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Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link

The 2021 Cryptic Quiz: the winners & answers!

Well done, everyone who struggled through this winter’s cryptic “Staycations” quiz for the Link.

There were plenty who scored 65/65. (We forgave those who understandably found eisteddfod hard to spell.) The trickiest ones turned out to be nº 44 Mithraeum (a stunning  Roman temple in London) and nº 51 Hastings (!!!).

Perfect answers were returned by: Jane Kemp, Elaine Barton, Mrs S Hennessey, Helen Wallis, Lyndsay Mills, Andrew Ashenhurst, Jean Barker, Lynnie Porter, Anna Foster, Hilary Oughton, The Turners, Jeff Bowen,  Margaret Westwood, Kes Samuelson, Harry Macdonald, Margaret Macdonald, Chris Chantler, Linda Knott, The Lukes, Maddy Coelho, Gloria Swan, Tim McDonald, Charles Crosbie, The Twydells, Clive Buddle, Pam Crow, Tim Scott, Dawn Odam, Jane Bullus, Ray Foxell, Janet Johnson, Clive Roper, The Darlows, Geoff Howells.

Judging the tie-breakers is a very subjective thing, but the Quizmaster is always most impressed by clues that have an inner logic, with all the bits of the clue fitting naturally together.

  • Chris Chantler’s winning tie-breaker is a classic example: Nearly all of the side bowled as century seen here (Sporting venue: 9).  [EDGBASTON: edg(e) + b  = bowled + as + 100 = ton]
  • Lynnie Porter’s neat clue uses ‘all at sea’ both as a hint at an anagram and to set the scene. What! Dowser was all at sea here? (Round the coast: 8,2) [WESTWARD HO!]
  • Maddy Coelho’s clue uses ‘strange’ as a hint at an anagram, and subtly suggests the place involved: Strange wise Serb men batty about dead poets (Site of interest: 11, 5) [WESTMINSTER ABBEY]

It was hard to pick out a winner, too, for the little additional prize given  irrespective of how many answers were correct. This seems to have been a year heavy on anagrams. Tim McDonald’s “A tormented art could be found here” (Cultural venue: 4, 6) was extremely neat, and very true.  [TATE MODERN]

Thanks again to everyone who bought a quiz sheet. This time we raised around £500 towards our project to improve the water supply and toilets in a dozen schools in Hastings Sierra Leone.   Here are the answers and explanations:

  1. Dartmoor. Reversed inside mushroom trade
  2. Arthur’s Seat. Seat = make of Spanish car.
  3. Peak District. peak/peek homophone
  4. Exmoor. ex = old flame  Othello = Moor
  5. Epping Forest. soft green pip anagram
  6. Giant’s Causeway. Anagram of genius castaway
  7. Cerne Abbas Giant. Anagram of a bare gent’s cabin
  8. Symond’s Yat. Anagram of Monday’s sty
  9. Gretna Green. ‘n’ (indefinite number) in Greta (Thunberg) + green = naïve
  10. The Broads. The B-roads
  11. Well Dressing (Folk custom at Buxton)
  12. Swan Upping. (UN reversed in swapping)
  13. Jack-in-the-Green (Folk custom. jack in = stop doing)
  14. Crufts (Hidden answer: premier cru FTSE…)
  15. BBC Proms. First letters (leading) of brass band cornet players etc
  16. Eisteddfod. Anagram of Di’s deft ode
  17. Four = iv.  fleshly = carnal  . We accepted festival (iv inside festal)
  18. Tea at The Savoy. Anagram of eat heavy toast
  19. Changing of the Guard. Modesty forbids
  20. Silverstone. Anagram of toils nerves
  21. The Oval
  22. Twickenham. Limerick “There was a young lady from Twickenham” (See below)
  23. Characters from children’s programme The Wombles (of Wimbledon)
  24. Cardiff Arms Park. Anagram of dark scrap affirm
  25. Cowes Week. Homophones – Cowes/cows Week/ weak
  26. Windsor Castle. Anagram scrawniest old
  27. Leeds Castle. It’s in Kent.
  28. Buckingham Castle. Spoonerism hacking bum + a place= palace
  29. Anagram of not legal. Safari park, belongs to Marquis of Bath.
  30. Hampton Court. Anagram of phantom solicit
  31. Chartwell (Kent)
  32. Kew Gardens. Anagram of grand weeks
  33. Great Dixter. (East Sussex) Anagram of ex-ratter dig
  34. Munstead Wood. Surrey home of gardener Gertrude Jekyll. Anagram of swooned at mud
  35. Famous garden in Kent. Anagram of sir signed thus
  36. Eden Project. project = throw out
  37. Chelsea Flower Show. Chelsea (Clinton) + F(emale) + lowers + How!
  38. Anagram of one hen gets
  39. Offa’s Dyke. Anagram of sad off-key
  40. Hadrian’s Wall. Anagram of whirl a sandal
  41. Cutty Sark. (London, Greenwich) Anagram of rusty tack
  42. Golden Hind. (London, South Bank) Anagram of long hidden
  43. Greenwich Observatory. Anagram of whenever cyborgs riot a
  44.   (Roman temple in London) Anagram of mature him
  45. Down House. Kent home of Charles Darwin. (Accepted The Down House, of course. my fault.)
  46. Glencoe. (Site of massacre of MacDonalds in 1692). Anagram of conger eel
  47. Lyme Regis. Famous for dinosaur fossils. Anagram of grey slime
  48. Durdle Door. Beauty spot in Dorset. ‘urdled in door
  49. Weston -Super-Mare. Tim, Sam = West (actor family)
  50. Torquay. Homophone:  = talkie
  51. Hastings. Homophone: = hay stings
  52. St Ives. Nursery rhyme: …I met a man with 7 wives.
  53. Isle of Man. The island sports the triskelion or 3-legged symbol
  54. Isle of Wight. (D)wight (Eisenhower) + anagram of of lies
  55. Lundy. Hidden answer: …total undying…
  56. Bedruthan Steps. Cornish beauty spot. anagram of punsters bathed
  57. Anglesey. Sounds like angle C
  58. Iona. In the Inner Hebrides. Hidden answer: …religion across…
  59. Haworth. Home village of the Brontës. ha’pennyworth
  60. Lamb House. East Sussex home of Henry James.
  61. Dove Cottage. Home of the Wordsworths. Anagram of ode to cat veg
  62. Bateman’s. East Sussex home of Rudyard Kipling (author of “If”). Anagram of man beast
  63. Globe Theatre. (London, South Bank). Anagram of gable thereto.
  64. Hill Top. Lake District home of Beatrix Potter. high brow = hill top
  65. The Wakes. Selborne (Hampshire) home of naturalist Gilbert White (and site of Oates museum)

 re 22: There was a young lady from Twickenham/ Whose boots were too tight to walk quick in ’em./So she walked for a mile/ and came to a stile/ And took off her boots and was sick in ’em