Deduce #59: The bowling alley — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 12, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Maya, Ethan, Ramon and Willa — and three things to work out about each: their ball, shirt and lane. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The one in the striped shirt is exactly 2 lanes after Willa.
2. The one with the blue ball is not the one on lane 4.
3. Ramon is exactly 3 lanes after the one in the western shirt.
4. The one in the western shirt is on a lower-numbered lane than the one with the brown ball.
5. The one with the blue ball is not the one on lane 3.
6. Ramon is not the one in the leopard shirt.
7. Ramon is the one with the silver ball.
8. Maya is the one in the striped shirt.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 1, “The one in the striped shirt is exactly 2 lanes after Willa”: striped comes off Willa; lane 5 and lane 6 come off Willa.

Clue 3, “Ramon is exactly 3 lanes after the one in the western shirt”: western comes off Ramon; lane 3, lane 4 and lane 5 come off Ramon. That settles it: Ramon is on lane 6.

Clue 6, “Ramon is not the one in the leopard shirt”: leopard comes off Ramon.

Clue 7, “Ramon is the one with the silver ball”: silver comes off Maya, Ethan and Willa. That settles it: Ramon’s ball is silver.

Clue 8, “Maya is the one in the striped shirt”: striped comes off Ethan and Ramon. That settles it: Maya’s shirt is striped and Ramon’s shirt is tie-dye.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Tie-dye is Ramon’s, so it comes off Ethan and Willa.

lane 6 is Ramon’s, so it comes off Maya and Ethan.

Clue 1, “The one in the striped shirt is exactly 2 lanes after Willa”: lane 4 comes off Maya and Willa; lane 3 comes off Maya. That settles it: Maya is on lane 5 and Willa is on lane 3.

Clue 2, “The one with the blue ball is not the one on lane 4”: blue comes off Ethan.

Clue 4, “The one in the western shirt is on a lower-numbered lane than the one with the brown ball”: brown comes off Willa.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

lane 5 is Maya’s, so it comes off Ethan.

lane 3 is Willa’s, so it comes off Ethan. That settles it: Ethan is on lane 4.

Clue 3, “Ramon is exactly 3 lanes after the one in the western shirt”: western comes off Ethan. That settles it: Ethan’s shirt is leopard.

Clue 5, “The one with the blue ball is not the one on lane 3”: blue comes off Willa. That settles it: Willa’s ball is gold.

Round 4

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Gold is Willa’s, so it comes off Maya and Ethan. That settles it: Ethan’s ball is brown.

Nobody but Maya can still have blue, so Maya’s ball is blue.

Leopard is Ethan’s, so it comes off Willa. That settles it: Willa’s shirt is western.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #58 (Sun, Oct 11)

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.