XWord Muggles Forum

Maltby returns with a another twist. This time side-by-side identical grids with one set of clues. There are the usual unclued entries while the rest of the clues are both clues combined into one phrase. Up to the solver to figure out how to break the clue into the individual clues.

As usual, challenging to start, but once the theme (and the unclued entries) are figured out, the rest crumbles pretty quickly.

Once one bit of wordplay I am uncertain about, but confident on the rest.

I enjoyed this one - like I do all Maltbys, I s'pose - once I got my bearings and stopped stumbling around.

My experience exactly. Casting about madly for a while. Then a foothold. Then a dash to the finish. Always fun!

Finally got a foothold after a couple of days and have made good progress, but not finished, yet. Just looked again and see that I missed the 8A reference in the instructions, which explains why my 1D doesn't work on the right hand grid. Need to reprint and start over with the entries. I imagine I will be able to finish quickly after doing that.

Sure enough, when I got the two 8As in the right order, it was pretty smooth sailing to finish (after spending a few days parsing the various clues).

I got it all filled in except for one letter -- of course it's an unchecked letter. Can anybody help me with 5 Down -- the 5 down on the left?

norrin2 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:55 pm I got it all filled in except for one letter -- of course it's an unchecked letter. Can anybody help me with 5 Down -- the 5 down on the left?

I finally settled on "rota" for that one after finding as a definition "a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job".
Don't know if that's what they were going for, but that's what I entered.

SewYoung wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:54 pm

norrin2 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:55 pm I got it all filled in except for one letter -- of course it's an unchecked letter. Can anybody help me with 5 Down -- the 5 down on the left?

I finally settled on "rota" for that one after finding as a definition "a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job".
Don't know if that's what they were going for, but that's what I entered.

Thanks. It doesn't "click" as firmly as I'd like but I guess I'll go with it.

norrin2 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:17 am

SewYoung wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:54 pm

norrin2 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:55 pm I got it all filled in except for one letter -- of course it's an unchecked letter. Can anybody help me with 5 Down -- the 5 down on the left?

I finally settled on "rota" for that one after finding as a definition "a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job".
Don't know if that's what they were going for, but that's what I entered.

Thanks. It doesn't "click" as firmly as I'd like but I guess I'll go with it.

Me too. I wasn't crazy about it, but couldn't come up with anything else.

You get to ROTA through the wordplay. “Up” indicates a reversal, and “a height” leads you to “a tor”—tor being a rocky peak.
Really enjoyed this one. As so many of Maltby’s puzzles have, this one challenged me early to the point where I thought I might have a DNF hung on me. But I’d leave and come back, leave and come back, and finally worked out an unclued pair. That unlocked the grids, but I still muddled through to the end. It didn’t help that I initially had 23A right, chest contents, as RICEBAGS!