CISRA Puzzle Competition 2012 - Solutions

2A. Relation

Each clue in the main grid is formed by references to other clues. There are a few ways to get started; noticing that many clues relate to colours or numbers can help. A few of the clues are cryptic; these are indicated by an exclamation mark. Some of the clued words have variant spellings - these are intended to be treated casually, rather than strictly.

A further feature that emerges from the main grid is that each row forms the name of a band. This provides additional constraints that narrow down the answer possibilities. The main grid can be completed as follows:

^A1PINK ^A2FLOYD

^B1WHITE ^B2STRIPES

^C1BEACH ^C2BOYS

^D1ACE ^D2OF ^D3BASE

^E1RADIO ^E2HEAD

^F1MEAT ^F2LOAF

^G1GOOD ^G2CHARLOTTE

^H1THREE ^H2DOORS ^H3DOWN

^I1BLACK ^I2SABBATH

^J1CHEAP ^J2TRICK

^K1DEF ^K2LEPPARD

^L1SIMPLY ^L2RED

^M1COLOR ^M2ME ^M3BADD

^N1GREEN ^N2DAY

^O1ONE ^O2DIRECTION

^P1NICKEL ^P2BACK

^Q1SPIDER ^Q1BAIT

^R1MAROON ^R2FIVE

^S1NINE ^S2INCH ^S3NAILS

^T1PEARL ^T2JAM

^U1SALT ^U2N ^U3PEPA

^V1MATCHBOX ^V2TWENTY

^W1SWITCH ^W2FOOT

^X1SCISSOR ^X2SISTERS

^Y1KING ^Y2CRIMSON

^Z1FIFTY ^Z2CENT

The secondary grid can now be filled in:

You can be MAROONed here. It's ONE OF FIVE such places – this one's always BLACK

ME'll be BACK (. . . . . . . . . DAY)

HEADed by one loosely meaning GOOD (Known for "SABBATH CRIMSON SABBATH", amongst others)

C THREE x (THREE + ONE) H TWENTY - THREE N FIVE - ONE O S

Had a BASE in CHARLOTTE (MATCHBOX likenesses are around FIFTY times smaller)

The answers to these clues are, in order:

L2: The second of five Lagrangian points – points of net-zero gravity with respect to the Earth and Sun, making it possible to be marooned there permanently. L2 is hidden from the Sun by the Earth.
T2: The clue is a grammatically munged version of the quote "I'll be back", from the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
U2: The band U2, headed by Bono, known for the song Sunday Bloody Sunday (indicated by the synonyms "sabbath crimson sabbath").
B1: C₁₂H₁₇N₄OS, which is vitamin B1.
F1: The only Formula 1 team outside of Europe was based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Matchbox cars are in the order of magnitude of 1:50 scale models.

These answers are all references back to cells in the grid. Taking the grid answer at each reference, we get:

RED JAM N WHITE MEAT

Cranberry sauce is a red jam-like sauce that is popular to serve with turkey, a white meat. The answer to the puzzle is THE CRANBERRIES – another well-known band. We also accepted CRANBERRIES.

(The third puzzle hint refers to the fact that the Cranberries have toured Turkey on two occasions: In November 2002 and July 2010.)