Take One for the Team
◆ · By ajk · Published 2024-05-27T04:00:27.675Z
Meta Prompt
The meta answer is a professional team
Happy Memorial Day
Many meta ideas come from frustrating dead-ends encountered while solving other puzzles. This one was instead inspired by the title of another puzzle, namely this one by Bird Lives. The similarities between the two end at the titles, so having solved that one won't spoil this. :)
Thanks to Wendy Walker for test solving, and to Abide both for test solving and wordsmithing a particularly significant clue. Thanks as always to Joe Ross for tech support.
I'm terrible at guessing difficulty, but I think this one is maybe middle-ish. Nudges Wednesday, solution on Sunday.
Hope you enjoy!
cheers,
Alan
cheers,
Alan
A small clarification about the structure of the puzzle: The puzzle provides explicit paths to both parts of the team name
Nudge 1: The title tells you to take one. One what? From where?
Nudge 2: There are seven clues with the word 'team' in them…
Nudge 3: And the 23D clue tells you that 'second place' is important
Nudge 4: OK, taking the second letter from each themer gets you half the team name. Where's the rest? What's left of the theme entries?
Nudge 5: Do any of those new words remind you of other clues?
Nudge 6: You need to look in a 'second place' to find matches for those new words.
Nudge 1: The title tells you to take one. One what? From where?
Nudge 2: There are seven clues with the word 'team' in them…
Nudge 3: And the 23D clue tells you that 'second place' is important
Nudge 4: OK, taking the second letter from each themer gets you half the team name. Where's the rest? What's left of the theme entries?
Nudge 5: Do any of those new words remind you of other clues?
Nudge 6: You need to look in a 'second place' to find matches for those new words.
Checking for previous play data...
1A
____ handed (as a hockey team facing a power play)
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Across
- 1A____ handed (as a hockey team facing a power play)
- 6ALock component
- 10AVessel for a crew team
- 14ACapital of Western Australia
- 15ARec. center not featured in a Village People song
- 16AHumorist Bombeck
- 17ALife aim, for some
- 19AClassify, in a way
- 20ALou Gehrig's disease, formally (and briefly)
- 21ATeam of skilled craftspeople, say
- 22ABallet position
- 23ARational
- 24ABridge a gap?
- 26AVisitors from outer space
- 27AWindow frame
- 31ABrief affection?
- 33AReady to go, as champagne
- 34ARoad trip game or '60s TV show
- 36AHammerin' ____ Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth's home run record
- 40AA year in Rome?
- 41AIt might be sung by a choir team
- 42AModern-day Persia
- 43ATroublemaker, frequently
- 44AGillette's contribution to crosswords
- 45AClean a surface, say
- 46ADrunk's shakes
- 48AViable at higher production levels, say
- 50ASucker
- 53ASet of fifty
- 55APython's Idle
- 56ASee 23-Down
- 58ATake a ____ (support a political team, say)
- 60A____ Beta Kappa
- 63AEncouraging lead-in
- 64ADisco Stu is probably a big fan of theirs
- 66ASecond largest branch of Islam
- 67AEat, formally
- 68AOld-school vibe
- 69ADestination for the Apollo 11 team
- 70AHit the ____
- 71AHalf-time team need perhaps
Down
- 1DAnimal welfare org.
- 2DMend
- 3DBruins great Bobby and kin
- 4DBrief directions?
- 5DBench players want to get in it
- 6DDental assistant
- 7DMissing, briefly
- 8DLoads
- 9DBuddy
- 10DWorld capital featured in some 2016 campaign materials
- 11DSpeechify
- 12DPlayground retort
- 13DSnatches
- 18DAncient mark (like Gandalf's G)
- 22DNocturnal flier
- 23DWith 56-Across, prize for a squad that lost in the 1986 playoffs (and a double step towards solving the meta)
- 25DWord orig.
- 27DCover, as with a precious metal
- 28DActress Hathaway
- 29DTrig function that sounds like a legal instruction
- 30DBygone Moscow bigwigs
- 32DFormer French President Jacques
- 35DGet some money down
- 37DRoughly three-quarters of Algerians
- 38DDefunct new-world soccer group that's almost a facial passage
- 39DBody part you might scrape in a fall
- 41DIt might get you backstage
- 45DSyllable skippers
- 47DEarly wk. day
- 49DFormer Education secretary Duncan
- 50DInvoluntary motion
- 51DTexter's caveat
- 52DPlace for an umbrella, perhaps
- 54D"I'm sick of flying across the ocean. Let's take ____ instead."
- 57DJames who starred with Marlon, Al, and that dude who played Fredo
- 59D____'clock news
- 60DThe other animal welfare org.
- 61DRoman hero of many labors (abbr.)
- 62DEmerged unscathed
- 64DImportant QB metric
- 65DPrefix for X, Y, and Z.