I construct crossword puzzles for fun in my free time. For the past few years, I've only made standard themed crossword puzzles. I recently got sucked into the world of meta puzzles. It's madness and fascination, challenge and inspiration all rolled up into a puzzle within a puzzle - i love it. I try to release a meta puzzle once a week.
I am posting my latest puzzle here on the Muggles forum in the hopes that my puzzles can reach a wider audience.
Hint #1: The three grid spanners have a part of their clue in brackets
Hint #2: The bracketed clues relate in some way to their respective entries... "numbers" from the title gets us thinking about numbers... can you match each answer to a number?
Hint #3: For example, the entry "par for the course" has the clue "PGA Masters"... when you google "PGA Masters par, you'll find that the par for the entire course is 72
Hint #4: Similarly do the same for "playing the field"... you can google how many players are on an American football or soccer team (use the number for one team on the playing field, not both teams combined), and for "why am I so unlucky?," googling "fear of Triscuits Friends" yields a very specific word
Hint #5: "So they say"... instead of first letter entry extraction, or first letter clue extraction, just say the entries aloud from the 3 relevant numbers you found... you may need to google for the correct spelling of the crossword constructor's name in case you are not familiar with this puzzle's dedicatee
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: Answer explanation: there are 11 players on an NFL or soccer team for PLAYINGTHEFIELD... triskaidekaphobia alluded to in the Triscuits clue is fear of the number 13 which is considered an unlucky number for WHYAMISOUNLUCKY... and PARFORTHECOURSE is 72 for the Masters golf tournament... Sound out the answers for 11D, 13A, 72A in order and we get the meta answer of MAT GAFFE KNEE = Matt Gaffney, the father of meta puzzles and a crossword constructor I admire and draw inspiration from. You can check out Matt's weekly crossword contest here: https://xwordcontest.com/
Why the oversized grid? That's so I can fit in a 72... The numbers I chose correspond to a date (so the title and the three grid-spanners are somewhat 'dating' related)... I thought it would be cute to string together 11/13/72 to wish Matt Gaffney a happy birthday!
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Last edited by pchow13 on Fri Apr 26, 2024 1:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Well done, Phil! I'll have to check out your back-catalogue when I get a chance.
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!
Welcome to the Muggles Forum, Phil! I've been enjoying your puzzles on Crosshare for a while now. Looking forward to more metas from you in the future.
