XWord Muggles Forum

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I've never heard of Three on a Match.

FrancesY wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:06 am No way! I was sure it was Three on a Match. 15A and 61A suggest One, Tue, Three.

“Three on a match” does not fit the theme: “”, “”, and “”.

There were three starred answers with references to tennis royalty:
STAN Smith
ARThur Ashe
MO Connolly

Also in a clue:
Steffi GRAF

I saw the tennis clue at 8 A (game) and Legos 48 D (set) as a sort of confirmation. Who knows? Just glad I got itl

Oh dear. I went for “Match in five sets” because I did not see any reference to a game but saw “lobber” and had five sets of group answers. And I was watching the Barcelona Open to boot! Lesson learned. I shouldn’t be so literal. Congrats to the winners!

The problem I had with Game, Set and Match was that while it fit the A, B and (implied)C, there was no way to link Game and Set into the grid. So you are left to grab at straws and know the term Game, Set and Match. I thought that the linkage to Lobber was weak at best. Forcing the fit could be construed as linking to the answer to 20A "willing" for Game and for Set you could force 33A as Style fancily but again that is weak at best.

One other option was Three on a Match as noted. But you could not link that back to the grid or clues any better. (the term comes from WWI where three soldiers lighting cigarettes' from the same match gave a sniper time to aim at the light).

A third option was That Is A Match which links to the grid better since "That Is" is the answer to 64A. And we have 15A as Quarter of Four with the answer "one" and you apply that to 39D which is "AAAA" (an unheard of size for a battery especially in crossworddom) so 1/4 of AAAA is A for the completion of That Is A Match. The only problem with this answer is it does not fit the format.

I'm on the "3 on a Match" train. Each answer to the clue consisted of 3 components. I felt that this answer was closer to the prompt than Game, Set and Match,

Pembroke wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:16 am There were answers with references to tennis royalty:
STAN Smith
ARThur Ashe
MO Connolly

Also in a clue:
Steffi GRAF

But if you get into names, there were 14 names in the grid so the name link was not exactly limiting.

I thought the solution was fairly straightforward - I would have been 100% if "GAME" and "SET" were also in the grid, but I couldn't think of any other phrase fitting the format that had "MATCH" being "the other thing"

8A LOBBER helped confirm

Commodore wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 9:30 am Aye, still asea. Deep in the hold, too. Weekend work on this n' that.
One of these is the old joist and one is the new. I think.
IMG_2527.jpeg

It rains on the joist and the unjoist.

I was wrong. I didn't know the rule (is it a rule?) that the answer had to idiomatically follow the title. I thought that getting to the alternative answers and finding MATCH satisfied the directions. I stared at MATCH for a while. looked around, then saw Peter as the first part of the first alternative answer, and jumped right to Match Made in Heaven.

Feeling a bit unsatisfied. I don't see what was supposed to direct me to LOBBER to get the tennis theme. Maybe if I had somehow realized that MATCH was the last part of the expression, then, I dunno, maybe.

Another "3 on a Match" submitter. I got "match" from the mechanism -- no doubt there -- I then thought "3 on a Match" could be the answer due to the 3 components but I wasn't 100% sure of this answer. But if I had thought of "Game, Set, and Match" I would have doubts about that answer as well because the rationale seems just as nebulous. None of these possibilities has that "aha, penny drop" moment. I'm putting this meta in my "not a fan" category.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:26 am
The problem I had with Game, Set and Match was that while it fit the A, B and (implied)C, there was no way to link Game and Set into the grid. So you are left to grab at straws and know the term Game, Set and Match. I thought that the linkage to Lobber was weak at best. Forcing the fit could be construed as linking to the answer to 20A "willing" for Game and for Set you could force 33A as Style fancily but again that is weak at best.

What Bob said.
I was actually on the beach since Saturday, and I didn’t even realize it. I submitted the correct answer as a Hail Mary right before the deadline. The A and the B part of each of the themers was found in the grid. The C part of each was implied. The A and B parts of the answer (GAME and SET) are not in the grid, which would have followed the pattern. Even the PDF of Monday’s puzzle gives a less than satisfying explanation of the contest answer.
All correct solvers deserve a mug on this one.

anaerobe wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 8:38 pm Many years ago while changing a particularly rude diaper on my youngest, inspiration struck. My two older girls (prob age 6 and 8) were in the room to hear it but unfortunately, none of us wrote it down. To this very day, the only part any of us remember is the third line: quick light a candle!

I assume you submitted "Who's got a match?"

Interesting discussion. As soon as we saw “match,” game set and match seemed the only possible answer. Not seeing game and set in the grid did make me nervous, so I came here to see what others were saying. Then finding that there were other possible answers sent me on a hunt for other types of x, y, and z phrases but I couldn’t find any.

Ultimately decided that if game and set had been in the grid, people immediately would have been able to guess game set and match without going through the fun discovery of the other x y and zs.

Hats off to those who noticed LOBBER and the other tennis connections!!

Fans of the Oxford comma are very disappointed in the final answer.

Game, set and match was the only answer that satisfied the theme symmetry.

The A, B and C syntax was established by the title and the five asterisked clues which all required providing the missing word C. As in many other metas, we had to work backwards from the spelled out word, MATCH in this case and solve A and B.

Quite elegant despite lacking the smoking gun IMHO.


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Homer Buckle wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:52 am Fans of the Oxford comma are very disappointed in the final answer.

I actually thought about that (!) and decided to submit my answer with the Oxford comma, although I don't usually use one. Do you think it will disqualify me?

Per Wiktionary, the term is Game, Set, Match. An alternate form uses the "and".