Eclogue gives us a hexagonal jigsaw.
Preamble: Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their solutions, which must be inserted into the grid where they will fit, in straight lines in one of six possible directions. Every clue generates an extra letter in its wordplay not required for the defined answer. In clue order, these letters spell seven words from a song followed by its creator. Five unclued entries, each reading conventionally across, provide the next lyric (in ODQ).
Six directions! Worry about that later. Better crack on with the clues.
After two longish sessions I’d solved just over ¾ of the clues, and the extra letters thus far read “WHIS….DTORER..RDSSHETHOUGHTDI..NE.L.ERTHFI.Z”. (It turned out that the first R was wrong: I had CROPS rather than CHOPS for “cuts” in the wordplay for COPSE.) Nevertheless, that was enough to give me WHISPERED TO HER WORDS SHE THOUGHT DIVINE ALBERT H FITZ.
Knowing those remaining extra letters clearly helped in solving the rest of the clues, and also quickly led to the next line of the song: YOU ARE MY HONEY, HONEYSUCKLE, I AM THE BEE (and also to William H. Penn who composed the music).
Armed with all the pieces, I deferred the jigsaw until the following day. BEE obviously had to go in the centre of the honeycomb (where else?) which meant NEED-BE had to be entered up and to the right (uR) to intersect the B. I tried HONEYSUCKLE in row 5 but the K didn’t work out, so it had to go across row 9. BRACHET had to be entered up and to the left (uL) to intersect the H, KOPHS had to be entered down and to the left (dL) to intersect the K, and BLESSES went across and to the right (aR) in the bottom row. We’re off!
So, a game of two halves with a bit of Googling during time added on before the interval. I think we have to admire Eclogue’s symmetrical grid with its fair number of fully checked answers, but somehow not quite as satisfying as it promised to be. Thanks anyway.
PS If people don’t like my representation of the grid, I can accept the offer of a hexagonal hexagonal one from John Lowe, and append it to the blog.
| Clue | Answer | Start / Direction |
X | Wordplay | |
| Performances happened around court (4) | ACTS | 10,5 | dR | W | {W}AS (happened) around CT (court) |
| Gnome possessed time (5) | ADAGE | 8,6 | aL | H | {H}AD (possessed) AGE (time) |
| One Scottish city of aviation (4) | AERO | 8,4 | uL | I | AE (one, Scot) R{I}O (city) |
| Tsarist negotiated for one old master (6) | ARTIST | 8,8 | uR | S | [TSARI{S}T]* |
| For ace of clubs, stop short after roll at Troon? (5) | BASTO | 7,6 | dR | P | STO(p) after BA{P} (roll, Scot) |
| Unclued (3) | BEE | 7,6 | aR | ||
| No longer worry – live with oneself (4) | BEGO | 6,4 | dL | E | BE (live) {E}GO (oneself) |
| VIP, heartless chap following two-master (5) | BIGGY | 13,1 | uR | R | G(u)Y (chap) after B{R}IG (two-master ) |
| Half trembles and observes thanks (7) | BLESSES | 13,1 | aR | E | (trem)BLES SE{E}S (observes) |
| Pitt, say, to impose upon disappearing American whelp (7) | BRACHET | 13,1 | uL | D | BRA{D} (Pitt, say) CHEAT (impose upon) ¬ A(merican) |
| Attracting attention, almost ruin support (5) | COOEE | 3,4 | dR | T | COO(k) (ruin) {T}EE (support) |
| Waterfowl having shelters lined with wool in the Cairngorms (5) | COOTS | 9,8 | dL | O | COTS (shelters) around O{O} (wool, Scot) |
| Cuts the first of elm trees (5) | COPSE | 11,5 | aR | H | C{H}OPS (cuts) E(lm) |
| Empty colony reflected observation for essence of nerve-cell (5) | CYTON | 5,3 | uR | E | C(olon)Y NOT{E}< (observation) |
| Edmund’s to soak dilapidated umbrere (6) | EMBRUE | 6,6 | aL | R | [UMBRE{R}E]* {Spenser has the spelling EMBREWE} |
| Outer membranes developed new exits (7) | EXTINES | 1,7 | dR | W | [NE{W} EXITS]* |
| Small island that is special for Romans, say, rudely (6) | EYTIES | 3,8 | dL | O | EY{O}T (small island) IE (that is) S(pecial) |
| Fluid repetition of retro wave (5) | FLOTE | 10,9 | uR | R | FL(uid) {R}OTE (repetition) |
| Amount of film to treat the elderly (7) | FOOTAGE | 10,9 | aL | D | FOOT (treat) AGE{D} (elderly) |
| Spirit lives in aging romance (5) | GEIST | 7,5 | aL | S | IS (lives) in GE{S}T (romance, obs) |
| Ambassador and knight, one who succeeds (4) | HEIR | 9,1 | uR | S | HE (His/Her Excellency, ambassador) {S}IR (knight) |
| Unclued (11) | HONEYSUCKLE | 9,1 | aR | ||
| Unclued (6, 3 words) | I AM THE | 12,2 | aR | ||
| Letters to the Hebrews fly into Karaite Historical Society initially (5) | KOPHS | 9,9 | dL | H | {H}OP (fly) in K(araite) H(istorical) S(ociety) |
| Indian plates ancient statue near French farmhouse (6) | KORMAS | 8,12 | aL | E | KOR{E} (ancient statue) MAS (French farmhouse) |
| Molten materials look huge (5) | LAVAS | 13,2 | uR | T | LA (look) VAS{T} (huge) |
| Patters about hoglines (7) | LINGOES | 13,2 | uL | H | [{H}OGLINES]* |
| Crazy pool location for choice of rules (11, 2 words) | LOCAL OPTION | 5,1 | aR | O | [POOL LOCATI{O}N]* |
| Sugar mouse enthrals woman whom God has favoured (7) | MANNOSE | 1,1 | aR | U | MO{U}SE arround ANN (woman …) |
| Hungarian almost in the world of phenomena (4) | MAYA | 6,5 | uL | G | MA{G}YA(r) (Hungarian) |
| Small badge of merit the lamed sported (7) | MEDALET | 1,1 | dL | H | [T{H}E LAMED]* |
| African doctor to go in Scotland wearing its cap back-to-front (6) | MGANGA | 6,5 | dL | T | GANG (go, Scot) in {T}AM< (cap) |
| Take care of ordinary Tokyo raincoat (4) | MINO | 8,9 | uR | D | MIN{D} (take care of) O(rdinary) |
| First person in Nice to apply peripheral device (5) | MOUSE | 4,2 | dL | I | MO{I} (first person, Fr) USE (apply) |
| Unclued (7, 2 words) | MY HONEY | 4,2 | aR | ||
| Fanciful story of your antique cycling past motor vehicle (4) | MYTH | 1,1 | dR | V | THY (your, archaic) cycled after M{V} (motor vehicle) {Chambers has “motor vessel“} |
| Ahead of energy bill gripping festival is a necessity (6) | NEED-BE | 11,2 | uR | I | E(nergy) after NEB (bill) around E{I}D (festival) |
| Name not acceptable to Nationalist (4) | NOUN | 4,6 | uL | N | NO{N}-U (not acceptable) N(ationalist) |
| One locally turns, rolling each part of the neck (5) | NUCHA | 1,4 | dL | E | UN< (one, dialect) {E}ACH cycled |
| Wood sorrel (a small amount) for rowers, perhaps (5) | OCTAD | 3,5 | aL | A | OC{A} (wood sorrel) TAD (small amount) |
| Experts who are solitary types? (5) | ONERS | 5,6 | uR | L | {L}ONERS (solitary types) |
| In poetry, commences with American chap on foot (4) | OPES | 10,7 | dR | B | {B}O (man, US sl) PES (foot) |
| Tyrant bird getting stale twice (5) | PEWEE | 5,7 | uR | E | PE{E} WEE (2× stale) |
| The Gunners organise Walter’s fish eggs (4) | RAUN | 8,10 | uR | R | RA (gunners) {R}UN (organise) |
| Notice beer that outlasts (7, two words) | SEES OUT | 1,6 | dR | T | SEE (notice) S{T}OUT (beer) |
| Transfixes demonstrators of old holding Kirkpatrick (7) | SKEWERS | 7,13 | dL | H | S{H}EWERS (demonstrators, archaic) around K(irkpatrick) |
| Focus on changing what’s acceptable to what’s accepted for calypso (4) | SOCA | 11,8 | uL | F | [{F}OCUS]* with U (acceptable) becoming A(ccepted) |
| Flight commotion around sloth (5) | STAIR | 7,13 | aL | I | STIR (commotion) around A{I} (sloth) |
| Hamish’s to score over lieutenant for his turn (4) | TIRL | 6,9 | dR | T | RIT< (score, Scot) L{T}T (lieutenant) |
| Loose female, one in France, masks returning spot (5) | UNTIE | 6,12 | aL | Z | UNE (one, Fr fem) around {Z}IT< (spot) |
| Unclued (6, 2 words) | YOU ARE | 2,2 | aR | ||
After two enjoyable sessions solving three-quarters of the clues, I had what I was sure were the first six words of the song, and I tried to look it up. No joy! I needed to solve a couple more clues to tease out the word DIVINE, and that made the online search possble. The page I found gave me the lyrics and the writer.
The jigsaw looked daunting at first, but, after pencilling in the options for the two 11-letter entries (one of which was reversible), it was possible first to fix the letter O as the second letter of the lower of the two 11-letter answers and then to place BRACHET and five more of the 7-letter words round the grid in the only way possible, with HONEYSUCKLE as the 11-letter word going through the O. It was a pleasure then to fit all the pieces into the grid, enabling me to solve the last few clues along the way. As jigsaws go, this was excellent, and very satisfying to complete.
I duly noted the central placements (in mirror symmetry) of all the unclued lights in the grid – a nice piece of design to appreciate along with the rest of the puzzle.
(I too thought of ‘crops’ before ‘chops’ in the wordplay for COPSE, giving me ‘R’ instead of ‘H’ as intended.)
Thanks to Eclogue and HolyGhost.
The lazy way was of course to spot WH?S at the start and ITZ at the end
Followed by a trawl through the ODQ. Blink and you miss it, but there he was.
Then a google to see what preceded the chorus (didnt need a chord chart)
So that was a step up.
Then trial and error and considerations of symmetry and it slowly emerged
And unsolved clues came out of the woodwork
What a cute idea with the honeycomb grid
thanks Eclogue and HG
HG
Your diagram is fine and readable, thanks.
As for EMBRUE, I agree Chambers shows only EMBREWE as Spenserian, although the layout of the full headword beginning imbrue in Chambers is a tad confusing. In the normal (and simplest) case we would expect to see “… embrew (Spenser) …” but the headword for imbrue is (in full) “imbrue or embrue (Spenser embrew) …”.
It looks as if our experience in solving the puzzle was about the same as Alan B’s.
We thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle but felt lucky that our first guesses were correct. If we remember correctly, we were left with one clue to solve when we realised that it was already there as all the letters were checking.
Searching on line was necessary to complete everything but that’s nothing unusual.
Thanks Eclogue -a very satisfying grid and thanks HG – your diagram is very clear.
Always satisfying in a puzzle like this when an apparently unintelligible mess of letters such as the closing THF-TZ are revealed as the correct ones for that well-known lyricist Albert H Fitz. Looking at the online list of recordings the song seems to have re-emerged in the 50s and 60s after half a century of relative oblivion, and been recorded inter alia by Stanley Holloway and Julie Andrews. It’s a catchy tune, though the Fitz lyrics are of impeccable Edwardian sensibility and would be hard to sing with a straight face these days. As to the crossword, the alphabetical order was very helpful, and the jigsaw didn’t take that long once one realised there was only one 3 letter entry, so that BEE led to NEEDBE, thereby locating HONEYSUCKLE and LOCAL OPTION. The main problem was working out, in the absence of grid numbers, which were the spaces one was trying to fill, and sorting out which way SKEWERS had to go. Thanks to Eclogue for a nice ramble into the early 20th century, and Holy Ghost for managing the grid challenge.
I’ll stick my neck out and say I found this quite tedious, and only finished it because I didn’t want to record a DNF
And that’s because I really couldn’t see any other way to fill the grid than by getting the song (and hence the extra words) which in turn – at least for me – required cold solving at least 75% of the clues. And I find cold solving quite tedious even if it’s “lukewarm” solving given that we could guess first letters alphabetically.
The final denouement was fun enough (and for me very similar to others via BEE and HONEYSUCKLE) but just took too long to get there, in my opinion.
The grid layout was however very neat and I applaud the hard work that went into it!
I’m with Arnold@6: a lot of cold-solving before you can risk a pencil; in a busier week I would have given up. Only when I realised ‘whisper’ might be ‘whispered’ did the internet become my friend, and I could begin to admire the elegant intricacies of the grid. I got there in the end; thanks to Eclogue and HG.
Alas, a DNF here. I have to admire the revealed construction and payoff but am in guilty agreement with arnold @6 about the amount of cold-solving needed. Also I confess that I like to play with these jigsaw solves on squared paper rather than erase and re-erase false starts on the original; but I don’t seem to have any hex paper to hand and am not as clever with “simulated hex” as HG….
I feel cheated! BEE clearly had to go in the middle so then, in my book, “ reading across conventionally” meant that all the rest had to go ABOVE IT. As a result, when I tried to fit the 7-letter entries around the perimeter, the only way I could find gave me BRACHIT where I needed BRACHET because of the I in I AM. So, in the end, I got fed up and gave up.
A pity because, that apart, it was a clever but very challenging crossword which I would like to have finished.
Grudging thanks to Eclogue and to HG for his perseverence.
To echo the points made by others, it’s all very well producing these intricate puzzles, but cold solving almost 100% of the clues before starting to fill the grid is not quite my idea of crosswording. BTW, I did finish it.
The trick, I think, was to get BEE as the only option for the middle slot, then NEED-BE followed and things did tumble out. The clues were friendly and I think I reached 66% without really thinking about filling the grid – and that was a critical mass, I found.
Started out thinking this would be next to impossible and then felt slightly cheated once the endgame rattled through.
I took ‘reading across conventionally’ as simply telling me that the thematic words would be entered left to right – the additional ordering down the grid was a pleasant conclusion.
I spent a lot of hours on this one and loved every minute. The construction is superb. How it was created I can’t begin to imagine. Surprised anyone found it disappointing in any way. I agree that about two-thirds of clues were achievable, and once the jigsaw was started, the rest became clear in a very satisfying way.
I agree with Cillagoose @12. This was a brilliant puzzle, a proper challenge, very original and enjoyable. We’ve been having a particularly good run of Inquisitors lately. This one is certainly an early contender for my end-of-year votes.
I’m with Cillagoose and Herb – absolutely loved this! Once I had solved the 11-letter clue with a few others, I decide to heed my son’s advice from a similar jigsaw-like Inquisitor: “Just start writing them in!”. So I gambled that Local Option went in the first 11-letter space I could find, and the rest fell into place in a very satisfying manner.
I did enjoy this, but it took a lot of time. Using Google seems to me to take the fun out of crosswords, so I didn’t. I therefore had to fill in most of the grid before “honeysuckle” dawned on me, and I could look it up in the index of ODQ. (For some reason, I feel that’s OK but not online searching – I guess everyone has to set their own rules for that sort of thing.) A mistake in selecting the spare letter from “artist” slowed me up.
The key to getting going on the grid was the 7-letter words that go round the outside. There was only one sequence that I could construct from the start and end letters, and only four positions for it that were compatible with “local option”. Once I put in a few words as a trial the rest fell into place quickly, and I was able to solve the clues that needed checked letters. “Honeysuckle” and the rest of the quotation broke the symmetry for me.
I thought the honeycomb grid for a bee-themed puzzle was excellent – it must have been a labour of love to put it together.