Elementary

 Preamble

All clues are normal, but are divided into four sets of twelve solutions each, as follows:-

A) A     Each solution is entered with one letter added – the added letters could be rearranged to form BAND USES DEMO

B) B     Each solution is entered with one letter subtracted – the subtracted letters could be rearranged to form GROUP FOUNDED

C) C     Each solution is entered as a single word anagram

D) D     Each solution is entered normally.

All resulting entries are real words or proper nouns. Taking one original solution from each of the three sets will provide a musical group, three current or former members of which appear as entries in the final grid which should be highlighted, together with one of their hit singles (nine letters in a straight line, enabling the central square to be completed).  Four clue solutions provide two other hit singles by way of confirmation.  All enumerations refer to the length of grid entries.  One solution is in Collins.

Maurice / Verdine WHITE (38a), Philip BAILEY (6d) and Ronnie LAWS (12a) are/were three current or former members of EARTH (35), WIND (38) & FIRE (26d).  Their hit singles included LET’S GROOVE (24/41) and BOOGIE WONDERLAND (9/1d) and SEPTEMBER (highlighted diagonal – which with the help of the letter string in the preamble also resolves the two occurrences where the added letter is otherwise unchecked at 24a and 3d).

Solvers' Comments

Either the description was very generous, or I've been listening to this song too much, because my very first action was to pencil in "September" down the diagonal. Anyway, this was a lovely puzzle with clues that made me grin.

The four methods of entry provided an interesting challenge. After a lot of cold-solving, the single-word anagrams became relatively easy to spot, and the provision of the letters added and subtracted kept the level of difficulty to a C-grade.

I suppose it was deliberate that WATER is the answer to a type D clue. I tried to see how much I could enter without guessing and without using that the final entries are real words, and was happy that most of the grid could be filled under these conditions, but obviously several of the added letters appear in unchecked cells so I eventually had to check if some things were real words.

I was able to cold-solve many of the easy clues, which helped with the grid entries. The title should have guided me to the key words for the group, but I Googled 'September' as soon as I saw it in the diagonal and got the group that way. I do remember the group's name (though not the members) but I don't think I ever listened to their music. An enjoyable puzzle with an accessible theme.

I think I looked from elementary to Group to Band in the intro and preamble and leapt to Earth Wind and Fire. But that is as far of my knowledge of the group went so still spent a while on that there wikipedia and yon youtube reading and listening (often simultaneously, though that does make also drinking a cup of hot cocoa trickier). Not completely convinced my cup of tea, music-wise, but the crossword was good. Thanks.

Very well put together, with much to keep track of during solving. With grid almost complete, SEPTEMBER looked promising and handy pub googlers confirmed the group and names. Why are so many pop themes based on modern rubbish instead of the proper artists and songs of the 50s/mid-60s? Many setters are old enough to remember them, and the youngsters could easily find them on the net.

I think this represents the real gain the internet has given us. What might have been a relatively obscure niche, dividing solvers into those of the precise age and everybody else, has become perfectly fair and researchable general knowledge.

Nice variation in answer treatments added to the entertainment. Particularly liked 32 across. Spent a while looking for the third member before deciding White was doing double duty - sneaky! (Or I’ve missed something.)

Interesting variety of turning answers into lights, which needed a careful bit of 'book-keeping'. SEPTEMBER was easily found and the rest followed quickly from the internet. Having finished the puzzle, I thought I better listen to September to hear the masterpiece that had attracted Eclogue's attention. That was a big mistake!

Well worked, and a nice reminder of some classics (it set me off on a greatest hits trail via Apple Music).

It isn't often that I get the theme of a puzzle before solving any clues, but it happened on this occasion. Considering the various threads that needed keeping track of, I was actually quite grateful to know what was going on so early on. A terrific tribute to a great band, and it was particularly good to see just so much thematic material included. Many thanks, Eclogue.

Gosh, Earth, Wind & Fire have had so many members, chances are a Magpie subscriber has probably been in the band at one point or another. Not me though... far too young. In fact, they were on the curriculum when I did GCSE music as a textbook example of disco. Fun puzzle, thanks for getting September stuck in my head for a day or two.

Nice puzzle, plenty of thematic matter, not too tricky. Thanks to Eclogue

Crossword about a band, and Wonderland is the first clue solved. Nothing to see here. Eventually the penny dropped: brought a smile to our 50 something faces. Sometimes I think we should set a timer for 5 minutes to discuss the title only before thinking about any clue - we'd have got Earth Wind & Fire after about three minutes if we'd thought about it.

Great title for a fun tribute puzzle! Unfortunately I only know the tune to like two bars of the chorus of "September," so I spent 75% of the puzzle singing something like "all we are, rhythm is a dancer; all we are, we are, we are" over and over in my head. I'm fairly certain that none of those words is correct. I didn't realize until a while after I'd finished the puzzle that I was solving it IN September. Looking up the other two hit singles helped me finish the puzzle, as I was having a difficult time with the grid-fill. So thank you for that: the "confirmation" was more like a strong hint to me! I like that each element corresponds to a different way of entering entries into the grid, including WATER entered normally!. To me wind, rather than earth, seems more like an "anagram" element; it's a shame there are no anagrams of WIND. If only they'd named the band Earth, Air, and Fire, we could have had RIA, FIR, and HEARTH or something. The entry gimmicks made filling the puzzle a lot harder than it would be otherwise, but I thought the added challenge was fun.

Very nice - liked the four different elements of the clues and there was some fiddly bits with the additions so hope I got it all right.

I enjoyed this: so much thematic detail crammed into the grid. My only slight criticism would be that the preamble and title gave a little too much away (even though it's not a band I know much about) ... so there wasn't really a hugely epiphanous PDM. But the four entry modes were inspired, and the finish was quite tricky (still not 100% sure I have all the added letters right). Kudos.

Back to the Future

Back to the Future

This puzzle celebrates the “one hit wonders”, ZAGER & EVANS (the unclued entries) who topped the UK singles chart in 1968 with “In the Year 2525” (hence, back to the future).  Solvers were required to highlight the central bars which read 2525.

Back to the Future by Eclogue - Solvers' Comments

 

I found a few of the 13-letter down answers early on which helped me get started with filling the grid, but it took me a little while to realise that the 5-letter down entries didn't end in the bottom row. I also made a little trouble for myself by entering INTERNAL ANGLE (not in Chambers). When I had solved most of the clues I thought the first unclued entry could be EVANS but I had no idea about the other one. I spent quite a while trying to make sense of the central column before I decided that I might as well insert all of the horizontal bars in that column and then the theme was immediately clear. I suppose Zager and Evans status as one-hit wonders means I am probably not alone in knowing nothing about them beyond this song.

An enjoyable puzzle about this strange one-hit wonder. It took quite a while to spot the 'central thematic material' after filling the grid - neatly concealed by Eclogue!

I'd never heard of any of this (I assume that puts me in the majority) but it was clear enough what to do. Highlighting bars isn't easy in a small submission grid; hope the marking is suitably lenient.

Zager & Evans jumped out pretty quickly. Good Lord. 51 years ago! I used to like that track. == For a welcome change, a theme I did not need to research, though not a fan of protest-type songs then in vogue. By 1969 pop was already in decline and has continued thus ever since.   ==   Does not seem like a B puzzle to me, though that may be because it has a very obvious theme that I have missed or am not familiar with. I solved all the clues, and searched for plausible themes with EVANS and LAGER, or reversals involving KNAVE and JAGER or REGAL. Seeing nothing sensible in the central area, I highlighted the central column and gave my best guess for the unclued entries.

I must have been a bit slow because the endgame for this puzzle took longer than the solve. I didn't enter the horizontal bars down the middle of the grid in case words appeared. Of course, no words appeared, so once I had entered the bars, the penny dropped and I remembered the song.

I find the absence of wordlengths makes a clue much harder to solve. Slow to start, therefore, but 1a and the four 13-letter words eventually locked everything into place. Then plain sailing to the end except for the unclued words and the theme. EVANS seems likely, or is it KNAVE (BACKwards) and maybe REGAL. Can't make any sense of the central letters. But stare at the grid long enough and 2525 eventually becomes so obvious that one wonders how one could possibly have missed it for so long. Google does the rest.

A very nice puzzle about the role of bars in a piece of music.

Oh dear - we remembered this! Fell into place quite easily once we realised that a lot of the down answers were the full length of the grid.

Clever to use the bars themselves as thematic objects! I'd never seen that before. Thanks for the puzzle.

One-hit wonders Zager and Evans required some recollecting..... In the year 2525, if man is still alive If woman can survive, they may find...... cheerful stuff!

Very enjoyable puzzle - a song I remember hearing in my youth. I’m hoping the reference to “central thematic material” means just the bar pattern and that I’ve not missed anything else!

One of two really neat B-grades this month. It took me an awfully long time to spot the 2525…

Filling the grid wasn’t too hard but I then spent most of the month trying to work out what to highlight before the penny dropped with an almighty clang. Cleverly done, even if I should have got there sooner. Favourite clues were those to nief and hili.

Although only a B grade, this took me a long time in sorting out the end game. I spent ages listening to that bloody song, hoping to find something that was buried in the grid. It might have been helpful to specify the number of cells involved and to make it clear that the thematic material was all part of a contiguous whole. I did wonder about also highlighting the word "in" a couple of rows above, but decided that it was included inside "decline".

Ah, good old Google - Evans was pretty obvious so typing in 26 -AGER's until, "Yes, of course, I really meant ZAGER" did the trick.

After much cold solving I was stuck, until I used an anagram solver from the internet for 3 of the down clues (which I am ashamed to admit) and then everything fell into place. Favourite clues: Stray remains... for MISGO and Understands that... for REMINERALISES.

Not quite as fiendish as it first appeared, but it did show me just how much I depend on answer lengths... Anyway, not too much grid-staring at the end, and I'll always enjoy a puzzle which uses the bars in an imaginative way. Thanks, Eclogue.

I hadn't heard this song before, and now I can't get it out of my head. That's a shame, because I don't think the song is particularly great, but I can see why it was a huge hit. If they didn't have those super melodramatic slow parts, I'd actually really like it. Maybe I can leave those bits out when I sing it. I'm confused by the "central thematic material" in the preamble. I THINK this means the bars spelling 2525, but I spent a while looking for "exodium" or "terminus" somewhere. And I wasn't sure how to highlight bars, so I just highlighted the whole central area. If the thematic material _is_ the bars, then I don't see why we'd need to highlight it. So most likely I've just missed something. After solving, I wondered whether additional bars in the outer columns might have helped reduce obscurities in the fill, at the expense of worsening the visual effect. Since I've never set a crossword and you've set, I think, hundreds or thousands, I must defer to your judgment :)

This had a wonderful PDM. I kept staring at the center column of letters, as well as the letters around the center of the grid, but when I finally just pulled back a bit and looked at the grid as a whole, there it was. Beautiful payoff.

Looked like a very tricky C grade at first glance but then saw GREENFINGERED and realised there must be a whole host of long down answers and then it came together quite quickly. Nice construction using all those 13 letter answers.

Another straightforward fill followed by a bit of a struggle at the death. I did manage to twig Zager and Evans but then spent ages carving the whole grid into quarters ans trying to represent a number in each quarter. Of course the various letter combos I tried made no sense. I finally remembered that I had not added the grid lines to that central column and immediately realised what was going to happen. A nice teaser, thank you

Not often you see six thirteen-letter words in a 13x9 grid! Such a cute construction. I was originally reluctant to put the central bars in, thinking the middle column might spell something out. When I did, it all fell into place. Very cute. (By happy coincidence, this came out on the same day as Phi's '8x8' with another numerical sixties song. They were fun to do together.)

 

Periodic Table

Pubished in the November 2019 issue of The Magpie as puzzle 203.6

The preamble reads:  

Clue lengths refer to grid entries. Solvers must highlight the individual responsible for the method of entry and remove the contents of the cell that is inconsistent with the title. 

All entries are made using the first, first, second, third, fifth and eighth letters of the clue answer as far as is possible in accordance with the FIBONACCI sequence (a ‘periodic’ selection).  All letters used in the grid are single-letter chemical symbols with the exception of A, which must be deleted.

Solvers' Comments

I assumed from the title that each cell would contain a symbol of an element, so "obviously" the answers that led to shorter entries would have two letters in some cells and I had no idea how two-letter answers would give three-letter entries. I soon found some answers like OAKEN and SNYE where I didn't know what I was going to do with the E. When I had solved all but five of the clues I still hadn't worked out how to form any of the entries. I think this is the closest I have come to solving all of the clues in a puzzle without writing anything in the grid, but I suppose I had sometimes had some help from "checking" letters, such as assuming that entries that started in the same cells had answers that started with the same letter. I had noticed that four- and five-letter answers had entries of the same length so assuming that entries of these lengths should be jumbles of the answers I found that 12a had to be ONAKE and that 15a could be HTUN (I hadn't solved 16d yet) but moving the last letter to second place didn't seem like it would work for other four- and five-letter answers (e.g. 11d would clash with 12a) and I couldn't see how to extend this to entries which didn't have the same length as their answers. Eventually I noticed that entering the first three letters of the answer in the second, third and fourth cells seemed to work quite well, but to apply this to the answers in the top row and left column seemed to require that the first letter also appear in the first cell. Then I was able to fill enough of the grid to see most of FIBONACCI and all became clear.

I solved literally every clue but couldn't see how this could all fit together. Too good for me, this one. Wouldn''t have got there in a month of Sundays!

This is the one that held me up this month. Only after answering all the clues and playing about with these did I spot the possibility of Fibonacci. == Despite solving all the clues except 16 down (though this might be JENNY) I could not fill in a single entry. All very frustrating, GWIT at an extreme level. == All but 4 clues solved; no idea what to do.

Didn’t find the PDM even after solving all the clues except one, so I guess a D grade is appropriate, and I’ll kick myself when I see the answer.

I have solved all the clues and have no idea what the entry method is, although I'm sure it will be obvious when I see the answer. Congratulations Eclogue.

Definitely a backwards solve, I found Fibonacci in the guessed-at grid before I found him in the clues. Shame the A doesn't fit.

This was extraordinary! I cold solved all the clues, and although I realised there were a lot of single letter element symbols, I couldn’t see how they should be entered. Eventually, I realised that the initial letters were repeated, and then that the third letter of the entries were the second letters of the answers, which then revealed FIBONACCI in the diagonal, which made everything clear - even explaining the one cell no longer consistent with the title Probably my PDM of the year !

This was a really ingenious puzzle from Eclogue, and most enjoyable. Took a long time for the penny finally to drop for the entry method.

Having answered all clues except 26, I cannot for the life of me work out the method of entry. I've spotted that the letters O, N and I appear much more often than one would expect. And S, K and C are also surprisingly common. But that's about as far as I get. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh !

Extremely infuriating, then extremely satisfying. I was baffled about how the same entry method could apply to all entries, where some got longer, some stayed the same length and some got shorter. It never occurred to me that letters could repeat themselves... Quite a lot of cold-solving involved, so thank you for the gentler clues. I am, however, left with that all-too-familiar, uneasy feeling of not having understood everything (one letter no longer consistent with the title... Oh wait! Just got it! Single-letter elements. Oh I do feel clever now. I did think the limited variety of letters rather odd...). I'm all the more impressed. Thank you, Eclogue.

The penny took too long to drop, even after seeing the individual. Another great puzzle.

A nice idea, surprisingly difficult to spot given its simplicity, making for a fun and challenging puzzle.

Excellent. Light dawned ever so slowly with this one, but in the end it did. A simple idea nicely done. I don't understand the need for 'in Aberdeen' at 13a.

This was very clever and and very tough. Eventually I felt confident enough to enter the 1st letter twice followed by the 2nd and 3rd letters (some clashes but not many) and found what looked like FIBONACCI in the diagonal which explained all. I assume the one cell that is no longer consistent is A (now Ar). Thank you Eclogue for a hard but enjoyable work-out.

 

Font Feet

Published in theSeptember 2019 issue of The Magpie as puzzle no 201.5.

Six clues lack definitions, the solutions for which indicate the method of entry only. These clues also contain a four-letter word, the contents of which must be replaced to make a new word in a similar manner to the transformation shown in the title.  The replacement letters comprise the first and last letters of an extraneous word occurring either end of the same clue.  When rearranged, the new letters provide a producer and a cast member.  Three other unclued entries and the central square must be filled to complete the theme.  Answer lengths refer to grid entries.  One cell will share entry methods.

The theme is the 1992 film, RESERVOIR DOGS (defined by FONT FEET), the first film of Quentin Tarantino telling the story of a bungled diamond heist.  Six of the characters bear colour pseudonyms, Mr White (Harvey KEITEL), Mr Orange (Tim ROTH), Mr Blonde (Michael MADSEN), Mr Pink (Steve BUSCEMI), Mr Blue (Edward BUNKER), and Mr Brown (Quentin TARANTINO).  Three other key cast members are Chris PENN, Lawrence TIERNEY and Kirk BALTZ.  The replacement letters in four-letter words in clues spell the remaining main cast member Randy BROOKS and the producer, Lawrence BENDER.

Solvers' Comments

I had only solved one of the special clues (31d) when I had filled enough of the grid to see the theme on the diagonal, and then it didn't take long to solve four more of the special clues. I have seen the film, but it was a long time ago and I eventually used the internet to remind myself that the last colour was Blonde. I understood the title once I knew what the theme was, and I suppose the title was the inspiration for the unusual device used in the clues lacking definition. The process of solving 1d seemed particularly strange to me: the first and last letters of 'badge' replace the middle letters of 'okay', then the middle letters of the resulting word replace the first and last letters of 'club'.

I filled in KEITEL and MADSEN in white (honest guv) [cells blank] == I'm not quite sure about the finale to Font Feet - still, it looks rather pretty the way I've presented it. [no letters, just colours] == Not enough info in Halliwell so needed pub googlers to sort this out. Didn't bother deriving the producer/cast member so hope that doesn't matter.

Well done for fitting so many thematic elements in.

I was really surprised when I searched 'Reservoir Dogs' on xwdb and found that it hadn't been used before, and the way Eclogue managed it has surely got to be the best way. Really packed a great deal of the film into the puzzle. I only have a minor reservation, which was the gimmick... Was it meant to be Stuck in the middle with you? If so, it could perhaps have been made more explicit... But I think I'm being a bit grumpy there. Really enjoyed it, thank you Eclogue.

Whilst living in London I was up to date with recent film releases worth seeing but sadly those days are long gone. Haven't even seen RD but I probably enjoyed this puzzle as much as I would have the film.

I may have tackled this had I not been away last week on the storm-girt Isles of Scilly.............

I know I'm going to regret asking this, but is there a significance to the title other than demonstrating the cluing device?

It's difficult to believe this film has has not been used before for a puzzle. Eclogue elegantly implemented the theme, using some very tough clues for the colours. TARANTINO gave me the information I needed to crack the puzzle. Very good debut puzzle; welcome Nerk and thank you.

It may be difficult to read Keitel in white, but it's there.

Just had to write as soon after completing as possible. Superb! Really enjoyed this one, the third completed this month. Saw the possibility of Tarantino and Penn earlyish which suggested Reservoir Dogs but it was quite a while before enlightenment dawned. 1 down saw that flash of realisation and then it filled in quickly.

It took ages for my penny to drop on this one. RESERVOIR DOGS in the diagonal finally got it for me. The 6 clues lacking definition were so tricky, however, that I had to fill in the answers first (using Google) and work backwards to understand the clues !

Neatly constructed. Took a while to see what was going on but spotting Tarantino emerging made everything fall into place. Some doubt about how to indicate white text and the blue/pink clash but presumably reasonable attempts will be accepted. Overall a nice challenge.

I found this one slightly odd: clueing the characters by their colours was fine, but the gimmick of 'transforming' four-letter words seemed a bit arbitrary. But it was an admirably comprehensive treatment of the theme.

Three-pointers

This appeared in the Magpie of February 2019 as Magpie puzzle 194.3 and was allocated grade C.  The preanmble states:

Answers to five clues must be modified before entry, while a further five entries are clued without definition.  Every clue contains an extra letter which should be removed prior to solving.  In clue order, these letters provide further instructions which the solver must follow.

(It should be noted that the clues for this puzzle were written with a football flavour, intended to slightly mislead.)

Three-pointers

The grid depicts the five principal UK speed limits which are formed from parts of THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, FOUR O’CLOCK, HAWAII FIVE-O, SIX OF THE BEST and SEVENOAKS.  Each speed is compiled from the numerical equivalent of the number in the answer concatenated with the immediately subsequent ‘O’.  The extra letters in clues spell DRAW RED CIRCLES AROUND SPEEDS AND HIGHLIGHT CAMERAS.  The title refers to penalty points received when being caught by such cameras breaking the limits than the football theme which the clues suggested.

Solvers' Comments

It took a long time for me to get the theme - so the deception worked. Is Eclogue working off some points bitterness here?

When I had found the theme I could guess the meaning of the title, but where I come from a speeding offence is worth at least 10 demerit points.

Pointer's misdirection last month left me niggled (as, like others, I fell for the trap). The misdirection here left me hugely satisfied, especially since the surface readings of the clues brought back come great memories eg Hunter's brawl! == Well put together (except for the 14 unchless entries). Having decided on a theme, how do setters then decide what shape the grid should be? The length of 25a perhaps? Or does Sympathy or similar do all that?

A very neat puzzle, impressive to see all 30-70 numbers in the grid. Grade felt right

The speed limits were neatly engineered. FOUR O’CLOCK was my first thematic solve, followed by SIX OF THE BEST (the definition to which struck me as a rather loose). 25a had me puzzled for a while because I’ve always remembered the title wrongly as ‘The Love of Three Oranges’, which didn’t quite fit. I was also mystified initially by 2d; I was convinced the answer must be HULA HOOPS, but didn’t enter it until almost all the letters were confirmed. My limited sporting knowledge extends to understanding the reference to Denis Law in31a, but ‘Celtic’ for HOOPS was rather too obscure for me. The connection between the speed limits and the sports theme running through the clues eluded me. I thought it was a slight pity that some of the removals left non-words, but I enjoyed the puzzle.

Well, thank God for the Internet -- as an American, I would never have had any idea what this was all about otherwise. Our speed cameras are used differently and have different signage, and the various brands and types are not general knowledge. But one photo of a British speed camera in action with its accompanying sign made crystal clear what I was supposed to do about the numbers and those red circles.

It took me a while to solve the first of the five 'speed limit' clues. Very clever grid construction and delightful clues.

I struggled a little to get started until TRUVELO seemed possible and, even then, I didn't immediately twig the theme. When I did, other thematic elements came together, although some searching was involved as SPECS and VECTOR were new to me (and I still can't see any non-cruciverbal use for the knowledge). 7 OAKS gave me some trouble but brought to mind the infamous hurricane that (apocryphally, at least) reduced its tree count somewhat.

Despite seeing the digits fairly early on, this held its secrets until the very end, partly because I didn't recognise the camera names. The football themed clues also suggested that the theme was also football related.

The title, and the relentless football themes in all the clues [for which much respect], did mislead me for a bit to begin with. However, when I ignored the football and spotted the 50, 70 and 60 (in that order) and then saw GATSO, it all fell into place. Clever of Eclogue to work the 30 ... 70 symbols into the grid !

I'm always impressed when setters use what seems to be a rather unlikely theme for a puzzle (in this case, speed cameras) to create an enjoyable puzzle such as this one. The entry device for achieving the speed limit signs was a very nice touch.

Who knew there were so many ways to photographically record speeding cars? Not me but as is so often the case, a crossword has expanded my store of trivia. Thanks Eclogue and Magpie.

The obfuscation lasted for a long time! As a West Brom fan, I was pleased to see the Hawthorns featuring in the clues. The revelation about speed cameras came quite late on (thanks Google). I hope my red circles are correctly chosen............

A very nice puzzle, with a clever construction and well-disguised theme right up to the last moment. Also a nice idea for the clues to provide the football misdirection from a clever title. Hope the inspiration wasn’t some unfortunate incident!

I can get a little twitchy about crossword setters living in the past, but the fact that Scot Gemmill retired 12 years ago has me wondering if Moses is Victor or Remi. As for Peter Osgood he never even played with 3 points for a win, although I admit if the clue had suggested Ozil scoring the surface reading would have suffered.

"If you like football, and you like speed cameras, then you'll love Three-pointers!" I presume everyone will be saying something along the lines of "where the hell did this idea come from?" I certainly did. Despite me feeling at best ambivalent about both themes (slightly preferring speed cameras to football), I loved this and thought it one of Eclogue's best. Any puzzle which has all surface readings relating to a specific topic takes some doing. I'm probably not alone in overlooking surface readings when solving, so anything which gives us the opportunity to sit back and appreciate them can't be a bad thing. Thanks Eclogue.

A decent challenge which came together cleverly in the end. Thank you

I'm not sure I've grasped the connection between the theme of the clues – which was well maintained throughout – and that of the grid. And I can't see a reason for the rectangular grid. But I enjoyed the puzzle anyway, assuming that Eclogue hasn't hidden a sneaky sixth camera somewhere in the grid.