The Sunday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #685, serving up a grid that ranges from athletes’ kit and physical toll to iconic sporting places on both sides of the Atlantic.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #685:
SKI POLE | PESKY POLE | SHIN SPLINTS | SHIN GUARD
GREEN MONSTER | TURF TOE | STADIUM OF LIGHT | CITGO SIGN
ICE SKATE | TENNIS ELBOW | OLD TRAFFORD | SOCCER CLEAT
LANSDOWNE STREET | CITY GROUND | HIP POINTER | STAMFORD BRIDGE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about items an athlete typically wears or carries as a matched set.
Green Category Clue: Shift from what athletes use to the physical problems that can send them to the sideline.
Blue Category Hint: Picture the distinctive landmarks in and around a celebrated Boston baseball destination.
Purple Category Teaser: Read the remaining entries as complete proper names from English top-flight football, not as ordinary descriptions of places.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Equipment That Comes In Pairs): ICE SKATE, SHIN GUARD, SKI POLE, SOCCER CLEAT
SKI POLE, SHIN GUARD, SOCCER CLEAT, and ICE SKATE are EQUIPMENT THAT COMES IN PAIRS, even when an entry names only one item.
The sharp decoys are PESKY POLE, which shares POLE with SKI POLE, and SHIN SPLINTS, which shares SHIN with SHIN GUARD.
Green (Injuries): HIP POINTER, SHIN SPLINTS, TENNIS ELBOW, TURF TOE
TENNIS ELBOW, HIP POINTER, SHIN SPLINTS, and TURF TOE are INJURIES, with the phrases mixing sport references, body parts, and playing surfaces.
SHIN SPLINTS presses directly against SHIN GUARD in the grid, making the shared body-part word the group’s cleanest piece of misdirection.
Blue (Fenway Park Sights): CITGO SIGN, GREEN MONSTER, LANSDOWNE STREET, PESKY POLE
GREEN MONSTER, CITGO SIGN, PESKY POLE, and LANSDOWNE STREET are FENWAY PARK SIGHTS, covering features inside the ballpark and landmarks visible around it.
PESKY POLE is the deliberate troublemaker because its final word creates an immediate but false bond with SKI POLE.
Purple (Premier League Venues): CITY GROUND, OLD TRAFFORD, STADIUM OF LIGHT, STAMFORD BRIDGE
CITY GROUND, OLD TRAFFORD, STADIUM OF LIGHT, and STAMFORD BRIDGE are PREMIER LEAGUE VENUES.
The trick is grammatical rather than fragmentary: each phrase can look like an ordinary place description until it is recognized as a stadium’s complete proper name.
The Verdict
Yellow is the likeliest first break because all four entries describe tangible gear, while green becomes clear once the physical-condition reading takes hold.
The real trap runs through POLE and SHIN, with SKI POLE versus PESKY POLE and SHIN GUARD versus SHIN SPLINTS pulling correct entries toward the wrong partners.
Purple rewards football-ground recognition, but blue is the streak-decider because its four answers demand one tightly focused piece of Boston baseball knowledge.
Reset and Repeat
The grid’s best move is the double use of POLE, a compact decoy that stays convincing until the Boston landmarks lock into place. Reset tomorrow with the same discipline: test the shared word, then test the setting around it.
For now, puzzle #685 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
