"Round Five" February 23, 2024

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is ARCHERY. The five theme answers are circular objects associated with a certain color: a PAPER PLATE is typically white, a HOCKEY PUCK is black, a TWO-BALL in pool is blue, PLANET MARS is red and a LEMON SLICE is yellow. Going from largest to smallest (as suggested by the first and last theme clues), these circles, laid concentrically, form an archery target.

This was another tricky one! We had 848 entries, with about 63% on the bullseye, below our usual level around 45%. Other guesses included GOLF (34, plus another 14 for DISC GOLF or FRISBEE GOLF), RUGBY (20, any ideas why?), PENTATHLON (19), RINGS (18), GYMNASTICS (6) and TABLE TENNIS (5).

Congrats to this week's winner, Tyler Hinman of San Francisco (fittingly for this contest, an Olympic-level crossword champion himself).

[LadyBird]

RUGBY (20, any ideas why?),

That was one of my potential Hail Mary's--mainly because it had 5 letters (to go with the 5 themers).

[The XWord Rabbit]

Mr. Rabbit,

First of all thank you for your invaluable service on these pages. I have yet to compliment you on your lifting our spirits when we go astray.

Having said that, where oh where is the love for THE absolute best take on Robin Hood -- "Men in Tights"? The debut of Dave Chappelle amongst a star studded cast! Isaac Hayes playing his dear ol' dad and Sir Patrick Stewart as good King Richard!

Tom, your Rabbit greatly appreciates the compliment.
Secondly, "Men in Tights" was #12 on the list.
It deserves a higher ranking in my opinion, but that's just me.

[chatger]

RUGBY (20, any ideas why?),

That was one of my potential Hail Mary's--mainly because it had 5 letters (to go with the 5 themers).

Same here. The 5 Olympic rings are R - red; ? - black/blue, G - green; B - blue/black; Y - yellow = R?GBY, but the largest-smallest did not make sense. A stretch that the White paper place starts with "double U"... anyway... a bit of a rabbit hole. Then A-HA happened...

[BarbaraK]

RUGBY (20, any ideas why?)

There were pretty clearly 5 theme entries, and on the list I found, rugby was the only 5 letter sport.

[CCubed]

I submitted SKEET and although I know you don’t shoot at a paper target in skeet shooting, it was the only shooting event I could find within the crossword and being new to this I have never seen an answer to a contest that wasn’t spelled out somewhere within the puzzle. I understood the ring colors for the target… considered ARCHERY, but could not find it in the puzzle in any logical order, but I did find SKEET. See image. This was so frustrating. Couldn’t the answer been SHOOTING as well? They use the same pattern target, I thought. Plus the two ball being in the middle of the puzzle I thought it was plausible to use the first letter of that clue and the last letters of the others. Oh well. Oh, and how do you get on the zoom call, when is it? Thanks!

[KayW]

@CCubed - @ship4u to the rescue4u:

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