Crumble #44 — the solution

The board from November 13, 2026, on the theme “At the beach”: 8 words in thirty-six falling letters — a Tricky day.

The board

B M L Y E L
W I K I O E
S C B E H W
S U A V S O
H E R T U T
L L O F R S

At first sight 4 words are in line: SHELL, TOWEL, SURF and SWIM. The rest come together as letters fall.

The words

#	Word	Where it starts, and how it runs
1	SHELL	row 4, column 1 down, right, down, left
2	TOWEL	row 5, column 6 up, up, up, up
3	CRAB	row 5, column 2 right, up, up
4	SURF	row 4, column 5 down, down, left
5	SHOVEL	row 6, column 6 left, up, left, up, left
6	KITE	row 5, column 3 right, down, right
7	SWIM	row 6, column 1 up, right, up
8	BUOY	row 6, column 1 right, right, right

One order that clears it

Rows are counted from the top and columns from the left, on the board as it stands when the word is taken — the letters have fallen by then. Most boards can be cleared in more than one order; this is the first one the board allows, taking the longest word that is ready.

SHELL. Start at row 4, column 1 of the board as it stands, then down, right, down, left. Its going brings CRAB together.
TOWEL. Start at row 5, column 6 of the board as it stands, then up, up, up, up. Nothing new comes together.
CRAB. Start at row 5, column 2 of the board as it stands, then right, up, up. Its going brings SWIM together.
SURF. Start at row 4, column 5 of the board as it stands, then down, down, left. Its going brings SHOVEL together.
SHOVEL. Start at row 6, column 6 of the board as it stands, then left, up, left, up, left. Its going brings KITE together.
KITE. Start at row 5, column 3 of the board as it stands, then right, down, right. Nothing new comes together.
SWIM. Start at row 6, column 1 of the board as it stands, then up, right, up. That leaves BUOY, the last word.
BUOY. Start at row 6, column 1 of the board as it stands, then right, right, right. The board is clear.

The decoys

22 common words can be traced at some point and are off the theme — a mistake each: BARE, CRAVE, FORE, FORT, HELL, HERO, LOFT, LORE, MICRO, RAVE, ROLE, ROLL, RUSH, SHOE, SHOT, SHOVE, STOVE, TOLL, TORE, TROLL, TURF, USHER.

Refused, free — a fair player could argue for it: TIKI.

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About Crumble

Crumble is Noggin’s falling-letters word puzzle, on the second shelf: every word fits the day’s theme, a traced word crumbles and the letters above fall, outside the daily line-up. How to play Crumble, or play today’s.