CISRA Puzzle Competition 2008 - Solutions

This is the archive of the 2008 Puzzle Competition. Please visit the current competition site for information about the latest Puzzle Competition.

A.3 Content Defect

First, solve the crossword.

ACROSS
2. Salivate messily (slaver)
3. Less sensitive, less feeling (number)
5. Boneless strip of flesh (fillet)
7. Pretend to say words without sound (mouth)
10. Miserly (stingy)
11. Head a team, walk ahead (lead)

DOWN
1. To complete, or vow (resolve)
4. More than one axis (axes)
6. Tightly spiralled or wrapped around (wound)
8. Tables with food people choose themselves (buffets)
9. Many times or instances (multiply)

The numbering of the clues within the crossword grid is not done in the standard way (increasing across rows and then down columns). This is a clue that the ordering of the clues is important to solving the puzzle.

Also, each word in the grid has two possible pronunciations, corresponding to two different meanings of the same spelling.

ACROSS
2. Salivate messily (slaver). A slaver is a person who deals in slaves.
3. Less sensitive, less feeling (number). A number is a collection of digits.
5. Boneless strip of flesh (fillet). To fillet is to remove the bones from.
7. Pretend to say words without sound (mouth). A mouth is used for eating.
10. Miserly (stingy). Something with a stingy would be stingy.
11. Head a team, walk ahead (lead). Lead is a dense metal.

DOWN
1. To complete, or vow (resolve). To solve something again is to resolve it.
4. More than one axis (axes). More than one axe would also be axes.
6. Tightly spiralled or wrapped around (wound). A wound is an injury.
8. Tables with food people choose themselves (buffets). The wind buffets objects.
9. Many times or instances (multiply). You multiply two numbers together.

Ordering the sounds that are different between the pronunciations by the clue number gives the following:

Clue	Crossword pronunciation	Alternate pronunciation	Sound 1	Sound 2
1	REZOLVE	RESOLVE	Z	S
2	SLAVER	SLAYVER	A	AY
3	NUMMER	NUMBER	{silent}	B
4	AXEES	AXES	EE	EH
5	FILLAY	FILLET	AY	ET
6	WOWND	WOOND	OW	OO
7	MOUTH	MOUTHH	hard TH	soft TH
8	BUFFAYS	BUFFETS	AY	ET
9	MULTIPLEE	MULTIPLIE	EE	IE
10	STIN-GEE	STING-EE	J	G
11	LEED	LED	EE	EH

The sounds reveal the answer: "s-ay-b-eh t-oo-thh t-ie-g-eh", so the answer is SABRETOOTHTIGER.