In aid of RNIB and BBC Children in Need
Answers to the latest puzzle
Clues and Grid by Komorník. What a year’s end to the 2023 calendar! Two puzzles from Komorník, including December’s, promise a stiff challenge to even the most experienced solver and this tie-break proved to be no exception.
Clues by Raich and Grid by Calluna
January is traditionally designed to be a relatively straightforward exercise for experienced solvers and a gentle induction for newcomers into the mysteries of 3D crosswords. As such, therefore, Raich has served up a well-judged and timely offering for the first puzzle of the year.
Clues and Grid by Komorník The first notable thing about this puzzle is the unique diagram. It’s clearly a teapot caught in the act of pouring. And the first clue uses its shape to bend an answer through the handle, around and out onto the smaller grid.
Clues and Grid by Soup. Someone will correct me if wrong, but this is the first Alphabetical Jigsaw (AJ) which I recall seeing in the 3D Calendar. I enjoy them very much: they present a different sort of challenge, while obviously offering crucial help, in that one knows — more or less — the initial letter of each item.
Clues and Grid by Shark. The mezzanine floor lives (thanks to Shark and his little grey cells)! I have always thought that we could do more with our interstitial levels — anagrams, Ninas, patterns — and this month Shark has filled them — with words. He has also taken us deep into the realm of highly successful popular culture
Clues by Imogen and Grid by Gin. Between the Scylla of what looks to be a monstrous construction by Shark for October and the Charybdian vortex of Sirius’s force-field we find… a normal puzzle, by Imogen and Gin. However, Imogen can be a most proficiently awkward concealer of what he really means, and Gin’s grids always present their themes in ingenious ways.
Clues by Curmudgeon and Grid by Bozzy. The winner of the July Extra puzzle is Michael Syrotinski. Having written only two months ago of the love which cryptics fans have for Nutmeg, it is sobering now to be reviewing the puzzle — as solvers will have worked out
Clues and Grid by Sirius. The winner of the August puzzle is Sheila Brain of Devon. “How does he do it?” the shouts go up, almost unanimously (Mrs Reviewer might say “Why does he do it” but let’s just say we’re very glad he does). To make a grid and clues out of a landmark piece of social history
Clues by Enigmatist and Grid by etc. The winner of the July puzzle is Norah Clewes of Cheshire. Setters and designers like to set themselves tasks: for some it is the pangram (or, for the really twisted, the triple pangram); for others the hiding of a theme
Clues by Tramp and Grid by Rikki. The winner of the June puzzle is Steve Trollope of South Australia. I must start with the top left of the calendar page, and the remarkable additional clue which Graham Fox—or Rikki, or Jolt?—included in the background picture! Well—to quote the song—whoever it was, I’m a fan.