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Clues and Grid by Curmudgeon
Theme: UK Decimal Day, 15 February 1971
The winner of the February puzzle was Peter Aylmer of Bishop's Stortford.
The rubric said: this puzzle marks the 50th anniversary of a time (highlighted) when the relationship between two of the solutions was altered, while three others were made redundant. Solutions are to be entered jigsaw-wise where they will fit. The solution for Day 9 is to be entered in the down direction and there is one snake at Day 28 as illustrated. Solvers must submit with their entry two extra items: the number of the altered solution in the bottom tier needed to make up the redundant one in the top tier (a) before the change (5), and (b) after it (6-4). Clues are presented alphabetically.
Well this does look interesting. I think it is the first time we have been asked to construct a jigsaw for a solution in the main calendar as opposed to one of our extra puzzles. Curmudgeon usually sets a fairly straightforward puzzle from a cluing perspective and Puck has clearly raised the bar by adding this twist.
With a jigsaw we need to solve the great majority of the clues before attempting assembly into the grid. I made reasonably good progress on clue solving and particularly enjoyed solving the picture clue; PENANCE less the Na for sodium. I always enjoy solving the picture clue and practice is improving my success rate. By the time I switched my attention to the jigsaw I’d solved all bar three clues, including those for TINHORN and PANSIES.
With a number of currency related answers, particularly examples of the old £sd, emerging the theme was clearly related to coinage. Once I got DECIMAL the penny dropped; this is all to do with Decimal Day. A quick bit of research and that was confirmed. Strangely enough, as a young man, I worked for Royal Mail at the time in the stamp design and policy unit and Decimal Day had a major impact with a full range of new stamps to be issued in parallel with the new coinage. Memories indeed.
With 3D jigsaws the tricky bit is how to start. In this instance there is an obvious entry point. The highlighted yellow cells and what looks like DECIMAL across the top tier rear and DAYTIME across the bottom tier rear. We’re told that Day 9 DOSED is entered downwards and that fits nicely between the two D’s of DECIMAL and DAY. We’re off and running. Normally I search for potential candidates to fit into square 1 of the grid, so this is the next step. Clearly only answers beginning with either ‘A’ or ‘P’ are eligible. (‘I’ might have been a possibility but with no seven letter word beginning with ‘I’ it was ruled out). An exploration of the options leads to ‘P’ being the most likely with ‘A’ leading in the front left corner of tier two. Given the snake shape of SHILLING there is a good chance that it runs from the ’S’ of DOSED in tier two of the grid and LUNGE helps confirm this as it fits in with the ‘L’ from DECIMAL and the ‘NG’ from SHILLING. The rest follows reasonably rapidly.
Now to the Easter eggs. We’re obviously after something pre-decimal with an altered value post decimal. I have to confess to spending more time than I should have on resolving this. I must have gone through every option of pence and shillings into pounds and florins before eventually hitting on pence into a crown.
At least one of you raised the concern that it would be possible to get the correct solutions and enter them online without actually completing the jigsaw. Puck did carefully consider this point and the Easter eggs were specifically designed and worded to overcome this possibility. You had to have completed the jigsaw in order to confidently identify what in the bottom tier might be altered and what in the top tier might be made redundant.
I heartily thank Curmudgeon for a delightful theme and Puck for raising the bar and adding the testing couple of Easter eggs.
Alan Goddard
Grid solution
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