3D Crossword Solution – November 2024

Clues and Grid by Soup

Theme: Eightsome reels

The winner of the November puzzle is Dannish Babar of Sheffield.

Review of the November 2024 3D crossword

This month’s offering differs in many respects from the usual 3D calendar format — no obvious theme, no serpents, no differently coloured cells, every solution of eight letters, no historical anniversary to research, and an unconventional grid. So, what do we have?

Perhaps the background photograph, with its multiple spools of thread, is a cheekily cryptic pointer to the ‘Eightsome Reels’ specials that solvers of the Azed series in the Observer newspaper will recognise. I have always admired the ability of setters to compile these puzzles with solutions that overlap partially, but what Soup has achieved here, through adding a third dimension to the overlapping, is nothing short of a tour de force of crossword construction. That he has managed this without a single obscure answer only adds to my admiration.

To solvers that are unfamiliar with this format, it can be frustrating that many clues have to be solved ‘cold’ before their solutions can be entered in the grid. However, the alphabetical order of the clues adds substantially to their solvability and Soup uses a generous helping of anagrams to support the solver along the way. Of the 34 clues, ten include either full, partial or composite anagrams. My favourites of the latter were for GARROTTE, HOARDERS and PARASOLS. 

In a 2021 interview for the Guardian, Soup reveals the derivation of his unusual pseudonym and describes what makes a successful clue as: “pith, and ideally, but not always, humour. Good grammar on the surface and within the cryptic reading; a surface that has nothing to do with the solution.” The longer solution word lengths here allow him to exploit those principles to a tee, or, as in his clue to DEFTNESS, to ‘show his elegant skill’. Highlights for this reviewer were: a lovely pun for PERSPIRE (allocations ‘per spire’); a clever deletion for REMOVERS (to crates for Cate); two mathematical references — Soup is a scientist in his ‘real’ job — COSINESS (Luxury function on ship) and PIONEERS (They found …); and a laugh-out-loud clue to HARASSED (Pestered one with big ears to cuddle another on date).

Altogether, then, triple thanks to Soup this month, not only for a ground-breaking grid and an innovative format, but also for a puzzle with clueing of the highest quality. 

KM

Grid solution

Visual clue

Some mental visual and verbal gymnastics are needed for this succinct clue. The letters OM appear with the end snipped off, which you could say is ‘MO almost in reverse’, whose wordplay gives us:

MO in REVERS(e) = REMOVERS

Clues and explanations

Solvers’ comments

Found this rather hard going, needed to solve a lot of the clues before I could tentatively pencil in some answers. Even getting the last couple of answers was not straightforward despite having most of the letters. Thanks to Soup for an excellent challenge and for amending eightsome reels into a 3d puzzle. [GW]

One of the most challenging 3D’s I’ve done. x [RE]

Wonderful clues, amazing construction! [AJ]

Loved it [LA]

The last clue we solved was 8 (day 22)—and getting this puzzle done did indeed cause some perspiration. An absolute crime scene of scribbles resulted as we worked out how the grid needed to be filled! A beautiful crossword, bravo. [RS]

An interesting variation in 3D. I suppose the extra checking meant the preponderance of common elements like ERS and ING. 18 puzzling wordplay 23 “after” = “then”, rather than “after”? 30 I wouldn’t say a solenoid is a relay, though maybe it could be used as such. 34 “cut back” = “cut”, rather than “cut” + “back”? [MJ]

Excellent variation of Eightsome Reels. [RG]

Ingenious variation on a 3d puzzle. As a lot of the answers necessarily shared common endings (-tion, -ing, -ness, -ers), it was probably easier to solve than it must have been to set. Some wonderfully cheeky clues, particularly days 10, 16 and 22. Thank you. [JT]

I always look forward to Azed’s Eightsome Reels puzzles, so I was delighted that Soup had constructed a 3-D version of this format. What a treat! [NI]

I rather enjoyed that. The constraints of the grid were used very well. Most clues were straightforward which helped, but perhaps a few too many missing letter anagrams. I enjoyed days 22, 23 and 8. The day 10 clue makes me uncomfortable: it’s very clever, but does that make it OK to use a surface reading that calls a woman a tart? I don’t think it does. [DR]

Liked the circular entry gimmick — even more fun in 3D than in 2D! [TH]

An interesting and welcome challenge. [RP]

I was very pleased to eventually untangle this one (I think). I am still not sure that I have got the clockwise and anticlockwise numbers sorted. Many thanks to Soup for the tough but fair challenge. [JA]

Wow, it must have been really tricky making up this grid! The layout did help me solve some I wasn’t sure of, though. Some fun clues, I especially liked the one for day 22. Thanks Soup for an unusual puzzle. [RS]

Done this sort of puzzle before (though some time ago) but only in 2D. This was good fun, but (as is often the case for me with visualiasation) it needed some care and attention. Several clues brought broad smiles and I particularly liked REMOVERS and the groaner SOLENOID. Thanks Soup. [CW]

Wow, impressive grid, made me cross-eyed trying to fit the letters in. Satisfying parsing with enough straightforward clues to get us on the grid. [J&JH]

Seemed quite strange to have no anniversary connection this month, just the ‘interwoven words’ challenge (I assume that’s what the picture refers to). It was good fun once the first few fell into place, more by lucky guesswork than anything else, and my brain adjusted to the multi-directional contortions. Thereafter there were so many overlapping letters of words with limited possibilites that it yielded quite easily. I wonder if it would have been almost unsolvable without the first two to get us started…. but thank you, Soup (timely, since it is also the start of home made soup season!) [MS]

I am generally in awe of you amazing people who can construct a 3D crossword, but this is particularly impressive. Enjoyed solving this a lot! [DB]

This seemed rather daunting at first – a 3D ‘Eightsome Reel’? Can’t say I’ve seen one of these before…! But, as with the 2D ones, once you get a couple of adjacent solutions, in my case 2 and 5, then they give a helping hand with the neighbouring ones and so on, in a virtuous circle, if you excuse the pun. The vertical ones caused a bit of brain contortion, but it all fell into place quite neatly in the end. My favourite was probably 30 HARASSED, with the mental image of a hare and an ass cuddling each other on a date! Many thanks to Soup for a ‘soup-er’ puzzle… [MC]

I enjoyed this – the right level of difficulty for me in the cryptic clues themselves, only one unfamiliar word (RENTIERS) and all seemed really fairly clued, so could unravel the harder ones with a bit of thought – perfect. Laughed at Day 10. Found the grid a challenge to understand, but got there in the end. Probably my favourite puzzle of this calendar so many thanks to Soup . I still don’t understand the picture clue even knowing the answer, but I never seem to get them so not letting it spoil my enjoyment! Look forward to more 🙂 [JC]

Reading the instructions filled me with horror but it actually turned out alright, an enjoyable satisfying workout. Souper. [SC]

Fiendish indeed, but after trying one way, and realising it had to be the other way, the clues started to fit into place very elegantly. [SB]

Unusually, this puzzle lacked an external theme, but there was much to admire in the closely interwoven design. It must have been challenging to the setter to work to such a high ratio of checked letters for the answers but still set a challenge to the solver to solve enough clues to get toeholds in the grid that would assist with the trickier clues (of which TROTTERS was, for me, the trickiest). I managed to work out the picture clue this time – a rare feat and treat for me! [AB]

Really interesting use of the 3d grid.[MD]

What an amazing construction. I’m glad I didn’t leave it until the last minute as I found it hard. Some lovely cluing especially day 23 Pioneers. [PD]

The ring entry was an interesting challenge to get your head round! Good range of solutions, all well clued. [JP]

It took me ages to get a handle on this, but once alles klar, a very satisfying challenge! [SF]

Well, that makes a change! Reading the rubric, I wasn’t sure I was going to fully understand what to do, but getting a few interlocking clues pointed to a way forward. Happy to see more like this. [PA]

I liked it. 😎 Took too long to see Sloshing! [DM]

Brilliant achievement by Soup to create such a grid. Mostly with familiar words too, although I had trouble parsing quite a few answers. Thanks very much for a fun challenge. [BS]

This took quite a while to sort out how the entries went in, but once I realised, then it was an enjoyable challenge. Some clever clues here! Thank you Soup for something a bit different. [SB]

I thought I would never be able to fill in the grid but when I’d got all the answers it was easy and I found some answers weren’t quite right. [SG]

I must admit that I don’t really enjoy the puzzles where answers can’t be put in the grid on solving. I almost gave up completely with this one and would have done if I’d had to get to grips with entering the answers, in order to submit a solution. Nevertheless, some of the individual clues gave a satisfying solve…..days 2, 7 and 16 for example. [JB]

I’ve just pulled all my hair out!😩 Nuff said!😵‍💫 [MN]

Puzzle of the year. I like the entry system a lot, and the fact that letters are checked in more ways than usual. [AB]

I liked the cluing. Filling in the grid became tiresome at one point. All the cricket references make solving difficult if not brought up with the game. Thanks to Soup! [JS]