Clues by Vlad and Grid by Calluna
Theme: Alphabetical jigsaw
The winner of the December puzzle is Joe Gage of London.
Review of the December 2024 3D crossword
By necessity, we use all 33 straight entries of a 7 x 5 x 5 grid this month. Plus… a little extra.
We require all the words and no bends or anything because this month is a jigsaw. All the words are five or seven letters long and we are provided several givens (spelling “ALPHABET”) to help us start placing.
My usual technique is to do all the clues I can in one pass and then look at the diagram for checks on the others. The jigsaw format pretty much makes this mandatory. There are only nine seven-letter entries, so that’s a good place to start. Fortunately, none of the seven-letter entries checked by givens is ambiguous, so if you get most of them you can proceed with fair confidence. My in was the middle layer.
There are some unusual words here, but we’re warned of most of them by the dictionary citations.
As long as you’re expecting a Japanese word related to tea at 8, you’ll probably guess that it starts with “cha” and ends with a vowel. The cluing is pretty straightforward, and that one’s in Chambers.
The charade for 33 is fairly plain, but the word YQUEM is a proper noun and an example of what we in the US use a vulgar but colorful term for involving a tile-based word game. Why is it here? (Wait for it…)
Another one that should give you a whiff of something off is 22. The pictorial clue helpfully informs us that PASTY anagrams to PTYAS. It sure does, but… (hang on…)
But the worst offender of the lot is at 4. Not only is AJIVA an obscure word, but how are we supposed to know whether it goes up or down? Surely it can’t be ambiguous.
And it isn’t. At this point, if not sooner, you should notice that the second and fourth layers that are full of otherwise unchecked letters nearly present the alphabet in order! And what is missing? The final Y and Z. So AJIVA goes downward and we marvel at the beautiful construction.
Several clues made me chuckle. I especially liked 7, 16, 17, and 18, but maybe it’s just because IMAGING as well.
I’m always glad to see the “bunches of unches” characteristic of these grids put to some use, and this one is a show-stopper. Although some of the vocabulary is necessarily odd, the cluing is clean and straightforward. Forcing the reveal of the gimmick through a deliberate ambiguity is icing on a delicious five-layer cake.
ab
Grid solution
Visual clue
An arrow leads from a whole pasty to a pasty in pieces, indicating an anagram:
PASTY* = PTYAS
Clues and explanations
| Day | Solution | Direction, Clue, Count | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ACTON | Jacket I lost in battle (5) | Action less I |
| 2 | AGAMI | Heron found in main road outside school (5) | A1 around gam |
| 3 | AGAST | Funny time to be horrified (5) | A gas (as in life’s a gas) + t |
| 4 | AJIVA | Java slightly different — around island it’s soulless (5) | Java* round I |
| 5 | ASCII | One cracking CIA’s new code (5) | I in CIA’s* |
| 6 | AUTOS | Vehicles are driven out slowly at first (5) | A (=are, metric measure) + out* + s(lowly) |
| 7 | AWAKE | Mentally alert unlike its guest of honour? (5) | A wake (for dead person) |
| 8 | CHANOYU | Japanese tea ceremony on border of Chengdu (Chinese, you idiot! (7) | C(hengdu) + han + you* |
| 9 | CROFT | Farm bought for coppers in retirement? Not entirely (5) | Hidden rev |
| 10 | DEMUR | Object reserved in short (5) | Demur(e) |
| 11 | DIG UP | Locate dog (one departed) in turn (3,2) | Pug I d all rev |
| 12 | EMERALD | Stone me! There’s a headless messenger outside (7) | Me in (h)erald |
| 13 | EXILE | Expatriate Holly cycling to Spain (5) | Ilex with ex first + E |
| 14 | EXOTICA | ‘Strangely interesting things in porn!’ That’s wrong for rector (7) | Erotica with X replacing R |
| 15 | GAUZE | You look over material — it’s transparent (5) | Gaze round d |
| 16 | IMAGING | Medical scans showing Vlad’s past his prime (7) | I’m aging |
| 17 | IS TACKY | A sticky pudding lacks taste (2,5) | (A sticky)* |
| 18 | ITCHY | Like vindictive female chucking book, causing irritation (5) | Bitchy less B |
| 19 | MUTUARY | Borrower’s settlement for Marty and us? (7) | (MARTY + U U)* – ‘us’ indicating two Us used separately, hence query |
| 20 | OBOLI | Coins of old I throw back (5) | O + I lob rev |
| 21 | PLACATE | Spot vacant apartment coming in — calm down! (7) | A(partmen)t in place |
| 22 | PTYAS | Some other snakes like to follow python — not half odd (5) | As after pyt(hon)* |
| 23 | RESISTS | Doesn’t back down over Sierra — makes renewed attempt to pass (7) | Resits round S |
| 24 | SACRA | Bones used in Christian rituals (half missing) (5) | Sacra(ments) |
| 25 | SCION | Issue over Charlie and current heir (5) | Son round C i |
| 26 | SEIZE | Kidnap from Parisian square (5) | French for 16 (4 squared) |
| 27 | SINUSES | Wrong taking drugs back into country in bodily cavities (7) | Sin + Es rev in US |
| 28 | SMEAR | Kinky sex without women, sport — this isn’t good for the reputation (5) | SM + wear (=sport) without W |
| 29 | SNOBS | 23up Posh types primarily sympathetic to posh people (5) | S(ympathetic) + nobs |
| 30 | SPADS | 24up Government advisers in endless fight with officer from the Met? (5) | Spa(r) + DS |
| 31 | STARE | Look, part of flight is under discussion (5) | Stair hom |
| 32 | STYLE | Name of road — see reverse (5) | St + Ely see = diocese |
| 33 | YQUEM | Why question the writer about wine? (5) | Y + qu = me rev |
| Required | YZ | The two items absent (2) | Completes the double jigsaw |
Solvers’ comments
Very elegant construction and witty clues. A lovely way to round off the year! [NI]
Goodness this was difficult… but great fun x [RE]
Tricky fitting the solutions in; reminded me of the late great Araucaria’s alphabetical jigsaws. Thanks for the ALPHABET letters in the grid which were a big help. As usual the picture clue went over my head! Thanks to Vlad and Calluna for an entertaining puzzle. [RS]
A very enjoyable alphabetic. Four new words for me, and two or three uncommon ones as well. Don’t know how many people are familiar with ASCII. It’s very fairly clued and I suspect not uncommon for setters to deploy 🙂 We wondered if it would be a near-pangram, missing two letters, but by the time we’d got ~80% of the solutions, it was clear that wasn’t the Easter Egg. But when we’d finally completed the grid, my better half spotted the pattern in the second tier. That also answered another puzzle. AJAVI appeared to be able to go either direction in the grid, but the aforesaid pattern means it can only go one way. Thanks Vlad and Calluna – a great way to end 2024’s calendar. [CW]
Enjoyed solving it [LA]
Excellent puzzle to complete the year. Particularly enjoyed (eventually) finding the trick in day 19. Must have taken even longer to compile than it took to solve. Happy New Year! [JT]
Lovely puzzle really enjoyed it. Very clever grid and didn’t fully realise the order of it as I had put Ajiva in backwards. Thanks Calluna. [GW]
Very enjoyable, challenging and different. Thank you, Vlad and Calluna! [SF]
Whew! That was pretty hard! Some unfamiliar words for the final puzzle of 2024, so it took a lot of brain power to track some solutions down. Still not sure if my grid-fill is all right but submitting anyway, with thanks to Vlad and Calluna for allowing me to pit my wits against your clever setting! I liked the Greek photo backdrop with those blue skies and blue waters, which will have appealed to those of you experiencing terrible weather in the UK at the moment (I just read of a “red alert” for some parts which sounds quite scary). Thanks to Graham Fox for all the great photography over the years. Best wishes to Sirius, John and the whole 3D Team for providing so much enjoyment and competitive fun this year. It’s been a joy to solve these quirky puzzles and to be included as a member of this world-wide community. Wishing all involved including fellow solvers a happy Christmas and a more hopeful New Year. Looking forward to the months of 2025 unfolding in the newest edition of the calendar. [JA]
Tough! as expected of Vlad, I guess – most of it was a slow, steady solve – slower than most months, but things taste better when well chewed! But a few NHOs – ACTON (meaning jacket), AGAMI, CHANOYU, and SPADS in addition to the ones with specific sources indicated. So it took some time to build up enough firm answers to start to fill in the grid, but once PLACATE and SINUSES went in, progress was made. The picture clue was a bit helpful (unusual for me!) but such an obscure word, still needed to check. A good, hard work out – thanks to Vlad et al. [JC]
Found it really tough to get going, made slow but steady progress. Quite a few never-heard-of words but fairly clued. Thanks to Vlad, entertaining and educational as usual. [SC]
That was most enjoyable. [DR]
What a corker to round off the year! Some really obscure answers to find here, especially Mutuary which is almost impossible to find in any UK English source – and then turns out to be a rare legal term – not helped by the misleading Marty and us!! However, the reason for the strange answers became clear once the grid was filled and the absent items discovered. How brilliantly clever to use the alphabet in this way – a real tour de force. [SB]
Plenty of new words that lead to a cracking puzzle. Fortunately didn’t place oboli early on. Style took ages to parse! Of course us means u and u but not until last word in! Even worse it took ages to see levels 2 and 4 as I was looking for letters missing from answers, but it’s a pangram. It also took me ages to find the typo of pytas/ptyas! Think November & December have been favourites over the year. [DM]
Not sure I fully understand some of the clues but a good workout and the Easter egg shows an amazing feat of construction. [PD]
Challenging puzzle with some obscure words. Good clueing. Struggled until I spotted the alphabet in the middle grids. [JP]
Loved it! [ST]
By far the hardest. I can’t believe that it took me so long to notice the alphabet! [RS]
Excellent puzzle – but needed hint for 19! [RG]
Great end to the year puzzle. Really challenging clues and a splendid grid. I wish I had spotted the pattern on levels 2 and 4. Very helpful hints and tips. Many thanks to all involved in producing this wonderful calendar. [BS]
A lovely way to end the year indeed! A beautifully crafted puzzle, and deserving competition winner for its combination of deceptively simple elegance with the theme, some witty and clever clueing, and a tough challenge around the correct direction of the similar 5-letter possibilities. A very satisfying feeling putting in the final word (hoping it’s all error free of course!). Days 14 and 26 in particular are very funny. Thank you Vlad and Calluna. [MS]
Totally flummoxed by day 19 until the hints and tips gave me a nudge. [RC]
Tough but very fun! Thanks to Vlad and Calluna. [JS]
A 3D jigsaw – tricky! It’s usually hard enough when you’re constrained to clues going across and down, without the other four directions. Hats off for crafting something enjoyable out of that: it was a fun challenge and as satisfying as ever once things start clicking together. And a very impressive grid too (I think the couple of harder words there are forgivable given the constraint). [JG]
We didn’t enjoy this one – the cluing was just too tricky and too many obscure words. [EW]
Found this one a struggle but still enjoyable. Know it isn’t correct because out of alphabetical order but sending it off in the hope will have a light bulb moment in the next 2 days. …..and the light bulb moment arrived in the nick of time! Happy New Year to everyone, especially the Compilers. Looking forward to the challenges of 2025. [DB&MJ]
Absolutely fantastic grid, with a surprisingly low obscurity count given the constraints. (To be fair I suppose IS TACKY is cheating, but I’d never have thought of it.) [NY]
A remarkable construction. I hope anyone who submitted before the directed version was published gets priority in the prize draw. With the instructions it was suddenly a bit easy, but without them it was impossible to know where to start. The hints and tips were if anything more cryptic (in that regard) than the original instructions! [EF]
Tough clues, obscure words and a blank grid fill! Hard, but great fun, thanks. [MD]
Excellent construction. I guess it explains the higher than usual number of unusual words. 19 awaited the Hints &Tips. [MJ]
Thank you everyone for the appreciative comments. A real tour de force from Vlad and no less so from Calluna. I would echo JA’s thanks to Graham Fox for all those wonderful photographs over many years.
Good luck everyone in solving the 2025 puzzles.