“Fair & Loverly” by Aquifer was our fifth grid for 2026

Stats: 60 solvers attempted this puzzle.  45 solvers managed to complete the puzzle and 44 completed the bonus forms as well. As many as 21 solvers got the full score.

Try the puzzle here (Annotations will be visible on solving the puzzle or on clicking “Reveal Grid”)

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Here’s the solution grid (Click on the triangle to see it)

Bonus Questions: 1. Which person, indicated by the title, is associated with 10 of the entries?

Ans

Audrey Hepburn

2. A themed entry of 4 letters

Ans

RIMA (Hepburn’s character in Green Mansions)

3. A themed entry of 6 letters

Ans

ALWAYS (Her final film)

4. A 10-letter themed entry that isn’t a movie title

Ans

MAID MARIAN (Her role in Robin and Marian)

5. Any one of two 7-letter themed entries

Ans

CHARADE or SABRINA

Note from Aquifer: The 10 themed entries are THE NUN’S STORY, MAID MARIAN (from Robin and Marian), CHARADE, ALWAYS, HOLLY GOLIGHTLY (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s), ROMAN HOLIDAY, MY FAIR LADY, SABRINA, SECRET PEOPLE (a British film before Hepburn’s Hollywood debut), RIMA (from Green Mansions)

Logged in solvers can check their submission Here:

Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)

Logged in users can also view their submissions in this page.

Out of 60 solvers,  45 completed and submitted the grid and 44 also completed the bonus forms, of which 21 got the full score.

Each of the following scored 135 points (Grid Score – 130,  Bonus – 5).

Amita Annette Joseph
Arun Hiregange
Ashit Hegde
Ian J VanderSchee
Jacob Brahmakulam
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi A J Vaidyanathan
Lakshmi Prakash
Mona Sogal
NARAYANAN R
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Ramki Krishnan
Ratna Rao
Ratnakumar V
Samit Kallianpur
Samraat Saxena
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sparsh Sinha
Supriya Mithal
Venkatraghavan S

Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a great rating of 8.7. It was rated a perfect 10 by 10 out of the 46 folks who voted (23%). The lowest rating was 5.

Favourite Clues: 

The Top clues were

1. 25A Heading off to Doha, Marilyn shot this love story (5, 7) – 12 votes /li>
2. 18D Lifted pistol endangers crowds (6) – 12 votes /li>
3. 5A Heston turns around Wyler\’s second work on Christianity (3, 4, 5) – 11 votes /li>
4. 23A Old Pakistan President cribs about leaders of my bigger country (6) – 7 votes /li>
5. 14D & 19A Capote protagonist, lol, got highly drunk with lady on vacation – 7 votes (5, 9)/li>
6. 3D Small fuss over a drink (4) – 7 votes/li>
7. 19D English poet beginning to recite lines in high spirits – 7 votes (4)

Thanks Aquifer for a well packed puzzle with oodles of nostalgia from Hollywood of yesteryears. We really enjoyed taking another look at some of these classics. Looking forward to more from you.

PS: The solvers comments are in the comments thread in the post itself.