Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 106 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:

It got easier after May-hem, eh? A healthy 271 solvers noticed that the last words of last week’s six theme entries were STRATEGO pieces, making that board game the correct contest answer. Solution at left; the six pieces are SCOUT, FLAG, BOMB, MINER, SPY and MAJOR.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 271 correct entries received, is Joe Sampson of New Hampton, N.H. Joe has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Sip & Solve Hard Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Everyone else is writing crosswords about it, and here’s my contribution: this week’s contest answer is one of the eight groups in the 2010 World Cup. Click here for a list of the eight groups, each of which consists of four countries. E-mail your answer to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer in the subject line of your e-mail. NOTE: please phrase your answer simply as “GROUP A” or “GROUP B” or whichever group you think the answer is; you don’t need to list the four countries in the group.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite download the free software here, then join the Google Group (1,233 members now!) here.

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