Three 3 x 3 grids overlap by one cell, as in the image.

Each grid is to have 3 words by reading from left to right, and 3 by reading down.

Find a solution, using the starter letters, where all words are unique to the layout, and all are in general common (but not necessarily frequent) English usage.

T                         K                                     W                 N

As more than one solution is possible, you might like to consider that the letters A to Z have respective values of 1 to 26, and my solution has a sum value of 279. Can you top that?

But then you might like to be challenged by this frequency chart modified to a point value:

     A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M 
     3 20 12 10  1 16 17  8  5 23 22 11 14
     N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z
     6  4 19 25  9  7  2 13 21 15 24 18 26

My score for the same solution is 158 which is just 1 better than when an "O" replaces an "A".

In both cases all letters are to be counted just once, or rather, each location; yes, the starters too.

THE
EEL
ARKEY
  IRE
  PATOW
    ARE
    NET

corrected vertical TON to TAN to avoid duplicating ORE

Edited on June 24, 2008, 7:23 pm

Posted by Charlie on 2008-06-24 19:19:51