Need the scoop? Check the links below for daily hints and answers. The NYT Mini Crossword. Wordle. Strands. All the usual suspects.
This one feels different. A little lighter on its feet. The May 11 edition is a Sports Edition. Fun? Yes. Easy? Maybe not for everyone. Unless you know college mascots inside out, you might get stuck. If that’s you, read on. I’ve got the hints and the solutions.
Just a quick note on logistics. The Athletic publishes this version. Remember them? The subscription-based site owned by The Times. You won’t find this in the standard NYT Games app. You’ll have to head over to the Athletic app or play for free right here on the web. It used to be in beta, not so anymore.
“Connections: Sports Edition”
Where to look for help
The puzzle drops four groups. We rank them by difficulty. Yellow is easy. Green is harder. Blue trips you up a bit. Purple is the headache. The most bizarre set.
Here are the breadcrumbs before the full answers:
- Yellow hint: Workout time.
- Green hint: Pahk the cah in Hahovahd Yahd. (If you need me to spell that out, check your New York accent settings).
- Blue hint: Same first name.
- Purple hint: On your mark… get set…
The solutions
Yellow is straightforward. The theme? Muscles. But use the slang terms. No anatomy textbook language. The words are ab, pec, quad, and trap. Four spots where you might feel burn after leg day.
Green requires Ivy League knowledge. Team nicknames. Specifically from those private northeastern colleges. The answers are Big Green, Crimson, Lions, and Quakers. Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Penn. If those names mean nothing to you, good luck.
Blue is a trap of identity. Everyone shares the same first name. Who? Jonathan. The four surnames are Kuminga, Quick, Taylor, and Vilma. A basketball star, an NHL defenseman, the pop star, and the volleyball player. Different fields. One name. Confusing, right?
Purple demands context. It’s about how things begin. Or how they seem to. The missing word completes the phrase “____ start.”
- false
- kick
- quality
- spot
A false start breaks a track meet. A kickoff begins the football game. A quality start gets the pitcher off to a good inning. A spot start… well, usually applies to a racehorse or maybe a sprinter waiting for their cue.
Which group threw you for a loop? The names or the phrases? I know which one I missed first. But we all have bad puzzles.
Some people play to win. Others play to procrastinate.
