Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 107 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:

297 solvers found the back of the net last week, unfooled by the following riddle:

THE INITIALS / OF WHAT QUARTET’S / NATIONS COMPRISE / SOMETHING PUT ON / A SOCCER BALL?

Was it LOGO? Or VOIT? Or FIFA? No, it was the more idiomatic SPIN, formed by the first letters of the four countries in contest answer GROUP F:

SLOVAKIA
PARAGUAY
ITALY
NEW ZEALAND

What about that Z in New Zealand — isn’t that an initial? Maybe. I’d’ve preferred to use a phrasing like THE FIRST LETTERS OF WHAT QUARTET’S NATIONS COMPRISE SOMETHING PUT ON A SOCCER BALL, but the letters didn’t work out.

I saw that some might interpret the riddle to include the Z, but three factors persuaded me to run with it anyway: 1) it’s really cool that the first letters of one of the World Cup groups spells something to do with soccer; 2) there were no other plausible guesses formed by the first letters of any other group’s nations, and 3) I could always accept the answer SPINZ! Though no one submitted it as their main answer, 17 did mention it in jest in their e-mails.

Submitting his correct answer a couple of hours after the deadline, Peter Washington writes:

I guess this is a late entry…um…stoppage time?

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 297 correct entries received, is Lee Sammons of Denver, Colo. Lee has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Sip & Solve Hard Crosswords.

TIP JAR HAUL:

Thanks very much to all who hit the tip jar. Still a couple of checks en route, but the grand total now stands at $2,875 from 112 tippers. This is about 50% higher than last year’s total, which is fantastic.

Couple of stats: 1) last year I received one $100 tip and five $50 tips; this year two $100 tips came in, along with 16 (!) $50 tips. 2) The average donation last year was $18.11; this year it was $25.67. So thanks again to all who chipped in.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a well-known term used in soccer. It can be formed by anagramming the letters in two of this puzzle’s entries. 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.

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 (1,244 members now!) here.

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