MEOW #19: She's Got Game

A weekly meta crossword on the forum started by member Josh (aka madhatter5). These puzzles are often very creative with solving mechanisms out of the norm and skewing towards the more challenging. Puzzles are posted every Wednesday, and the solution appears the following Tuesday.
FKelly
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#21

Post by FKelly »

The kitty is out of the bag and appears to be hungry.

Image

Nice kitty kitty.

Not sure I understand 71-D or 86-A, but they don't seem to affect the answer.
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Cinny
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#22

Post by Cinny »

Cat is out of the bag! Very enjoyable puzzle!!
Cindy Heisler
dudeski
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#23

Post by dudeski »

Well done. Witty clueing. Cat is out of the bag.
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HeadinHome
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#24

Post by HeadinHome »

Submitted and assume the cat is roaming free.

Found this challenging but doable and rewarding, just like I like them. Answer is one of my favorites!

Someone explain 2D for me .. apparently I’m missing something.

UPDATE: Yes I solved correctly, and thanks for the several explanations of 2D. Doh!
The other Wendy. :roll:
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Bird Lives
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#25

Post by Bird Lives »

Cat.jpg
.
The cat's is just enough out of the bag to see the answer but no further.
I knew what the answer had to be. It was like Josh's Braille puzzle -- ingenious but with a prompt (blind poet) and structure (six things each leading to a letter) that limited the choices. Not too many 6-letter blind poets wandering around.
But I still haven't discovered the mechanism that has brought enjoyment to the real solvers.
Jay
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BrennerTJ
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#26

Post by BrennerTJ »

Awaiting confirmation but confident that the cat is free to inspect the perimeter now - once put on the right track, baseline knowledge was good for 50%, google machine for the other half. :)
-Tamara
madhatter5
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#27

Post by madhatter5 »

Nudge Saturday!

There are six sports-related across entries in the grids. Each one will correspond to a letter of the final answer.

There are also some names in the grid. Only women's names matter.

For the final step, you may need to do a bit of Googling to find what you need to apply the parenthetical numbers.
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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Bird Lives
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#28

Post by Bird Lives »

I got the answer right off the bat just from the title but could not find the mechanism.
I got the mechanism this morning thanks to a slight nudge, before I saw MadHatter's.
It's embarrassing how much Googling I had to do because of my ignorance.
I'm pleased that MadHatter has changed his signature line from odious to Ozzie.
Last edited by Bird Lives on Sat Apr 10, 2021 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jay
madhatter5
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#29

Post by madhatter5 »

Bird Lives wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 2:21 pm I got the answer right off the bat just from the title but ould not find the mechanism.
I got the mechanism this morning thanks to a slight nudge, before I saw MadHatter's.
It's embarrassing how much Googling I had to do because of my ignorance.
I'm pleased that MadHatter has changed his signature line from odious to Ozzie.
Oh come now, DrTom isn't all that bad ;)
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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ReB
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#30

Post by ReB »

Okay, got it with the nudges, but needed all three to get me on the correct track.
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lbray53
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#31

Post by lbray53 »

Solved. Great puzzle. Some nice symmetry.

I needed the first two spoilers to get there.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
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cbarbee002
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#32

Post by cbarbee002 »

The second spoiler did it for me. Always obvious in hindsight! Another clever one - - well done Josh and Old Judge!
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madhatter5
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#33

Post by madhatter5 »

Solution:


Six sports-related entries in the grid:

SANDTRAP

FLIPTURN

BANKSHOT

FLOORMAT

FINALLAP

GOALKICK



What was harder to spot were the six women's names crossing these entries:


SANDTRAP -> ANNIKA

FLIPTURN -> KATIE

BANKSHOT -> DIANA

FLOORMAT -> SIMONE

FINALLAP -> JACKIE

GOALKICK -> MIA



Each of these names corresponds to a woman athlete who is famous in that sport:

ANNIKA SOREN(S)TAM

KATIE L(E)DECKY

DIANA TAU(R)ASI

SIMONE BIL(E)S

JACKIE JOY(N)ER-KERSEE

MIA H(A)MM



Applying the appropriate parenthetical index to these surnames we spell out SERENA, which is the answer.
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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