Deduce #87: The bowling alley — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from November 9, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Reba, Cindy, Owen and Carly — and three things to work out about each: their ball, shirt and lane. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Owen is the one on lane 3.
2. Carly is the one on lane 5.
3. The one with the gray ball is the one on lane 3.
4. Reba is not the one in the paisley shirt.
5. The one with the orange ball is exactly 2 lanes after the one in the paisley shirt.
6. Reba is on a lower-numbered lane than the one in the satin shirt.
7. The one in the velvet shirt is exactly 3 lanes after the one with the black ball.

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, “Owen is the one on lane 3”: lane 3 comes off Reba, Cindy and Carly. That settles it: Owen is on lane 3.

Clue 2, “Carly is the one on lane 5”: lane 5 comes off Reba and Cindy. That settles it: Carly is on lane 5.

Clue 3, “The one with the gray ball is the one on lane 3”: gray comes off Reba, Cindy and Carly. That settles it: Owen’s ball is gray.

Clue 4, “Reba is not the one in the paisley shirt”: paisley comes off Reba.

Clue 5, “The one with the orange ball is exactly 2 lanes after the one in the paisley shirt”: orange comes off Cindy; paisley comes off Carly.

Clue 6, “Reba is on a lower-numbered lane than the one in the satin shirt”: satin comes off Reba.

Clue 7, “The one in the velvet shirt is exactly 3 lanes after the one with the black ball”: velvet comes off Reba, Cindy and Owen; black comes off Carly. That settles it: Reba’s shirt is denim.

Round 2

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

Denim is Reba’s, so it comes off Cindy, Owen and Carly.

Nobody but Carly can still have velvet, so Carly’s shirt is velvet.

Clue 6, “Reba is on a lower-numbered lane than the one in the satin shirt”: lane 4 comes off Reba. That settles it: Reba is on lane 2.

Round 3

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

lane 2 is Reba’s, so it comes off Cindy. That settles it: Cindy is on lane 4.

Clue 5, “The one with the orange ball is exactly 2 lanes after the one in the paisley shirt”: orange comes off Reba; paisley comes off Cindy. That settles it: Cindy’s shirt is satin.

Clue 7, “The one in the velvet shirt is exactly 3 lanes after the one with the black ball”: black comes off Cindy. That settles it: Cindy’s ball is pink.

Round 4

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

Pink is Cindy’s, so it comes off Reba and Carly. That settles it: Reba’s ball is black and Carly’s ball is orange.

Satin is Cindy’s, so it comes off Owen. That settles it: Owen’s shirt is paisley.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #86 (Sun, Nov 8) · Next: Deduce #88 (Tue, Nov 10) · All Deduce solutions

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.