The Contest Center - INNER CIRCLE

Inner Circle #72 May 2008
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Letters and Numbers

Postmark deadline
May 31, 2008

Entry fee $36

Draw a continuous path through the letter and number grid below. Your path may begin, end and turn at any number, but not at a letter. Circle your starting number. Your path may go horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. Your path cannot go through the same letter or number in the grid more than once. Your path must contain each of the letters from A through Z exactly twice. Each column in the grid contains either 11 letters or 11 numbers.
Add the numbers along your path to get your score. The highest score will win. In case of ties, the path with the highest first number will win, then the second number, and so forth (skipping letters).

Puzzle Diagram

 
3  1  A  9  1  S  4  8	E  2  5  O  2  8  U  9	3  W  6  7  G  6  1
 
4  3  V  5  4  I  2  5	X  7  8  Q  2  6  B  8	7  F  8  4  Y  8  3
 
2  6  Z  6  7  C  6  9	L  5  4  Y  1  5  Z  1	8  Q  5  6  D  4  2
 
6  9  G  7  6  J  9  7	S  8  1  C  7  2  M  4	8  K  2  8  O  9  1
 
9  3  F  9  7  X  3  3	H  1  7  N  4  1  J  9	8  T  4  1  A  2  5
 
2  2  M  6  5  Q  2  5	A  4  3  R  2  4  Y  3	5  X  1  4  R  5  4
 
6  5  T  7  7  B  3  9	V  3  6  O  8  4  W  6	3  B  9  1  H  4  1
 
5  9  J  7  7  P  2  2	D  5  3  M  2  8  C  3	2  N  6  4  K  9  4
 
1  1  H  6  9  L  7  5	K  2  9  F  8  6  T  6	3  E  8  8  U  9  4
 
9  8  W  7  1  G  1  8	R  5  8  P  9  7  I  2	9  L  6  7  E  6  7
 
1  3  D  6  7  U  2  8	I  5  5  Z  4  9  N  5	3  S  4  4  P  3  5
 
Score _____

Mini-Example

 
2  5--A--1--4--E--3--6--A--2--1
   I			      I
4  8  E  7  2--B--9--5--C--3--6
   I	    I
1 (8) B  6  9  A  1  4	D  7  8
	    I
7--3--E--5  6--D--8--3--B--9--5
I	 I		      I
2--9  C  8--4--D--6--4--C--3--7
 
Score 161

 
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