Friday Foxer #51

Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.

The ‘cluster foxer’ is regarded by some as the most demanding form. Solving one involves identifying 25 pictures and five hidden themes. The enlargeable mosaic below consists of five interlocked picture clusters (some possible cluster arrangements are shown above) each with its own theme. Themes have nothing in common with each other. Don’t be surprised to find, for example, “knitting”, “The Spanish Armada”, “Words beginning with “ter””, “1948” and “Fictional policemen” sharing a puzzle. A picture’s connection to a particular theme won’t always be literal. An image of the Brandenburg Gate is just as likely to be part of a “Bach” cluster as a “Berlin” one.

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SOLUTIONS

Last week’s geofoxer theme: Words beginning with “Bal” (defoxed by gusdownnup, Viscount, and Aergistal)

a. Balchik, Bulgaria (Aergistal)
b. Ballarat, Australia (Aergistal)
c. Balclutha, San Francisco (gusdownnup)
d. Balvenie Castle, Scotland (Aergistal)
e. Balzac statue, Paris (Electric Dragon)
f. Balderas, Mexico City (Colonel_K)
g. Baltimore (Electric Dragon)
h. Balliol College, Oxford (gusdownnup)
i. Baltic Centre, Gateshead (Viscount, Nutfield)
j. Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh (gusdownnup, ylla)
k. Balham, London (Viscount)
l. Ballymena (gusdownnup, Electric Dragon)

64 Comments

    • This seems as tenuous a link as I’ve ever found, but Bovril was invented by a Scottish butcher in Canada, and Curling was invented in Scotland but is now most prominent in Canada

      • I can get tenuouser – Bovril is named after a race called Vril in a novel published by Blackwoods, and HMS Exmouth was a Blackwood-class frigate. Can’t fit in the curling, though.

        I’d kind of forgotten where I’d got to with following links 😀

    • Roman has promised me a hive foxer for Christmas Eve and a missing vowels for New Year’s Eve. A solo foxer next Monday is unlikely.

      • Woohoo. Not sure how much time I’ll have on Christmas Eve, but I hate Hogmanay, so that’s good to know 🙂

    • Looks plausible. Also, they are endemic to Lake Malawi – A3 Nyasaland is now called Malawi
      And Hastings Banda led Malawi to independence (and then autocracy).
      And the Shire River is the largest river in Malawi.

  29. I think this is where we are at (please correct me if I’m wrong)

    Cluster 1 – Golden??
    A1 – T5 Parachute
    A2 – Lt Delcourt/Crab with the Golden Claws
    A3 – Tori Amos/Gold Dust
    A4 – Curling/Stone/House?
    B2 – Crocodile

    Cluster 2 – The Coming Race
    B2 – Bulwer’s Pheasant (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
    C2 – Royal Albert Hall (location of convention)
    D2 – HMS Exmouth, Blackwood class (publisher)
    E2 – Hunky Dory (Oh You Pretty Things lyrics)
    E1 – Bovril (named after vril from book)

    Cluster 3 – 290
    C3 – 2000AD issue #290
    B4 – Central Park South tower, 290m tall
    C4 – MAR-290 rocket launcher
    D4 – Iran Air Flight 655 (290 people killed)
    B3 – ??

    Cluster 4 – Unknown
    D3 – Maurice Gamelin
    E3 – Justine/Marquis de Sade
    E4 – Henry V – Penguin edition
    E5 – Mata Hari
    D5 – Jacques Bonsergent

    Cluster 5 – Malawi
    A3 – Nyasaland
    A4 – Shire River
    A5 – Giraffe Cichlid from Lake Malawi
    B5 – ??
    C5 – (Hastings) Banda

    • For Cluster 1 maybe a drug connection? “Parachuting”, “Gold Dust”, “Krokodil”, “Rock”, opium smugglers in Tintin.

      • Interesting take. I can peg them as Varieties of Gecko

        A2: Crocodile (or Moorish) gecko – found in Mediterranean Spain
        A1: Parachute – SE Asian flying geckos, genus Ptychozoon
        B1. Delcourt’s sticky-toed / Delcourt’s giant gecko – aka kawekaweau, largest known gecko, extinct
        C1. Gold dust day gecko – from Madagascar and the Comoros.
        D1. House – thrives around people and human habitation in S & SE Asia

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