As well as length and breadth, the 3D crossword also has depth and appears as (usually) 5 grids tiered one above another. In each tier clues can be entered across or backwards or to and fro and the depth aspect comes into play when an answer is entered traversing through the five tiers at one letter per tier, either up or down.
Eclogue's contribution to the 2017 calendar occupies the July slot and marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death.
The grid and clues are therefore packed with thematic material i.e. seven of her principal works. The author's name also appears in the grid but is unclued. Highlighted cells could be arranged to give two other incomplete works, Sanditon and The Watsons.
SOLVER FEEDBACK
.An amazingly clever grid, with 7 book titles plus another fitted
into it! I loved the ‘incomplete set’. Thank you. JJ
Lovely grid and several laugh-out-loud clues! N&SI
Herewith my solution for the July puzzle - nice to recall all the
Jane Austen novels I have read over the years.
The complete set found in the grid:
Emma
Lady Susan
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
The incomplete set found by rearranging letters in the
hightlighted cells are:
Sanditon
The Watsons
Thanks again to you and your helpers for all the hours you spend
preparing these puzzles for us. C&TH
Another smash8ng puzzle with some friendly themed clues but some
tough archaisms that I needed my trusty Chambers tocrack. ‘Espalier’ was very
clever and I laughed out loud at the saucy ‘penitent’. Many thanks. MLJ
What clever weaving of all the titles (even Sanditon and The
Watsons)) 9n the grid. TH
My solution
attached, I enjoyed this puzzle, Jane Austen being one of my favourite authors.
Not sure about
38 , how it works but waiting to see results. NC
Day 5 held me
up for a long time. I eventually found a meaning of EAGER that fits the clue
but still can’t parse it. JT
My sister was visiting at the start of the month, when I had the
calendar primed and ready for action. She is an occasional rather than
regular Guardian solver, but she was intrigued by the cover, so we
made a start together. We had a look at the rubric - help! Meant nothing at the
time (it would have, later in the month, of course). We checked out the
'days' ... day one, nothing; day two, nothing; day three ... I was meant to be
the confident, know-all solver here, and it wasn't shall we say leaping
out of the page at me. Day 19 - a book? Anagram fodder 'crushed', two words? My
sister got there first, think so too, she's probably read it - NORTHANGER
ABBEY! And we were away.
Not that there were not hold ups later. She'd gone back home by
the time I resorted to Google for the unclued SANDITON (which I had vaguely
heard of) and THE WATSONS (which I hadn't). Great fun thereafter, putting
the right yellow letters into the odd tricky clue. PA
Another good challenge with cunning twists and turns! Thanks again
for the fun. R&KB
I always enjoy solving Eclogue's crosswords and this was no
exception. I must admit I was puzzled for longer than I should have been by the
preamble and the complete/incomplete sets. Logogriph has produced a fine grid
and I love the fact that the incomplete set is represented as incomplete, i.e.
as disconnected letter jumbles, while the complete set is rendered as complete
titles.
The clues were very good indeed. I didn't find any of them particularly
tough to solve but that was made up for by the quality of the clues as well as
the preamble.
Favourite clues were those for EMMA, ESPALIER, GONAD, MANSFIELD
PARK, NENE, PASH (especially), PENITENT, TITE, as well as the spectacular SENSE
AND SENSIBILITY and the fabulous PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Hats off!
Many thanks to Eclogue
PS I solved this quite a while ago, before I resovled to send more
useful feedback. I intend to make more notes when solving future 3D puzzles.
And apologies for waiting to the last minute to submit the puzzle, I confused
myself by solving it early and got it into my head that I'd test soilved it
ages ago! Realised my mistake just in time. BL
The theme emerged very early and lulled me into thinking that this
would be very straightforward. In fact there was a lot still to do. I never did
fully prove 1 21to ALIGN. Also 5 10to EAGER leaves me very concerned. Chamber’s
defines EAGRE as ‘a bore or sudden rise of tide’ matching the clue definition;
but the wordplay and the grid clearly lead to EAGER. I look forward to
enlightenment in due course. AG
I enjoyed this month’s offering and the subject matter of
Jane Austen, although the entries were very haphazard. Not sure
about a few of my answers, but hope I’ve made a reasonable stab at the
challenge. SF
An excellent puzzle - don't know how everything got fitted in!
Found it difficult and I 'm not sure about a couple of my entries.
I struggled with 10 to, the rising tide etc. I ended up putting
Edgar in as I'd come across Edgar and Emma by Jane Austen and thought it would
be a waste if it wasn't used!
I also dithered over 38 to. I could find Yakker as australian for
graft/hard work, but Yakser seemed to fit the clue as Ox (Yak) and short
peasant once (Ser no f).
JP
Hello Eric
July's puzzle was a delight! To get anagrams of the unfinished
works on levels 2 and 4 was nothing short of inspired and the whole thing was
extremely well constructed and clued. Many thanks. JM
I've already said how much I admired Pickles' June Extra puzzle.
Eclogue's July offering was equally good - managing to include all
Jane's main titles was quite an achievement and I thought the
clues were
very accomplished. JBs
Pushed for time
this month, and struggled with a few ("yakker" almost did for me - a
completely unknown term, and whilst the first half was very gettable, the
second eluded me (despite being familar with both the military and typographic
meanings of the word "kern").
I thought the
theme was woven into the grid very well, and whilst I've only read P&P, the
rest of the novels were known to me. And happily Wikipedia knew the bits in
yellow that I was completely ignorant of.
Many thanks.MN
A distinctly bipolar crossword – seemingly simple but with a real
sting in the tail ! I found the themed part very straightforward.
Given all the publicity around the bicentenary of the death of Jane Austen it
was obvious that she was the theme and that the complete set was her published
works so it was just a matter of looking at the word/letter counts to determine
which went where, without even having to look at the clues. It was also
predictable that the highlighted cells in tiers 2 & 4 would spell the
titles of her unfinished works, The Watsons and Sanditon. However
it was several of the unthemed clues which provided a real challenge and, even
now, I’m not satisfied that I have fully rationalised my solution for day 5
with the second part of the clue.
We shall see. MC
a very enjoyable afternoon’s entertainment and welcome while I
have been confined to base a little more than usual after a small operation on
my foot. Thank you! All is progressing well though and we are
hoping to escape to eastern Switzerland next week to explore Heidiland and the
Appenzell area.JBn
Here's my
solution to the July puzzle - no problem with the theme this time, as she's
been all over the news ! I was amazed that Eclogue and Logogriph
succeeded in including every one of her mature works (with a couple I don't
recall having heard of before now) by the ingenious use of snakes without
having to resort tp obscure words. I remember that when I constructed a
puzzle to submit as a tie-breaker it was really hard to get enough material on
that theme into it. PM
Thank you for another enjoyably difficult puzzle. Last year
, I remember , we had the first seven recorded LPs of the Beatles and now the
complete works of Jane Austen. Quite a cultured lot really! GS
Relatively easy once the theme became apparent, fairly early on. I
must confess to not having heard of The Watsons, nor having read any of the
others. MJ
Jane Austen came quickly, though did not know unfinished works.
Had not heard of LIGON, LADY SUSAN, but clearly defined and EAGER was new to
me. Good job W there to avoid SUEDE which is old for SWADE! Thanks for this. GM
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