Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 349 times. 71 solvers had a go at it. 52 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms and 54 solvers submitted the puzzle. The remaining solved it partly. As many as 43 solvers got the full score.
May Flowers<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
Hidden in this puzzle lie five May bloomers. Four of these are mixed up in the circled letters and one is lurking in the clues. Can you find them all?
1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning compared her love to this red bloom
Ans: ROSE
2. Bright red bloom that symbolizes remembrance
Ans: POPPY
3. She loves me, she loves me not… this flower helps decide
Ans: DAISY
4. Its pastel color became its name
Ans: LILAC
5. Mexico’s national flower, named after a Swedish botanist
Ans: DAHLIA
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 5A | A bishop with extraordinary zeal is fiery (6) | BLAZED | A B ZEAL*, def=fiery, indicator=extraordinary |
| 7A | Distressed disheartened traipsed around Russian capital (8) | TROUBLED | T(ROUBLE)D, def=distressed, indicators=disheartened, around |
| 9A | Regular account kept unopened by editor (8) | ACCEPTED | AC (-K)EPT ED, def=regular, indicator=unopened |
| 10A | Hail indicator (6) | SHOWER | DD for SHOWER |
| 11A | Faraway sailor mailed distressed denim dungaree top (12) | ABSENTMINDED | AB SENT DENIM* D, def=faraway, indicators=distressed, top |
| 13A | Not the first mind he led for sure (6) | INDEED | (-M)IND (-H)E (-L)ED, def=for sure, indicator=not the first |
| 15A | Flinch from river with E. coli potentially (6) | RECOIL | R (E COLI)*, def=flinch, indicator=potentially |
| 18A | A military tip about equality (12) | IMPARTIALITY | (A MILITARY TIP)*, def=equality, indicator=about |
| 21A | Visits husband with Dahlia and Agatha say (6) | HAUNTS | H AUNTS, def=visits, P G Wodehouse reference for aunts |
| 22A | A liking initially strange often special over time (4 4) | SOFT SPOT | S-TRANGE OFT SP O T, def= a liking, indicator=initially |
| 23A | Retiring staff outwardly act it out for supremo (8) | DICTATOR | <<D(ACT IT)*OR, def=supremo, indicators=retiring, outwardly, out |
| 24A | Part of Korea’s only motive (6) | REASON | REASON (tele), def=motive, indicator=part of |
| 1D | Need key changes assuming an unassisted vision (5 3) | NAKED EYE | NEED KEY*<<A AN, def=unassisted vision, indicators=changes, assuming |
| 2D | Go away? Keep going on? (4 2) | BEAT IT | DD for BEAT IT |
| 3D | Think of disadvantages and ride anyhow (8) | CONSIDER | CONS RIDE*, def=think, indicator=anyhow |
| 4D | Graduate recalled on way to a foreign country (6) | ABROAD | <<BA ROAD, def=to a foreign country |
| 6D | A BBC One set receives King’s support (8) | BACKBONE | (A BBC ONE)*<< K(King), def=support, indicator=receives |
| 7D | Thought at first I’d book it it’s a treat (6) | TIDBIT | T(-HOUGHT) ID B IT, def=it’s a treat |
| 8D | Cuts edges away always (4) | EVER | (-S)EVER(-S), def=always, indicator=edges away |
| 12D | Very riotous extraordinarily brilliant (8) | VIRTUOSO | V RIOTOUS*, def=brilliant, indicator=extraordinarily |
| 14D | Drops and dies stops endless writhing (8) | DEPOSITS | {DIES STOP(-S)}*, def=drops, indicator=endless, writhing |
| 16D | Huge deficit in Cobalt and Aluminium (8) | COLOSSAL | CO(LOSS)AL, def=huge, indicator=in |
| 17D | It removes all traces of beer mat smears regularly (6) | ERASER | bEeR mAt SmEaRs, def=it removes all traces, indicator=regularly |
| 18D | Mixes gin sits inside beginning to enjoy Kindle (6) | IGNITE | GIN* (-S)IT(-S) E, def=kindle, indicator=mixes, inside, beginning to |
| 19D | Brief trendy style (6) | INFORM | IN FORM, def=brief |
| 20D | It’s a ritual helping to make a traditional Indian garment (4) | SARI | SARI (tele), def= a traditional Indian garment, indicator=helping to make |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 71 solvers, 52 completed fully and 43 got the full score. Each of the following scored 143 points (Grid Score – 138, Bonus – 5).
Al Sanders
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Kannabiran
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Binay Patra
Debasmita Basu
Gita Iyer
Harish T K
Ian VanderSchee
Irwin Appel
Jose A
Koteswar Rao
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H
Marie desJardins
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Paul Henderson
Priya Shyam
Ramesh Swaminathan
Ramki Krishnan
Ranjani Srikanth
Rathnakumar V
Ratna Rao
Rengaswamy N.
Samit Kallianpur
Sampath Srinivasan
Samraat Saxena
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sparsh Sinha
Tejas Siddharth
Veera Raghavan
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a solid rating of 8.46. It was rated a perfect 10 by 9 out of the 52 folks who voted (17%). The lowest rating was 7.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
-
-
- Visits husband with Dahlia and Agatha say (6) – 14 votes
- Go away? Keep going on? (4 2) – 10 votes
- Faraway sailor mailed distressed denim dungaree top (12) – 10 votes
-
Thanks Blue Jay. The grid was like a whiff of fresh air bringing so many blossoms our way. Enjoyed the smooth Sunday fare. After April Showers and May Flowers, wonder what your next grid for 1ACross is going to be..:)
Here’s what our solvers said about the puzzle.
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Gita Iyer | Easy |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Well designed and beautifully decorated with flowers. |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Beautiful flowery grid! |
| Rathnakumar V | nice grid |
| Veera Raghavan | Easy and elegant puzzle. Nice clues |
| Al Sanders | Nice, breezy puzzle, nothing too obscure, some great clues, fun theme. |
| Arun Hiregange | Very pleasant puzzle, was nice to solve the clues and especially the bonuses. |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | Nice puzzle, easy but good fun |
| Claire Clark | An enjoyable puzzle for this time of year with a good range of clue types. |
| Ian VanderSchee | Timely puzzle with a nice theme. Great clues with just the right level of challenge. |
| Irwin Appel | I enjoyed this one a lot! |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | This grid reminds me of Aromatherapy!!! |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Nice. Cute definitions. 10A got the wrong signal, had to work back. Clever. Interesting bonus. |
| Rengaswamy N. | Enjoyed solving. Less stress |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Enjoyed the puzzle! |
| Supriya Mithal | Excellent grid ,very enjoyable. Smooth ,elegant clues |
| Venkatesan P. | Nice grid. |
| Venkatraghavan S | Lovely puzzle |
| Debasmita Basu | Very nice grid, on the easier side. Enjoyable. |
| Koteswar Rao | NICE |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | Really nice puzzle and clue surfaces are all smooth and tell stories. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Very easy grid |
| Madhusudan H | Good one, apt for the month. |
| Narayana Swamy D | Good clues and nice theme for the month with lot of significance |
| Paul Henderson | Clues good and hard to pick a few standing slightly higher than the rest of a good set. Grid nearly in two halves – sometimes unavoidable, but I didn’t think the theme was so intricate as to justify the lack of interconnectedness. Surely it’s Burns whose love is like a red, red rose – I can’t find anything in EBB. |
| Ramki Krishnan | Very nice puzzle with well-structured clues. Interesting theme, easily solvable due to the additional hints in the bonus questions! |
| Samit Kallianpur | Good one with some nice clues! |
| Usha Dronamraju | Enjoyed solving the puzzle. |
| Arvind Kannabiran | was a nice fun puzzle. thanks. (ps: which poem of EBB were you asking about in bonus q 1? I can’t remember any specific flower mentioned by EBB, though Burns did compare his love to a red red rose. i got to rose by elimination 🙂 |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Simple and nice grid. |
| Ashit Hegde | Ok grid but should have been more challenging |
| Binay Patra | Enjoyable grid to solve. |
| Madhup Tewari | An easy puzzle but super fun. The clues are very well crafted with beautiful surfaces. |
| Max Jackson | A nice quick puzzle. Even the flowers didn’t take too much working out. |
| Mona Sogal | Smooth, easy grid |
| Narayanan R | simple and nice grid |
| Sampath Srinivasan | Colourful grid |
| Sparsh Sinha | Clean and crisp |
| Suresh Dorbala | Good one |