Chris Benn, La Palma, Nov 2002
This is the world's first 4-dimensional (hypercubic) crossword.
Within the grids shown above, 5-letter words run across and down as usual (clues below).
But the 5 grids within a given row can be stacked to make a cube, so their are also `through' clues, e.g. the word (1) `through' has its first letter in the top-left corner of the top-left grid, its second letter in the top-left corner of the second grid on the top row, and so on, with the fifth and last letter in the top-left corner of the fifth grid on the top row.
Similarly, there are `until' clues for words which run from grid to grid down the page e.g. (31) `until' has its first letter in the centre square of the rightmost grid of the top row and the remaining letters in the centre squares of the rightmost grids on the second, third, fourth and fifth rows.
The across, down, through and until directions are all mutually perpendicular, i.e. the crossword is a 4-dimensional hypercube measuring 5 by 5 by 5 by 5 by 5, with 54 = 625 cells in all.
The white `squares' or cells of the crossword accommodate 140 different 5-letter words, 35 running in each of the 4 directions across, down, through and until. The crossword is highly connected, with 4-word intersections taking place in 97 of the cells. On average, each 5-letter word is crossed by about 8.3 other words. Despite this, the words form two interlocking but independent crosswords, which share no letters.
Across
1) Ice chips on snake jelly
4) Boredom brings on small sounds
7) Give bad press to rock bands
14) Cannon ball, from Maroc
17) It's observed by the guide
20) Circle of theatre clothes
27) Double act south of old Mauritius
30) A thousand eyes see some deer
33) Alpen, not plane
42) Pigeon starts to wrangle
43) It goes back to the church
46) Make sense of state?
47) Sweet flower promised to Israelites
48) Mountain of snow?
51) Pole with roots in North America?
54) It doesn't appear to take after its parents
57) OK in Galle
60) King rings good chap for winged things
61) Spice with Indian morsel
62) Oak
65) Peace goddess points in anger
66) Fly-by-nights with a light touch?
73) Clifford and Buckingham and like-minded
74) Faces behind hands
77) Bud's protector made clay by ray
78) Spaniard or philanthropist
79) Freezes breezes
82) More than one spoke of bones
85) King fought duel and got the upper hand
88) Art we reflect as aphorisms
91) Bachelor not available - left for flat
92) Slips over the wall
93) Opposition saw projections
96) Little little time to mean little
97) Leopard identifies blots in TV advertising
Down
1) Raves about states, with conviction
2) Pear pare and a rare bear
3) Wrong sheik up for century
14) Boxed about, like Edward
15) Goldback Guelph cuts ruffian
16) Times change for little people
27) Of my diable?
28) Decline Dr. No's soft rendering
29) Slate suffering creep
40) Point to tobacco sucker being well-armed
41) Seal almost hidden
44) Saxophone quartet with North German
45) Metal brace
48) Stake the Spanish nut
49) Christmas star?
50) Punctuation for 1000100010001
57) Music of old harp
58) Great opening for the husband of the future
59) Bend a can of tongue for the masses
62) Across the island, in principle
63) Public, over the top
64) Born and dies, first and last wishes
71) Dull vapour, 50% iodine and deuterium
72) Gold for high flyer
75) Indian prince partly naked before Robert
76) Beginner learning in Austria
79) Juicier subjects Art and English spice the 3 R's
80) Small is beautiful
81) Saw over the frontier
88) She saw a future in easy billiards
89) Belief upheld
90) Morocco-bound book
93) Examines shells
94) Time to muse
95) Dislikes haste?
Through
1) Arched, sparingly
2) Cut pear dies first
3) Bristles may be cleaned with their teeth!
4) Poems about Derby
5) Black one growing in the middle
6) Fibre let go by nine in Rome
7) Do evil outside old port
8) A male ape loses his tail in a pile-up
9) Lease to run out for artists
36) Like quality?
37) Tahiti, after losing leader, relocates in Caribbean
38) Model story about me
39) It follows, in a woolly sort of way
48) Seal a seal?
49) A long translation into English
50) Gutsy explorer
51) Stair twists ankles
52) Hidden wealth of monarch
53) Joint cover for archbishops
54) He heals body or soul, instead of another
55) Relax while time runs backwards
56) Karenina's no longer current
67) Rising sun to bring out the shine
68) Perched with younger demon
69) Shaggy American reveals French stereo?
70) Approximately the opposite of roof
79) Second attempt to settle or score
80) Substance, almost dull
81) What's new on the lawn?
82) Get up sober, perhaps
83) Lady
84) Rock's rented
85) For those with bread?
86) Much to gamble
87) Like coins cast by the Greeks
Until
1) Ready for old fly trap
2) Blood sample, skimmed and stirred
3) They stop the flow and start the day
4) Come in to open territory
5) Marked denial from the editor
6) I'm 2 feet short and long
7) Radiant, like the sun
8) She's sprung by Spring
9) South African in eastern land
10) Sitting tenancy?
11) Canoeonac
12) Copy note twice to Cuban capital
13) Good time for big diver
14) Monks live in them (and vice versa!)
15) Just a hand
16) Kind of liquor on a small island
17) Brush?
18) Sound of discomfort from Gormenghast
19) To tally
20) Nobleman's chewing the cud with Alex
21) Insect - sound of 1000 brought together
22) Of deserts and sun-drenched beaches
23) Destined to kill
24) Stops guys
25) Machine with rotor on the outside
26) Fruit (anag.)
27) Order sketch
28) Hum bum
29) Keeping good time with the Swiss
30) Chain letters?
31) O O 1000000
32) Turnout makes egghead green
33) Names unclear for Egypt's lands
34) Courtyard proportion trimmed
35) Cargoes of artificial feet
Typesetting note: the clues to 62 across and 83 through are in small and italic fonts respectively (some browsers/printers may not support this).
This crossword (no. 65) was originally published in 1989 in Gemini issue 24, p.14 (newsletter of the Royal Greenwich Observatory), and in the May 1990 edition of Crossword.
The words used can be found in standard references. The solution is available on request.
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