This puzzle was published in the 2020 edition of the 3D Calendar representing the month of September.
Celebrating the 191st anniversary of a creation, which alludes to the
thematic method of entry of all solutions.
All entries and answers are real words or proper nouns (one common
derivative via the Internet).
Clue answers are all of seven words and each must be "peeled" to form the five-letter entry. All entries are real words as stated in the preamble.
It is the 100th published Eclogue puzzle.
The rubric said “Celebrating the 191st anniversary of a
creation (17), which alludes to the thematic method of entry all solutions. All
entries and answers are real words or proper nouns”
Given that the theme was given by Clue 17 and also by the
picture clue I focussed my full attention on it right from the start. Now it’s
not often that I solve the picture clue before the written clue, and it’s not
entirely true that I did so on this occasion. What I did do was get SLEEP going
upwards from the picture clue and that helped solve the quite tricky written
clue to give PEELERS. And I’m glad that I did because it was immediately
apparent that we had to ‘peel’ the outer two letters of each solution in order
make the grid entry. This, of course, made the rest of the solve significantly
more straightforward.
Coincidentally Lynn, my wife, and I had been watching the
ITV box set of Victoria at the time we solved this puzzle and the jousting
between Victoria, Albert and Sir Robert Peel may well have helped subconsciously.
From the comments I
think that this puzzle was probably the toughest of the year so far. Without
getting the method of entry early on it undoubtedly was. Even having done so it
was a very tricky solve. I came across this quote from one of the original test
solvers of the puzzle; “This was one of the trickiest 3D puzzles I've ever
solved, although I did get there in the end. For me, it was much more like an
Azed puzzle than a Guardian one, with a lot of obscure and Scottish words that
needed constructing and then confirming in Chambers. Things were made more
difficult by the fact that it wasn't just within the solutions that there were
obscure words (many presumably necessitated by the theme), but there were also
some obscure definitions within the wordplay elements”. Very much my
thoughts too.
Eclogue is a team of two setters one of whom, Logogriph (aka
Keith Williams), was part of the 3D Crossword team at the time this puzzle was
set. Indeed Keith rose to the challenge of editing the 2020 3D Calendar when
Eric fell ill in Autumn 2019.
3D September 2020
Crossword Solvers' Comments
Tricky, but good fun. I wasn't clear
whether to enter the answers before or after treatment, so I may be back to the
web page! AH
Enjoyed 3D by Eclogue very much. My
favourite clues were to Neatens, Terrors and Venters. Very clever how the
setter managed real words after answers were ‘peeled’! Many thanks. PC
So imaginative. I can feel the
dementia being held at bay! RE
Enjoyed this cleverly constructed
puzzle. Solvers became the thematic PEELERS, removing first and last letter
from each answer before entry. Nice one.👌 MN
A very tough puzzle. I barked up the wrong
tree before I realised the (17) in the directions referred to Day 17's answer
rather than a 17 letter "creation". So I toyed with THE PIANO
ACCORDIAN, which google told me dated back to 1829, thinking it might imply
that I had to concertina the seven-letter solutions. A fellow puzzler helped me
to look again at PEELERS, which made me see that I had to "peel" off the
beginnings and ends of the solutions to fit the five letter words into the grid.
I found it all a bit of a hard slog to tell you the truth, but I still
appreciated the cleverness of Eclogue and Logogriph. JA
This was a rather challenging puzzle that took
me longer than any other to date except for the August Extra. With a dictionary
to hand to look up and check all the more obscure words and meanings, though, I
got through this steadily. I enjoyed the clues. There were some interesting
'creations' in 1829, of which the typewriter and the concertina seemed to have
no relevance, but the Metropolitan Police matched PEELERS perfectly. Thanks to
Eclogue and Logogriph AB
The
missing heads and tails made this a challenge to solve and must have been very
difficult to set.
We enjoyed the puzzle very much but have yet to work out what the 191st
anniversary is. Something to do with gooseberries? JM
A
first read through gave me only a couple of answers, which didn't bode well.
Rereading the instruction saying that entries were also words helped a great
deal. I can't make anything of 24 but TERRORS seems to be the only thing that
fits. 14 construction seems odd. MJ
We
were stuck on day 15 for quite a while....we feared we would never get to the
solution! Scottish slang is not our best suit! HK
We
found this to be the trickiest puzzle so far in this year's calendar. We
spotted quite early that the answers contained 5-letter words, so guessed the
method of entry before getting Peelers. One or two of the early answers were
new to us (looking at you Bidents and Drogers). This was a tour de force of construction
ensuring that every entry fitted the pattern. Thanks for the challenge!
N&SI Beautifully intricate - this must have been harder to compile than to
solve! Most enjoyable. EF
This
was one of the hardest puzzles ever for me. There were some very obscure words.
However I enjoyed it as usual and the novel idea of having words within words.
MP
Harder
than usual! I got the cartoon of ER straight away and didn't take long to start
peeling the answers. What a great bit of construction! I had real trouble with
day 10 and don't see how I got the answer but my entry seems OK. PD
Bloomin'
'eck. This was hard. So many words I didn't know, both before and after
treatment. A very, very clever piece of construction but I had to have a lie
down for a few days after doing it. HS
Great
puzzle - really enjoyed it. BS
After
two or three reads only had a couple! Long, slow burn! Seemed clear from first
few entries that answers had to lose first and last, but did not get 17 for
long time! Not sure I have correct 15 either. Overall an enjoyable challenge.
DM
I
definitely needed the Hints and Tips to get anywhere near completing this one!
Identifying the theme didn’t lead to a spurt of other answers, as it usually
does, and there were a lot of obscure words! JB
Although
I deduced the need to remove the first and last letters of my solution to enter
it into the grid after only a few clues had been solved, it was only when I got
the answer to day 17 that the penny dropped. (I still can't make anything of
Frank Paul's drawing as I don't know who the people shown are, and needed
Google to confirm the date for the Peelers) PM
There
is absolutely no way the answers I am about to give in the boxes above are all
correct. The last half-dozen or so have been made to fit the alphabetic nature
of the answers and tentatively the requirement that the middle 5 letters form a
word. Any resemblance to the real answers to the clues is purely coincidental.
This has got to be one of the hardest 3D puzzles I have attempted. It was the
arcane clueing that did for me. The concept is spectacular cramming 27 words
into a tight 5x5x5 cube. TR
Very
complex, and hard clues ML
After
two or three reads only had a couple! Long, slow burn! Seemed clear from first
few entries that answers had to lose first and last, but did not get 17 for
long time! Not sure I have correct 15 either or 11. Overall an enjoyable
challenge. DM
What
an incredible grid construction! How long did it take to collect a set of word
pairs like that??!? Solving was super tough with the (necessarily) obscure
words. We had given up mid-month and only finished thanks to a little help and
enthusiasm from a fellow solver. Looking forwards to the return of the first
and last letters in October.” J&JH
That
was a tricky one! Very clever theme and idea. AR
191st
anniversary of Met police, originally Peelers after Robert Peel. Apart from the
peeling method to arrive at the solution, I was surprised there were no other
‘copper’ links. A completely different concept
this time, thank you. SF
A
fun solve. Thanks Eclogue! RR
I
really struggled with this one and almost did not send it in at all because I
am so doubtful about some of the answers, and two of them are pure guesses as I
could not solve the clues. So I am right up against the deadline! And I am
pretty certain some are wrong, but did not want to opt out of the attempt. I
got the principle of the method very quickly, having worked out the anniversary
and appreciated the clever clue. I enjoyed solving it at first, but some words
are really pushing the boundaries of what is fair, I felt - and some strange
definitions. I look forward to seeing the solutions! SB
