Theme: The Watergate scandal, with subthemes of water and gates
The winner of the June puzzle is Heather Haigh of Oxfordshire.
As a graduate of one of Boatman's courses, and booked to attend his Advanced course in the autumn, I must watch what I say here. Furthermore, Jolt will be the first to read this review, with power to expunge, redact or just simply reject.
How convenient that I don't have anything bad to write.
That doesn't mean that I haven't flailed the odd impotent hand about when the parsing of CRASH and EXITS finally dawned on me.
At this point I must say that I am the last person you want on your quiz team for the picture round. I like Frank Paul's fig/URINE clue, but who is it? The roguishly half-out shirt collar made me wonder if it was our amazing Founder and President (after a haircut) – though I would say he deserves a bigger pedestal. I don't think it's Haldemann, Ehrlichmann or Dean either. [I am indebted to Jolt for the information that it was Araucaria. Sadly, I never met him, but had I done so, I would probably have behaved as I did when lucky enough to meet Sir Garfield Sobers: tongue-tied, and not washing my right hand for a week.]
The [A] clues were my way into the solving of the puzzle, with OTTER my first solution found, followed by a few more which had to be WATER-related. In passing, I enjoyed ICECAPS with its misdirecting use of 'hard'; and the Spoonerism at Day 18 with its neat cross-reference; however the pair of 34/3 with the two words deliciously formed out of HURRICANES should have been highly productive at that stage. But I have to admit that Boatman did me good and proper with his use of two meanings each of 'barge', 'in' and 'short' in the CRASH clue: putting those together is worth a setting gold medal.
Well, if you know Boatman's work in the Guardian, you realise that one of his strengths is in finding a large number of different ways in which a key word may be used. He does not go in for 'ghost' themes, where all seems innocent until you have the answers all in front of you: he does something much more difficult, which is to throw the theme at you head-on, and then use that theme, once only for each use, in a very large number of ways. Collision with barge in short [B] is a wonderful clue, which I only understood properly when taking a last desperate look before writing here what would have been an admission of ignorance. We expect the 'significant' words to carry the meaning – failing that, what is an abbreviation for a word for 'barge'? And so he defeats us. Of course, the whole clue has to have its phrases regrouped and rescanned: barge in / short – i.e. lacking – [B].
Boatman is also a notorious 'lift and separate' merchant, as is shown in the clue for PROOF: of pro/motion might never have done for the Duke – or perhaps the Grand Inquisitor – but I think we know here that we must expect the unexpected. My own view is that crosswords are word games, and that, as long as a proper definition has been given, new and original ways to play on words are welcome – indeed necessary, or we go stale. 'Can it be solved?' is the most relevant question – and this one could.
This particular solver only managed to get [B], the second thematic word, with the considerable help of Day 11, which gave us its initial letter. Fortunately, SEGUE was an early solve with an easy clue, so that the G could be assumed from the start. I then proceeded to say '… 1972… WATER… G… of course!' Having watched the excellent series on BBC i-Player not long ago, I felt even more stupid than usual.
What a nice coincidence the setter was able to exploit in FLOOD; OPENING was a very neat anagram; EXITS was another subtle one, with the S in exist 'set back'. Again, too subtle for me until I sat down to write this. One small quibble: on Day 9, might 'rent' not have been 'rents'? I give the excellent Mr Knowles the benefit, thinking that several fissures might make one rent – but an s would have cost nothing.
The grid was beautifully neat, and as close to snakeless as is possible without calling in St Patrick himself. Beautifully helpful also to Boatman: without filling the grid with Nixons and Washington Posts, as may have been the temptation, Jolt has managed to facilitate Boatman's task. Discreet and effective: no cover-up required. I also found it did not require too much imagination, with the blue barred cells, to see in that grid a sort of 'water-gate' such as one might find in the better class of boathouse.
Graham Fox's photograph was of course superbly calculated: it gave nothing away until one had worked out the theme, at which point it became an obvious clue! Two things I would love to know are (i) how he achieved the depth of focus in that picture: from the elder-like plants clinging to the lock side in the foreground to the details of the narrowboat far away and far below, all is sharp; (ii) how he managed to take the picture without dropping his camera in the lock. He must have been leaning over. Did his hat fall in? Perhaps we shall never know.
AGC June 2022
Grid Solution
June 2022 solution continued ...
See the full list of solutions and explanations and solvers' comments on our website. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
We are now well into the clue writing phase of preparing the 2023 3D Calendar. Our three editors — Hamish Symington, Nick Inglis and Ben Lovering — are working with our professional, and in one or two cases our highly talented amateur setters, in drawing up, checking, testing and rechecking the clues.
The crosswords and themes themselves, largely prepared by regular 3D solvers and team members, were chosen earlier in the year and as usual are a wonderfully eclectic mix that I’m certain will delight you all in 2023.
We aim to have all the crosswords, clues, background photographs and picture clues completed at the very latest by the end of August. Jos then works her magic in putting together all the appropriate artwork in time for dispatch to the printers by mid October ready for sale in November. That, at least, is what we try to do.
Sales in 2021 were outstanding, maybe helped by extra lockdown demand, and we were able to donate £1,500 each to the RNIB and the BBC Children in Need appeal. Both sent very kind letters of thanks which we gratefully received on your behalf. So please accept our thanks in turn for so positively supporting the 3D Calendar.
Sales in 2022 were a little down but we shall still, once the accounts are finalised, be making the best donation that we can to both charities. One thing I can say is that all the work by the team is entirely voluntary so our only expenses relate to the cost of production, distribution and the monthly prizes.
Thank you once again for supporting the 3D calendar project and please, thoroughly enjoy solving the crosswords.
The 3D Team
Upcoming deadlines
Entries for the July puzzle by Soup are due by July 31.
