This week’s handmade co-op puzzle won’t defox itself. If you’re a dab hand at quizzes, lateral thinking, and search engine sleuthing, why not help out.
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, “Crocodiles”, “Tulip mania”, “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.
In an attempt to ensure as many people as possible get a chance to participate, Roman requests defoxers solve no more than five squares per person on Day 1, and guess no more than one cluster theme. (After 24 hours have elapsed, fill your boots!). Use your ration to complete an entire horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line before anyone else to win ‘Connect 5’ bragging rights.
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SOLUTIONS
a1. inverted head 4 annas (Aergistal)
a2. intrepid (Colonel_K)
a3. iran hostage crisis (Aergistal)
a4. ivory-billed woodpecker (Phlebas)
a5. ichabod crane (Colonel_K)
b1. igor vsevolodovich girkin (Colonel_K)
b2. indian head test pattern (Phlebas)
b3. ingrid bergman (Colonel_K)
b4. igloo (Phlebas)
b5. ishiro honda (Colonel_K)
c1. immersion suit (Mrs Nutfield)
c2. ivor the engine (Zwack23)
c3. imperial typewriter company (Phlebas)
c4. insectivore (Zwack23, Phlebas)
c5. iceboat (Zwack23)
d1. ithf table hockey (Colonel_K)
d2. irish travellers (Nutfield)
d3. illustrious (Aergistal, RomanHasBeenFired)
d4. improvised firearm (Colonel_K)
d5. islay (Zwack23)
e1. italianate architecture (Colonel_K)
e2. israel del toro (Nutfield)
e3. inner german border (Phlebas)
e4. infrasound (Aergistal)
e5. ingersoll watch company (Phlebas, Nutfield)
C2 is a capybara with a ‘cattle tyrant’ on its head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara#/media/File:Cattle_tyrant_(Machetornis_rixosa)_on_Capybara.jpg
C2 – Cattle Tyrant sitting on a Capybara
Blast!
C4 – A bottle of Vat 69 whiskey.
D3 – Abrams P1 Explorer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrams_P-1_Explorer
E4 – Expo Oz, the platypus mascot of World Expo ’88 in Brisbane.
E2 is a poster for Craven ‘A’ cigarettes
https://live.millerandmillerauctions.com/lots/view/4-66FO7P/craven-a-cigarettes-poster
B4 is Elizabeth Windsor inspecting the Scots Guards on May 18, 2017.
C5 – Microprose’s B17 FLYING FORTRESS
A5 – 1955 USSR stamp depicting a DRIFTING ICE STATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_ice_station
E5. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three – 1974 film version
B1. Tyrolean Traverse
ETA: B2. Tyrrell Hatton with Dubai Desert Classic trophy
Makes a group of TYR-s
with C2. Cattle TYRant
C1. The Giant of the Sperrins, Gortin Glen forest park, TYRone, NI
– by Thomas Dambo, a Danish “recycle art activist”
ETA: it seems that this specific one is “Darach: The Guardian Giant of Mullaghcarn”
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Darach:+The+Guardian+Giant+of+Mullaghcarn/@54.6742286,-7.209812,3a,75y,321.82h,106.47t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNPvOs9C0Wx__i97QVhjt1ADrihHP7OOzW5k3Fm!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNPvOs9C0Wx__i97QVhjt1ADrihHP7OOzW5k3Fm%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-16.46773953943368-ya318.86150071663457-ro0-fo100!7i5376!8i2688!4m6!3m5!1s0x485fd78f440b94c5:0x66d8a641e37bb9e6!8m2!3d54.6741745!4d-7.2099182!16s%2Fg%2F11t7l1ygy7!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDU1SAFQAw%3D%3D
D4. Britannia – videogame by Avalon Digital
B5 – Gun from Cold Feet Board Game (Mrs Nutfield)
Maybe something to do with COLD if they are the Coldstream Guards?
I’ve googled around for a second source (my first was a fashion mag…) and I’ve found another saying that it’s the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.
https://defencehq.medium.com/in-pictures-the-military-life-of-her-majesty-the-queen-in-96-pictures-9fd7aa6d5c98
E1 – EMMA from Jane Austen, can’t find the exact picture, but here are the same characters in the same clothes: https://janeaustensworld.com/2009/10/11/emma-2009-the-sets-of-highbury-and-hartfield/ (Mrs Nutfield)
Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse and Louise Dylan as Harriet Smith, in Highbury village, in case any of that’s relevant.
E3 – Anne Boleyn with Henry VIII in the background, William Powell Frith (Mrs Nutfield again, i might give up)
D2 – Anthony Gormley Statue, could be Another Place, but they all look quite similar, can’t find one with that much bird poo on it.
We have the SCOTS guard next to a bottle of SCOTCH. Could be the connection, though they look a little hemmed in…
Nope, B4 is for FULTON umbrellas, and the connection in that corner is PROJECT COLD FEET, a CIA op to extract information from a soviet arctic DRIFTING ICE STATION. The operation used a FLYING FORTRESS and the Fulton extraction system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Coldfeet
C4. A bottle of Vat 69 whisky, proportion consumed unstated, was used to celebrate recovery aboard the B-17 after the skyhook manoeuvre.
A2 – This is from Spintires, it has the right GUI, but that vehicle isn’t in Spintires. And the later games (Mudrunner and Snowrunner) have a different GUI.
Am wondering if it is a mod or a DLC
It’s an M-62 TRAIN mod for Spintires.. FFS!
(Nutfield and Mrs Nutfield combined, slowly going mad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH8L-u0bm0M
CRAVEN cottage (E2) was part of ANNE BOLEYN’S hunting grounds (E3)?
A3 – Friendly Foxes illustration by Demelsa Haughton
https://www.demelsahaughtonillustration.co.uk/ourshop/prod_6647458-Friendly-Foxes-Card.html
RomanHasBeenFired – please forgive Roman
D1 – “Soldiers of Sacrifice” by Alfie Bradley, at the D-Day Story in Portsmouth
A4 – HARTSHEAD PIKE tower
A1 – V55 “Tyro” in VTOL VR – another one for the “TYR” cluster.
B3 – USS Ward’s number-three 4″/50 caliber gun, facing Minnesota History Center.
Here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S.S._Ward_Gun,_facing_Minnesota_History_Center.jpg
D5 – Fingals Cave, Staffa, LMS poster, c 1930s
Here: https://www.mediastorehouse.com/national-railway-museum/scotland/argyll-bute/fingals-cave-staffa-lms-poster-c-1930s-10006792.html
C3 – Satyendra Nath Bose
Cheerful ‘Friendly Foxes’ at A3 so Roman must have something nice in store?
Nope.
M62 Coach Bombing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M62_coach_bombing
A2. M62 – motorway location
A3. HAUGHTON – surname of family group murdered
B3. Judith WARD – falsely prosecuted and imprisoned
C3. Satyendra Nath Bose – date of death shared with the bombing: 4 February 1974
A4. HARTSHEAD Moor service station – location used to give first aid and now a memorial
D1 – Bradley
D3 – Abrams
Generals or American fighting Vehicles?
D4 BRITANNIA & D5 FINGAL ships and D2 Anthony Gormley statue here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Terminal,_Edinburgh
C4 – VAT 69 was also created by a chap that was born in Leith and as far as i can see there is a distillery on Ocean Terminal, but the exact link might be there but websites are hit and miss.
Ah just noticed that was used in another group, so just a lucky coincidence, i’ll try and find the 5th one and how D3 is connected.
Mount PELHAM, (E5) was in the siege of Leith, so might be D2-D5 & E5
D3 – SS Explorer is in Leith too.
Football grounds?
E1 – HIGHBURY (arsenal, formerly)
E2 – CRAVEN Cottage (Fulham)
E3 – BOLEYN ground aka Upton Park (West Ham, formerly)
D1 – The DEN (Millwall)
The soldier in the sculpture represents Den Brotheridge, widely believed to be the first Allied serviceman to be killed on D-Day
E4 – BRISBANE Road (Leyton Orient)
Looks like it’s specifically London football grounds!