This edition covers:

1. The review of the August 2021 crossword
2. A tribute to Oberto
3. A reminder of upcoming deadlines

Clues and Grid by Sirius

Theme: Doughnuts

The winner of the August puzzle was Janet Brown of Stroud.

We were told that solutions of blue highlighted clues are of a kind, as are those in yellow, cryptically. A word for the ‘blues’ and a word for the ‘yellows’ combine to make a thematic example of the ‘greens’. ‘Greens’ generally are things you might acquire in one of Mrs Sirius’s favourite retail outlets.

Cells with heavy outlines accommodate the solution to a very long entry (4,4,3,4,3,{8},3,3,4,3,{4}) clued by “Optimists advice for solvers and those embarking on Mayflower provisions”.

Finally we are told that letters represented in curly brackets appear in wordplay and solution but not in individual cells in the grid.

Sirius is a seriously creative talent. Apart from generating and giving birth to the whole concept of 3D crosswords, he has also created the 7 dials grid, the spherical grid and now the torus grid. This puzzle is the debut for the torus grid. I suspect that just getting the hang of filling the grid will prove taxing. 

On an initial run through I can only solve three clues. Not surprising; it always takes me some time to adapt to Sirius’s very often quirky cluing. One thing I know is that designers, editors and setters spend ages debating and amending the instructions for these crosswords, which are therefore precise if sometimes misleading. They are, as such, worth some study and may provide a way into the crossword. We are clearly after a generic word for the ‘yellows’ and for the ‘blues' which combined will lead to the ‘greens’.

After some pondering I get COCONUT in the yellows which helps lead to CASHEW and PECAN. So we’re after nuts. I have a genuine laugh solving GONADS defined by ‘family jewels’. So any sort of nuts fit the bill, and so to LOCO via Thomas the Tank Engine’s friend Blue Gordon. Clue 24 27E Hickory dickery dock? Woof! (8) proves to be a Sirius special. From solving an earlier clue I have the final ‘K’ and woof = bark. In the absence of inspiration, a trawl for eight letter words ending in ‘bark’ leads to SHAGBARK, another name for Hickory. Dickery dock for SHAG! Classic Sirius. Too good an opportunity to miss. Ximenes turn in your grave. 

I find the ‘blues’ much harder to break into. I get BACON and after a struggle BUCKS (from president Truman’s desk). Having googled Sooty’s girlfriend as Soo I add SOUS. What links this lot and goes with nuts? No idea. A detailed study of the ‘greens’ eventually gives me APPLE STRUDEL. This in turn leads to FANCIES and CRACKERS. Torus grid, money, nuts; from somewhere DOUGHNUT crystallises. 

A diversion from my focus on the coloured cells leads to LET THEM EAT CAKE and hence to the Austrian woman (I thought that she was French) who said it: Marie Antoinette. With most of the letters in the long phrase in place and inserting ‘DOUGHNUT’ as the eight letter word in curly brackets, a search for quotations eventually leads to “KEEP YOUR EYE UPON THE DOUGHNUT AND NOT UPON THE HOLE”. A quote from Margaret Attwood’s (an initially similar author) The Blind Assassin. So HOLE filled the second set of curly brackets. 

Thoroughly enjoyable, thank you Sirius.

If you enjoyed Sirius’s ingenious offering, there’s until the end of September to tackle Komorník’s August Extra puzzle clued by Sirius. It has a great denouement.

Grid solution

Solvers will be sad to learn of the passing of Robert Boot, super-solver and grid designer, Oberto. Robert has been a member of our 3D Crossword Community since the early days. I wrote to Robert’s wife, Kit, who asked if I would record that tribute for use in the funeral to be held at Mortlake Crematorium, Kew Meadow, Richmond, on Wednesday 15^th September 2021, and streamed across the globe to far-flung family and friends.

Kit and Robert Boot, aka Oberto

Transcript of letter sent to Kit and recording thereof sent to Kit Boot as requested by her for use in the funeral.

Dear Kit,

I am grateful to Nora for copying me in to the sad news of Robert's passing. I wanted to tell you that we share some sense of that huge loss and are thinking of you. I also wanted to tell you of our very considerable regard for one of the amazing stalwarts of our 3D Crossword community right from the early days, not to mention our appreciation of Robert's, or should I say Oberto's, many contributions to our development.

I am also aware, in a small way, of the loving support you have given, particularly in recent years, to enable Robert to stay in touch with this slightly bonkers puzzling project and raise funds for youngsters in need.

Robert was kind and thoughtful in commenting on the puzzles as we ventured into the newly created 3D world. Solver feedback was and remains crucially important in the development of the genre and the community it formed. It was wonderful to have such a super-solver with us. And one who stays with us still as a grid designer in the archive and so part of the nebulous slightly wacky spirit that is diffuse amongst the puzzles.

It was a pleasure to meet you two for the first time in Coventry and then a couple of years later in Winchester at award presentation lunches. I could then imagine the quiet intelligence and impish wit with which Robert E Boot went about Three Dimensional Crossword solving, with perhaps a ghost of a smile at the occasional penny-dropping clue and a sapient, satisfied blink of the eyes. I could also see a creative craftiness with which he designed a series of captivating grids for our setters to clue and our solvers to relish in the solving. How wonderful to see such talent grow and come to fruition in an ascending series including 2013 OCT TYRUS on Verdi, 2014 JUN COLUMBA on R Strauss, 2015 DEC PUCK on Sinatra, and then my favourite 2016 FEB ARACHNE on Kenneth Williams and Carry On films. And so on through 2017 NOV ANAX on The Sorceror, and then my memory becomes hazy but includes The Cheltenham Gold Cup!! I sense an influence there Kit!

I will have said along the way 'Oberto just gets better and better'.

I am most incredibly grateful to Robert, and I suspect yourself, for all those hours upon hours of research and then fiddling and twiddling the words together to accommodate the theme in a 3D grid, until finally completing it with great satisfaction to be lived again when solvers gave their feedback after the puzzle. I know Robert worked on all the feedback as his grids grew and grew in stature.

Oberto featured in more than one photo-finish in The World Championships with nothing more than a hairs breadth between him and the declared winner but he will always be a 3D world champion to me.

Oberto's tie-break clue, acknowledged by all the contenders is world class in any company.

'Comic actor fiddles while man tinkles' (7,8)

On the face of it , it seems to show a chap on the violin and another playing the piano. No pursed lips there. No sensibilities outraged. Perfectly respectable.

But then this is a clue in a grid with a Kenneth Williams and Carry On theme with all those risqué double entendres! What a wonderful clue and one of my all-time favourites - thematic in its solution of the KW theme, and thematic in the way it is solved. The surface has the double entendre.

How wonderful and what a pleasure and privilege it has been to have walked through this wondrously puzzling 3D world of surprises for some of the way with you.

Thank you so much, Robert and Kit.

Best wishes,
Eric Westbrook
Le President
BBC CiNA 3D Crosswords
Registered Blnd RNIB Member and Volunteer Public Speaker

----

Oberto would like you to take the letters of WHILE MAN TINKLES and fiffle with them until you get the name of someone.

And of course that name is KENNETH WILLIAMS!

Entries for both the August Extra puzzle by Sirius and the September puzzle by Shark are due by September 30.