Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 172 of my contest. If you’re new to the contest and would like to enter, please see the site FAQ on the left sidebar for instructions.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Which of the 6 SIMPLE MACHINES was missing from last week’s puzzle? 376 solvers figured that meta-mystery out last week. Let’s take a look at the theme entries:

17-a PUSH OVER THE EDGE
22-a NATHAN LANE
34-a BRING TO HEEL
42-a HAVE YOU EVER
50-a MOTLEY CREW

See the pattern? The last word of each theme entry is one of the simple machines with its head lopped off: (W)EDGE, inclined (P)LANE, (W)HEEL and axle, (L)EVER, and (S)CREW. The only one missing is the PULLEY, making that our contest answer machine.

Zack Stiefler says:

Hanks or he reat uzzle his eek.

Joel Horn points out something you can do with the leftovers:

Shortest word with the letters you omitted (WPWLS) is snowplow, which
is a combination wedge/inclined plane.

Tyler Hinman thinks I could’ve snuck the sixth one in, too:

Oh, come on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulley

Charles Montpetit appreciated the geographical exactitude:

Since I only knew one of these South Yorkshire villages, I had no idea that it was part of a “familiar sextet.” But I have to marvel at the way you once again managed to approximate their respective locations in the grid. Kudos!

[Note: this is a complete joke! Please don’t go looking for any of these (except Ulley) in an atlas.]

And Mary Lou Perry writes:

So nice to see that 6 in the lower left – Henry Hook-esque, which, to me, is high praise!

To me, too! I’ll take it.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 376 correct entries received, is Jeff Merriman of Columbia, S.C. Jeff has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Gridlock.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a European capital I’ve never laid eyes on. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer capital in the subject line of your e-mail.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (1,571 members now!) here. To solve with friends at Team Crossword, click here.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.