Doubled for Thursday, March 21, 2024
One picture, one hidden three-word chain. The first two words make a familiar phrase, the last two make another, and the middle word belongs to both. New to the game? Read how to play first.
Hints
Open them one at a time. Each one gives away a little more than the last.
Hint 1
The answer is 4 words long, with 4, 5, 5 and 10 letters.
Hint 2
The shared word - the one that belongs to both phrases - has 5 letters and starts with P.
Hint 3
The first phrase is 3 words, the second is 2, and they overlap on one of them.
Hint 4
An all-out basketball defence, then a room of reporters and microphones.
The answer
Stuck, or want to check? Opening this reveals the whole answer.
Reveal the answer
Full Court Conference
Full court press and Press conference, joined on Press.
Full court press
A full-court press is a basketball defence applied over the whole court rather than just at one end; figuratively it is an all-out effort to get something done.
Press conference
A press conference is a staged meeting at which someone answers questions from reporters, or more often reads a statement and takes a few.
How players did
Across 1,524 plays, 45% got the whole answer in one guess, 12% solved it without a miss, 17% got there after at least one wrong guess, 11% used a hint or finished on their last chance, and 15% did not get it.
This puzzle ran on March 21, 2024, March 21, 2025 and March 21, 2026.