidi Schroeder | M | Mobilises sergeant’s western contingent’s escape routes (8) | EGRESSES | Hidden in reverse |
| 9 A | Mona Sogal | B | Big Bro’s kid Elaine, initially visited French City (5) | NIECE | E inside Nice |
| 10 A | Amrita Majumdar | R | Runs into church ball missing date with boy (7,2) | CHANCES ON | CH +(-dANCE) S ON |
| 11 A | Santha Ramachandran | A | A module lacks one member of the family tree (4) | AUNT | A UN(-i)T |
| 12 A | Neelima Rai | C | Couple of bikers on road to Phoenix, say (4) | BIRD | BI RD |
| 13 A | Neha Bhandari | E | Exotic serums losing primarily millennial consumers (5) | USERS | SERU(-m)S* |
| 15 A | Lakshmi Vaidyanathan [1Across admin] | F | Family member’s recipe with man in Georgia (7) | GRANDMA | G{ R (AND) M} A |
| 16 A | Bharati Shankaran Hemmady | A | A local taken aback by mare from the Middle East (4) | ARAB | A RAB<< |
| 19 A | Viveca Bhatkal | I | Integral factor of an alliance essentially present in us (4) | WIFE | (-g) IF(-t) contained in WE. W(if)e |
| 20 A | Cherie Maharam | R | Reeling as Crimea, sympathetic at first, rebuffed United States (7) | AMERICA | ASCRIMEA* – s |
| 23 A | Rhiannon Vivian-Bolt | N | Noble gas brought about revolutionary art as a bonus (5) | EXTRA | XE<< ART* |
| 24 A | Debbie Manber Kupfer | E | Embraces beginnings of happy unions getting stronger (4) | HUGS | Acrostic |
| 25 A | Viveca Bhatkal | S | Spirit lacking ecstasy could be a heap of waste (4) | BING | B(-e)ing |
| 27 A | Melissa McSeismal | S | Send back to me a lion that’s trained and passionate (9) | EMOTIONAL | EMOT<< IONAL* |
| 28 A | Santha Ramachandran | I | Indian student participating in objection put-up (5) | BUILT | BU(I L)T |
| 29 A | Debasmita Basu | N | New reign—beginning of era—without disrupting plan? (8) | ENGINEER | (NEW REIGN E – W)* |
| 30 A | Aashwina Mouli | E | Early snaps after the first performance by Khatia Buniatishvili,say (6) | PLAYER | P EARLY* |
| 1 D | Sowmya Ramkumar [1Across admin] | V | Vigorous activity after a bit of Feni with Goan cocktail (8) | FANDANGO | F AND ANGO* |
| 2 D | Mona Sogal | E | Event celebrated every other year in Madrid? Well, nail biting! (8) | BIENNIAL | In Madrid well is Bien, NAIL* |
| 3 D | Aashwina Mouli | R | Retire vehicle backfiring continuously (4) | EVER | Hidden in Reverse |
| 5 D | Stella Zawistowski | Y | Your protector, regal gnu, cavorting around Roman goddess (8,5) | GUARDIAN ANGEL | REGAL GNU* containing DIANA |
| 6 D | Debbie Manber Kupfer | T | Trained ace surgeon gives a shot in the arm (10) | ENCOURAGES | ACESURGEON*. |
| 7 D | Neelima Rai | H | Hidden inside sleeves is terrible skin and blister (6) | SISTER | Telescopic, def: skin and blister |
| 8 D | Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | I | Is an establishment protecting the most rational (6) | SANEST | Hidden in Plain Sight |
| 10 D | Heidi Schroeder [1Across admin] | N | Negligent handling of chemical agent generates widespread concern (7,6) | CLIMATE CHANGE | chemicalagent* |
| 14 D | Neha Bhandari | G | Goofy art (maid originally inspired) obtains new appreciation (10) | ADMIRATION | (Art maid)* + I + O + N |
| 17 D | Rachel Playforth | Y | Your teachings inspired new ideological variations in dogma – leaders overturned theology (8) | DIVINITY | Reverse acrostic |
| 18 D | Supriya Mithal | O | Originally, Delhi authorities unveiled general handbook titled ‘Equal Rights for Girl Child'(8) | DAUGHTER | Acrostic |
| 21 D | Amrita Majumdar | U | Unperturbed teenagers shave head – not a good move! (6) | SERENE | TEENAGERS – t – a g)* |
| 22 D | Debasmita Basu | D | Durable thread, one replaced by cloth, essentially (6) | STRONG | STR(-i+O)NG |
| 26 D | Melissa McSeismal | O | Original brother found in rolling pasture (4) | ABEL | B inside LEA<<. &lit |
Here’s the list of the Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
All of the below got the full score of 168 (158 for the grid + 10 bonus points)
| Participant(s) Name |
|---|
| Aashwina Mouli |
| Arvind Kannabiran |
| Arvind Ramaswamy |
| Ashit Hegde |
| Col Deepak Gopinath |
| Lakshmi Prakash |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan |
| Lalitha Rathnakumar |
| Madhup Tewari |
| Madhusudan H |
| Max Jackson |
| Mona Sogal |
| N Anantakrishnan |
| Narayanan R |
| Nicholas Loader |
| Ramki Krishnan |
| Samit Kallianpur |
| Sandhya Paruchuri |
| Satyen Nabar |
| Supriya Mithal |
| Veera Raghavan |
| Venkatraghavan S |
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent score of 8.48. It got 12 perfect 10s (25% of those who rated). The lowest score was 5.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
- Heidi Schroeder: Negligent handling of chemical agent generates widespread concern (7,6) – 20 votes
- Supriya Mithal: Originally, Delhi authorities unveiled general handbook titled ‘Equal Rights for Girl Child’ (8) – 9 votes
- Sowmya Ramkumar: Vigorous activity after a bit of Feni with Goan cocktail (8) – 7 votes
- Amrita Majumdar: Runs into church ball missing date with boy (7,2) – 7 votes
- Mona Sogal: Event celebrated every other year in Madrid? Well, nail biting! (8) – 7 votes
- Debbie Manber Kupfer: Trained ace surgeon gives a shot in the arm (10) – 7 votes
- Neelima Rai: Hidden inside sleeves is terrible skin and blister (6) – 7 votes
It has become a tradition at 1Across to have a wonderful community grid celebrating women for every Women’s day. I am always amazed that although we are under-represented in cryptic crosswords, we still manage to have so many setters come together for this common cause. Thanks to each of the ladies who participated, to Qrypt on Y X who put this together despite a last minute medical emergency and to all the solvers for the encouraging feedback.
Here’s what our solvers said.
| Participant(s) Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|---|
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Unity in diversity. Beautifully fabricated. |
| Lalitha R | Absolutely fantastic, setters can be proud of their job. |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice theme & lovely message ! Lot of good clues. Happy Women’s Day ! |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Cheers to womanhood! Thank you for a good puzzle gals! |
| Krishnan Anantheswaran | Wonderful grid by the women of 1across, nicely themed with a lovely message. Well done! |
| Ratnakumar V | one the best puzzles, easy as well as GOOD , Hats off to all those involved.. |
| Mona Sogal | sweet and simple- made me happy 🙂 |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Nice themed grid on the occasion of International Women’s Day! |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Loved the grid |
| Supriya Mithal | Loved the grid,clues and message. Awonderful panel of setters for a worthy theme. |
| Veena Venkataraman | Lovely, smooth grid |
| R Nagendra Prasad | GOOD THEME |
| Meera | Lovely puzzle, enjoyed solving it! |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Nice simple and easy but good fun… loved the theme.. Congratulations to all the wonderful setters who collaborated to create this grid. |
| Nilesh Parmar | great tribute for Women’s Day |
| Tejas Siddharth | Easy overall, but some clues had very nice misdirection. Quite a few of the surfaces were exceptional! |
| Sparsh Sinha | Engaging |
| Samit Kallianpur | Thoroughly enjoyable grid, with a theme and message fit for the occasion! |
| PV Sivaram | A very appealing thematic puzzle -each clue, a different hue, seems to have subtle personal touch of an interesting and individualistic setter |
| Melissa McSeismal | Thanks for collating this community grid : ) |
| Max Jackson | Interesting if predictable theme. I nearly missed the clue initial letters. |
| Satyen Nabar | Nice and easy puzzle, clues and theme. Thanks for the grand effort, ladies! Especially liked clues for SERENE, SISTER, ENCOURAGES and all the long ones. Also, setting clues with first letter fixed is challenging. so kudos!A couple of things that I felt did not work. 1) Clue for WIFE: Us is not equivalent to We. Us is an object pronoun; We is a subject pronoun. I cannot think of a sentence where they can be used interchangeably. Also present= gift and then to take ‘if’ from that (essentially) is perhaps a tad indirect 2) Clue for ABEL. Can never accept what they call ‘doing double duty’ in clues. And here B from original brother (or brother if it has been intended as abbrev) is on double duty as part of defn and wordplay. I feel this should be avoided. Nor does the whole clue work as &lit. But of course, these are minor quibbles and others may have completely different opinions. Thanks again for the puzzle and a great time indeed. |
| Binay Kumar Patra | Phenomenal expression of cruciverbal oeuvre from a topical point of view 😍 |
| Veera Raghavan | Good clueing. Fairly easy. |
| Avtaar | Nice and smooth. Great theme. A surfeit of anagrams, acrostics and telescopes I thought. Maybe due to different setters collaborating ? |
| Arvind Kannabiran | fun puzzle. happy women’s day! |
| N Anantakrishnan | Nice |
| Amrita Majumdar | A very enjoyable grid 🙂 |
| Ramki Krishnan | Nice and fairly easy grid – could not fully anno one of the clues, and I thought I spotted 6 theme words, not 5. Kudos to the setters who put it together – and Happy Women’s Day! |
| Venkatraghavan S | Lovely grid. Shout out to all the women in this world, and especially to the ones in the cryptic crossword community. Pleasure knowing you all |
| Ashit Hegde | A mixed set of clues (understandable in a community grid and with the constraints imposed by the bonus puzzles) . A Fun grid nevertheless and a great effort. |
| Nicholas Loader | Egresses was brilliantly hidden but needs more than western to indicate reversal imo, same for backfiring for ever. Also not a fan of wp by def in PLAYER or biting as an anagrind. A number of surfaces needed a bit of work and overall it was a bit too easy, especially the bonus. Still, there are many excellent clues and the bonus has been masterfully constructed. Thank you to women everywhere for all your hard work ❤ |
| D Narayana Swamy | Not a difficult grid … |
Other Comments (names withheld)
| Comments / Feedback on the puzzle – Please provide specific com |
|---|
| Great grid and message |
| Wonderful crossie from the empowered women. 19 Across was hard to crack. |
| enjoyable puzzle |
| Super team effort by the women |
| Enjoyed solving |
| A nice variety, thanks for bringing this together! |
| Great balance of easy and tough clues. Loved solving it! |
| Excellent Grid |
| Just the right amount of challenge |
| A very fun puzzle. Beautiful clues as well. |
| Topical grid with a good mix of easy and tricky clues. Bonus question was cleverly crafted. Great teamwork and happy womens’ day ! |
| Nice |
| FITTING GRID FOR THE OCCASION |
| grid not nice |