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.
Below is a list of ‘33 things that appeared on newspaper front-pages in 2022’ (‘things’ is used in its broadest possible sense). Entries have been stripped of vowels and numbers and have had any inter-word spaces repositioned*. For example, if ‘PAKISTAN FLOODS’ was present it might appear as PKS TNFLDS. HIMARS would be HMRS.
*Hyphens are treated as spaces. Apostrophes are ignored.
1. RCH R DMFRR
2. NFLT BLDCLRTR
3. NR STNCR SC
4. TL VSDSLP
5. TWT TRLYFFS
6. THMR CHN TFDT H
7. CHTQNST TTN
8. S TMDCK
9. T RCNT GRY
10. CL DTM TSP
11. VKS NTCH K
12. JNJ YNZ D
13. NRDST RMS BTG
14. L ZN CL LDSL V
15. THTL SLN S
16. FSNG NTN
17. DBB SVJ CKSNWM NSHLT HRGN STN
18. SH PLS TF RNHN DR DNDS VNY RS
19. LVST RMDLT TC
20. CHR LS
21. DNTS KCDM CRGN LDRMTHT R
22. LSSR SS SHL
23. NR THKR NMSS LTSTS
24. NSG HTSF NLPHT
25. LB RTNFKHR SN
26. RC RDHGHT MPRT RNN TDKN GDM
27. T HFL GSHPFR S SSBL CKSF LT
28. SMBN KM NFRD
29. NRCGN SDRFRNDMS
30. SL FDNS CTLN D
31. SHTS GB LMRL YN
32. CPD T TPL TNGR MNY
33. L WSHM LTNSF RSTWN LS SS SNNF RMLN
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s cluster foxer:
James Baldwin (defoxed by Aergistal)
a1. baldwin rf-16 sharknose (Aergistal)
b1. john grimes (Electric Dragon, Aergistal)
c1. giovanni’s room (Electric Dragon)
a2. another country (Aergistal)
b2. cambridge union debating chamber (Electric Dragon)
Harriers (defoxed by Colonel_K)
d1. montagu (Colonel_K)
e1. ringtail (Aergistal)
d2. la reunion (Aergistal)
d3. circus (Electric Dragon)
d4. marsh (Aergistal)
The Orient Express (defoxed by Aergistal and ylla))
c2. orient express by jean-michel jarre (aergistal)
a3. call of cthulu (Aergistal)
b3. from russia with love (Colonel_K)
c3. heart of china (Aergistal)
c4. dracula (Colonel_K)
Tom Horn (defoxed by ylla)
e2. steve mcqueen (Aergistal)
e3. horn-balanced rudder (Colonel_K)
e4. snail’s love dart (Aergistal)
d5. scout (Aergistal)
e5. julian gallows (ylla)
Things that have been shortened (defoxed by Colonel_K)
a4. once upon a time in america (Aergistal)
b4. saltburn pier (Electric Dragon)
a5. hockenheimring (Electric Dragon, Colonel_K)
b5. gog.com (Electric Dragon)
c5. hollywood sign (Aergistal)
27. THE FLAGSHIP OF RUSSIA’S BLACK SEA FLEET
28. SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
5. TWITTER LAYOFFS
8. STEAM DECK
26. RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE IN UNITED KINGDOM
17. DOBBS V JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANISATION (sic: should be ORGANIZATION)
33. LEWIS HAMILTON’S FIRST WINLESS SEASON IN FORMULA ONE
25. LIBERATION OF KHERSON
2) INFLATABLE DECELERATOR
If 1 is RICHARD M FIERRO, he should have two Rs at the end…
It was chopped off in the edit. Sorry. 29 also went up with a missing consonant.
I didn’t mean to sound critical, just sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between ‘right answer, wrong clue’ and ‘right clue, wrong answer’ 🙂
6. THE MERCHANT OF DEATH
13. NORD STREAM SABOTAGE
18. SHIP LOST FOR ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN YEARS
20. CHARLES III
23. NORTH KOREAN MISSILE TESTS
19. LIVE-STREAMED LETTUCE
(I was confident of the first part and was going to put the second as a joke, but then remembered the end-days of the Truss premiership).
ETA: 9. TRUCE (?) IN TIGRAY
4 looks like TELEVISED something, but I can’t find any famous sleep
Oh, maybe Will Smith’s TELEVISED SLAP at the Oscars?
10. COLD TOMATO SOUP (referring to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments about the “gazpacho police”? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/09/marjorie-taylor-greene-gazpacho-police )
29. UNORGANISED REFERENDUMS?
30. SELF ID IN SCOTLAND
Should be SELF-ID to make spaces correct
29. UNORGANIZED (?) REFERENDUMS
Probably refering to Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian regions.
On that note, 30 does look like it ends in SCOTLAND…
32. COUP D’ETAT PLOT IN GERMANY
16. FUSION IGNITION
24) INSIGHT’S FINAL PHOTO
21. DONETSK ACADEMIC REGIONAL DRAMA THEATRE
Remaining (e&oe):
3. NR STNCR SC – something something Rescue?
7. CHTQNST TTN – something Institution?
11. VKS NTCH K
12. JNJ YNZ D
14. L ZN CL LDSL V
15. THTL SLN S
22. LSSR SS SHL
31. SHTS GB LMRL YN – Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress, but I can’t see that working syntactically
7. CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION – where Salman Rushdie was attacked
(22. something Russia’s Hole?)
31. SHOT SAGE BLUE MARILYN – Andy Warhol silkscreen sold for $195 million making it the most expensive work of 20th century art publicly sold.
15. THE ATLAS LIONS – nickname for the Moroccan national football team
Following Tim’s reinstatement of an omitted consonant in 29. it should probably read
UNRECOGNISED REFERENDUMS
(undoubtedly a debate to be had on whether it in fact ought to be Referenda).
We can hold a referendum about it?
Not sure that’s a good idea, we’d just end up polarised into Dums and Da factions, and spend the next 5 years arguing about the plurals of formula and octopus.
Tweedledums and Tweedleda
Were in a state of tension
For Tweedledums said Tweedleda
Had spoilt his best declension…
It pales in comparison to Tim starting the other article with “Me and Roman are planning …”.
It’s still giving me conniptions.