Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 97 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:

We had a SNOW STORM here last week — not literally, but in cryptic crossword style.

All five of last week’s theme entries began with the letters in SNOW jumbled around as if they’d been hit by a storm — get it? Almost everyone did, since 325 correct entries came in (just two shy of the MGWCC record). Solution at top left.

Those entries were:

17-a WON SUPPORT
25-a ON SWITCHES
35-a OWNS THE MOMENT
48-a NOW SHOWING
58-a S’WONDERFUL

The contest answer components were found at 53-a (SNOW) and 62-a (STORM).

Abby in comments here writes:

No sweat. 🙂

Two weeks ago Amanda Yesnowitz noted that her Y-Z surname could have worked instead of YUTZ as a key component of that puzzle’s meta. This week she writes:

yeSNOWitz 🙂

hehe…it’s the name that keeps on giving…

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 325 correct entries received, is Kyle Osborne of Erlanger, Ky. Kyle has selected as his prize an autographed copy of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Kaidoku.

2ND ANNUAL BOSTON CROSSWORD PUZZLE TOURNAMENT:

This Sunday, April 11th! Visit the site here to learn more:

http://www.bostoncrosswordtournament.org/

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle’s three long theme entries contain ten pieces of fruit. One of those ten is missing something, though — which one is it? E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer fruit in the subject line of your e-mail. [IMPORTANT UPDATE, 3:00 PM ET — an hour after posting I have not received any correct entries, so I’m thinking this meta might be too tough for the second week of the month. So here’s a BONUS HINT: It may look like this puzzle has only three theme entries (17-a, 38-a, 61-a), but in fact there are a total of twelve entries relating to the theme.–MG]

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 (1,157 members now!) here.

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