LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Tricky Week 5 meta from Dave Sullivan last week, including an intentional red herring to weed out Those Who Hadn’t Fully Grokked.

The four obvious theme entries were:

18-a [Sleep, metaphorically] = LAND OF NOD

30-a [Cheated on or lied to] = SINNED AGAINST

47-a [Cubic zirconia, for one] = ARTIFICIAL GEM

61-a [Scout leader] = DEN MOTHER

First thing to notice is that each entry includes a word that reverses to a common first name: NOD = Don, SINNED = Dennis, GEM = Meg, and DEN = Ned.

Next thing to catch is that each of the theme entries crosses an entry whose clue includes the surname of a famous person with that first name. For example, we find Dennis Hopper’s surname in the clue to HARE [Fable hopper], which crosses SINNED AGAINST.

Similarly we have the clue for LAOS [Ho Chi Minh Trail locale] crossing LAND OF NOD, yielding Hawaiian fave Don Ho; the clue for O’NEAL [Ryan of “Love Story”] crossing ARTIFICIAL GEM, yielding actress Meg Ryan; and the clue for POEM [“In Flanders Fields,” for one] crossing DEN MOTHER, yielding “Simpsons” neighbor Ned Flanders.

Instructions asked for the two grid entries that, when combined, would make an excellent fifth theme entry, and TAX LIEN at 11-across and 3-down does the trick, plucking a word from the suspiciously-awkward clue for TEN [It’s a young age] to yield singer NEIL YOUNG (whom I also accepted as a correct entry, since I’d posted incorrect contest instructions at first last week, asking for the singer instead of the entries yielding them; sorry for the confusion on that).

The red herring was FAN MAIL, which looks promising since mail reverses to LIAM (Gallagher, Neeson, every male baby these days, etc.), but there’s no Neeson or Gallagher in the clues, so guessers there got blocked.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 140 correct entries received, is Sophia McManus of Lafayette, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Sophia will also receive a copy of my new book Bite-Size Crosswords.

THUS CONCLUDES GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH:

Big thanks to Messrs. Hook, Vratsanos, Lim, Barocas and Sullivan for a memorable five weeks of metas! We’ll do it again next summer with another all-star lineup.

MONTHLY PRIZES:

79 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all five of Guest Constructor Month’s challenges (HENRY HOOK, ALFA ROMEO, TETRIS, LEBRON JAMES, TAX LIEN). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Dan Bowden — Sydney, Australia

Scott Weiss — Walkersville, Md.

Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 5-for-5 in Guest Constructor Month.

SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:

In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, winners this week and next will also receive a signed copy of Doug Peterson‘s new book Easy as ABC Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a famous crossword tournament. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

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 (2,081 members now!) here.

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