Sports Illustrated

Puzzles created by members of Xword-Muggles.com. Here you can post links to puzzles of any kind that you created - crosswords (meta or non-meta), cryptic, variety, word search, number puzzles, riddles, brainteasers and anything else.
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Meg
Posts: 2136
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:41 pm
Location: St. Petersburg, FL

#21

Post by Meg »

Finally!! I basically had to be hit over the head, but I got it!
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Beth Tyrpin
Posts: 512
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:11 pm

#22

Post by Beth Tyrpin »

Super hard until it isn’t. Love the theme entries.
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ChrisKochmanski
Posts: 2157
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:51 pm
Location: Saline, Michigan

#23

Post by ChrisKochmanski »

Meg wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:33 am Finally!! I basically had to be hit over the head, but I got it!
Same here! Took me three nudges until I finally saw it. And the strange thing is, the inklings of the idea had occurred to me a couple of days ago.

Brian, you shouldn't think of this puzzle as a dud. Maybe not an award winner, but certainly worthy. I enjoyed laboring over it all week!
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oldjudge
Posts: 1623
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:16 am
Location: Pasadena, CA

#24

Post by oldjudge »

I finally got it (I think). That’s a great job Brian! Confirmed solved.
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MajordomoTom
Posts: 1399
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#25

Post by MajordomoTom »

still (hic) on the boat, with Isaac.

sing with me ...

Everybody is Kung Fu fighting,
Your mind becomes fast as lightning
Although the future is a little bit frightening
(Little bit frightening)
It's the book of your life that you're writing
(Life that you're writing)
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Abide
Moderator
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:16 pm
Location: Biloxi
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#26

Post by Abide »

After about ten looks, I see the sports term that is illustrated. And yes, with a completely different mechanism this was very hard to see.

So what was the clue for 54-D in the original puzzle?
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—Brian MacDonald
Laura M
Posts: 1384
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:49 am

#27

Post by Laura M »

I thought I might have it, although the revised clue for 54D makes me think maybe not... (I don't feel a need to confirm, I'm happy to wait for the explanation.) I really liked the grid, and if the meta didn't quite work with my brain, that happens, it's generally the fault of my brain :-)
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Hector
Posts: 1297
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:15 pm
Location: San Francisco
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#28

Post by Hector »

The original 54D clue just said that this entry is not the meta answer. The revised one makes it clear that you should just ignore it despite its apparent relevance.
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BrianMac
Site Admin
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:45 pm
Location: Connecticut

#29

Post by BrianMac »

Solution and explanation below.

Each of the 4 theme entries is intended to be the literal "illustration" of a sports phrase:

FALSE STARTS begins too soon
INFIELD FLY "pops up" over the grid
BIRDIE PUTT has "one [letter] under"
OUT OF BOUNDS goes over the boundary

As I mentioned, this puzzle was originally not a meta, but a submission to the NY Times as a regular daily puzzle (probably Thursday). The extra letters spell FIST which appeared at 54-Down and was supposed to be the revealer. However, I had worked in a little "Easter egg" in the form of a fifth sports term that was intended to be self-illustrating: BULLSEYE, forming a ring around the central square. When I remembered this puzzle, I thought that FIST was a little too straightforward to be a meta on its own, but that BULLSEYE could work as the answer. What I did not account for that using the same mechanism for the four theme entries and then completely abandoning it for the meta would throw a lot of people for a loop. Al Sisti test solved this for me and pointed that out, but I still thought that the consistency of having different sports terms "illustrated" was enough to hold it together. What I should have done is been more thoughtful about the prompt and given better guidance there. One of the thing I'm finding challenging about constructing metas is really utting yourself in the solver's shoes - it's very hard to un-know how the meta works! I'm very grateful to Al for taking an advance look at these and helping me understand the solver's experience better.


Thanks to everyone who solved and gave feedback. I'm going to post another one later today that should be much clearer, but I am not going to attempt to predict the difficulty level! :)
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C=64
Posts: 684
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:29 pm
Location: PDX

#30

Post by C=64 »

Doing this puzzle the day after doing "Pieces of Eight" helped me see the fifth theme entry. 😀
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MarkL
Posts: 385
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:44 am
Location: Tampa Bay, FL

#31

Post by MarkL »

Well played!
'tis... A lovely day for a Guinness!
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