Episode #351: A Sporting Chance

[bcimmet]

There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 2.1 bananas on a scale of 5 bananas. (Bananas has nothing to do with the puzzle, it's just a 1-to-5 scale we made up.)

The puzzle is called "A Sporting Chance" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is the two word name of a player's position in a popular American sport. (You don't need to be a sports fan to solve the crossword, but you may need a little Googling to confirm the meta answer.)

The crossword can be downloaded from here. You're welcome to solve and talk about the puzzle -- but if you want to be eligible for a prize, you have to listen to the podcast for this week's password. The podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, our own website, or wherever you collect your podcasts.

Once you've solved the puzzle, submit your answer and this week's password by email to fmi@bemoresmarter.com. You can also contact us with any suggestions, questions, comments, or ideas. Thanks for playing along!

[BarbaraK]

(You don't need to be a sports fan to solve the crossword, but you may need a little Googling to confirm the meta answer.)

As a non sports fan, I can confirm this is true.

Fun puzzle. Banana is split. Looking forward to the podcast.

[benchen71]

Banana is peeled. Nice one!

[Schmeel]

Banana's peeled.
Good puzzle!

[boharr]

I did peel the banana and enjoyed the journey.

[SJMcK]

Banana’d!

[whimsy]

Very appealing!

[MMe]

Enjoyed this, thank you, except that COUCH POTATO just won't fit for some reason

[lbray53]

Banana peeled.

[DrTom]

The banana has been creamed, I hit it with exactly Pi (to 14 decimals) amount of force - what a treat, a banana creamed Pi!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Peeled!

[oldjudge]

Just found this puzzle about 15 minutes ago. Luckily it was a quick solve.

[Abide]

Just under the wire. Very solid construction by the unpublished Mr. Cimmet.

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers,

The solution to this contest was OUTSIDE LINEBACKER.

There were ten entries in the grid that looked like normal crossword entries on the surface, but in actuality, they needed to extend beyond the confines of the grid in order to match their clues. Clockwise around the grid:

• 5D Slow, musically: LARGO
• 8D Pupils' places: IRISES
• 12D Not as old: NEWER
• 38A Singer's limits: RANGE
• 53A Bit of writing on a book jacket: BLURB
• 61D Theatrical production: DRAMA
• 52D Unit of distance (not time) which Han Solo uses to measure his record-setting Kessel Run: PARSEC
• 58D Wallop: SPANK
• 43A Furnish: EQUIP
• 24A Noodle soup: RAMEN

While a LINEBACKER is a position, the prompt asked for a two-word name. And since these letters are all OUTSIDE the grid, that's the intended answer -- OUTSIDE LINEBACKER.

Thanks for playing! There's another contest puzzle and another post in the forum for it. I hope you give it a try!

[BarbaraK]

Uh oh! My non-sports-fanness did me in after all.

I thought “line backer” was the two word answer.

Fun and clever puzzle anyway. Very elegant that the theme entries were legit words even without their outside letter.