IMPORTANT NOTE: As of February 2020 MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page. A subscription costs $3/month.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “A League of Their Own”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a team in the National Football League.
Answer: THE ATLANTA FALCONS
Correct entries: 409
Come on, you don’t really think I’d require you to have much sports knowledge on a meta, do you? That would be cruel…
Four long theme entries, mostly of the chopped-up variety. Let’s take a look:
17-A: [English Premier League team whose fans sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at games] = LIVERPOOL
21-A: [With 26-Across, Major League Baseball team that holds Sausage Races during the sixth inning of home games] = MILWAUKEE / BREWERS. They love their brats up there.
35-A: [With 46-Across, National Basketball Association team owned by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen] = PORTLAND TRAIL / BLAZERS. Bill Walton gave a shooting class once at a basketball camp I attended in the early 80s. True story.
56-A: [With 62-Across, National Hockey League team that lost the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017] = NASHVILLE / PREDATORS.
The first thing that might’ve struck you as odd is: why is he using the full names of the leagues here? Maybe EPL isn’t that familiar (it’s just called the “Premier League” in the UK; EPL is more used in the States), but NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB are all extremely common…
…and there’s the answer: each of these teams’ names contains the three letters of its league’s name, in (non-consecutive) order:
LIVERPOOL — EPL
MILWAUKEE BREWERS — MLB
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS — NBA
NASHVILLE PREDATORS — NHL
Which NFL team’s name does the same? The ATLANTA FALCONS, found by 409 solvers.
Is there only one team in each of these leagues whose name features this quality? Amazingly, the answer is yes! Exactly one team per league. And they all fit in the grid nicely. One of those metas where I feel more like I discovered a thing that already existed instead of actually creating something.
pgw writes:
woNderFuL!
Adam Thompson says:
also the Frankford Yellow Jackets if you count defunct teams
Ha no, but interesting!
bodhipepper points out:
They’re even in the NFC-S!
(That’s the NFC South)
And finally, Joel H puckishly asks:
What? No Montreal Impacts?
Close, but no cigar! That MLS team is just the Montreal Impact.
PATREON UPDATE:
992 solvers have now joined us at Patreon! Become one at the link.
PATREON REWARDS, MAY & JUNE REFUNDS, and 2019 PRIZES UPDATE:
1) All the rewards have now gone out to MGWCC Medici ($20/mo.) and Benefactor ($10/mo.) supporters, and I’ve sent out some of the Booster ($5/mo.) rewards out already and will have them all in the mail by next weekend. If you haven’t received yours soon, please e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com and I’ll take care of it ASAP.
2) Was hoping to have May and June refunds done by now but I’ve been working on 1) above so I won’t have these done until closer to the end of the month. Please bear with me!
3) 2019 prize winners will be announced on the first post in July. I know, it’s taken a while but they’ll all be out in July and then you’ll have them forever! Seriously, thanks for sticking with me on these (i.e., everyone’s being very patient for which I am extremely appreciative).
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is something you might have done today in the kitchen.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.