Need help with a NYT Strand puzzle? Today's puzzle theme, "Home stretch?" - is very cryptic and tricky even if you know what it means

Below we have compiled some helpful hints and answers to Strands #161 First, please take a look at some of the clues before trying to figure out the answer to #161

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strands #161

The official theme for NYT Strands #161 is "In the Home Stretch?

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Extra Room and Extensions"

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions Today it starts with a "B" and ends with an "S"

Scroll down to find out what it is

BONUSSPACES

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

Drumroll, please

Spangram was BONUSSPACES

Round 161 Strand

"Home stretch?"

???

???

?

Hello, Strands fans! This was really tricky Especially when I found the word "courses" fairly early on, I started assuming that "home stretch?" was about races

When that turned out to be incorrect, I had to use two clues to figure out what was going on, much to my embarrassment It was only when the game gave me "PATIO" as the second clue that I realized this was "stretching the house" Very clever, Strand

Still, it wasn't all smooth sailing, partly because of the spangram meandering across the board Rather, even though we had a rough idea of what was going on, we had to get the more usual answers first I found VERANDA at the top and SUNROOM at the bottom

BALCONY filled in the remaining area on the right, clearing the way for the end of the spangram; BONUSSPACES moved around the board really erratically due to its length!

This left only one word to find: TERRACE, spelled backwards in the lower left corner

Phew Hopefully tomorrow will be a little easier

Are you reading this in a slower time zone? The full article about Strand's solution to yesterday's Round 160 can be found here