After I couldn't find the reveal (ATHLETIC CUP) ever appearing in any crossword, I wanted to use the "holy grails " awarded in hockey, tennis, golf and ping pong...oops, I mean soccer. When researching cups, I learned that there is a Table Tennis World Cup. (Perhaps that was a factor in this puzzle's acceptance. Only Will knows if it refers to ping pong or soccer.)

It wasn't difficult getting phrases containing DAVIS, RYDER, and WORLD. I was stuck on STANLEY until I remembered a book I read to my kindergarten classes...FLAT STANLEY. That resulted in the 11-10-11-10-11 themer length. Hope solvers don't mind the high 3-letter word count that this layout creates.

This week, my husband and I are moving to Asheville, NC. We are looking forward to seeing more of fellow constructor Lewis R. and his wife. Here's to Asheville!

ATHLETIC CUP, amusingly interpreted as "major sporting events in the form of ___ CUP." I've followed sports less and less (as I've had to spend more and more time protecting myself from my toddlers trodding on my regions requiring ATHLETIC CUP protection), but all of these cups were somewhat familiar:

STANLEY CUP: Hockey. See how easy this is?!

DAVIS CUP: Uh. Maybe rugby? Golf? Snooker? Ha ha ha, just joking, of course I knew it was snooker! Er, tennis.

RYDER CUP: This one is tougher. The Ryder Cup is … polo? Tennis as well? What, golf, you say? Is the Ryder Cup the little white cylinder in the green that catches the golf ball? Ha ha ha, just joking again! Ahem.

WORLD CUP: We have French friends down the street, so their cheers from France winning the soccer title this year were oui oui tres bien!

Very cool that all these ___ CUP words can be so well disguised within phrases.

Being a middle grade book writer, FLAT STANLEY was a gimme. Pretty sure the general solving population won't have such an easy time as I did, but the crossings seem fair.

Well, there is GALENA. I suppose you could grumble if you put in FLAT STANDEY / GADENA. But then there's the theme … ah, right. No such thing as a STANDEY CUP. GALENA, what an oddball word (but so constructor-friendly with its vowel-consonant alternation!)

CROSSE, CRECHE, COULEES – should newer solvers know these? That's a tough call. At a minimum, I would have liked to see fewer of those in a Tuesday puzzle. Not super-welcoming for newbs.

Overall though, a solid theme, with well-disguised CUP types. Even looking back at them all, I'm still surprised that all those CUPs have hideable names. Great theme discovery.