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.
To completely defox today’s word chain you’ll need to provide Roman with the sequence of 24 words suggested by the clues below.
A word can be any length and is linked to the next word in the chain by its last two or three letters. For instance ‘honeysuckle’ might be followed by ‘leviathan’. ‘Handel’ could come next. Then ‘delta’. And so on. Complicating things a tad are the six green italicised clues. These have been shuffled. For example “Fear of the inevitable” probably doesn’t refer to word #8.
1. An organisation that was based here
2. An adjective that describes much of Degas’ work
3. A well-known US city found in all English dictionaries
4. This chap
5. A short-lived African republic
6. A word sometimes seen before railway and after gun
7. Where in the UK you’d find this disinfectant receptacle
8. Fear of the inevitable
9. This crop
10. Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro, and Bill Clinton all owned one.
11. Ravaged by the RAF in 1945
12. A victim of this U-boat
13. Where this picture was taken
14. Captured by the Royal Navy in the year this battle occurred
15. A city with a green fairy museum
16. This wargame
17. Something you might find in a river, kitchen, or ice hockey team
18. The aircraft under construction in this photo
19. All members of this zoological class live in the sea
20. A WW2 destroyer scrapped in the year this ship hit the headlines
21. This helicopter
22. The main character in this 1997 novel is one
23. The current USMC model features them while the US Army one doesn’t
24. The christian name of this woman
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s cluster foxer:
characters in Jane Eyre (defoxed by AFKAMC)
a1. pilot (Viscount, ylla)
b1. bertha mason (AFKAMC)
c1. st. john rivers (Viscount, AFKAMC)
a2. jane eyre (AFKAMC)
b2. edward rochester (AFKAMC)
words that started life as acronyms (defoxed by AFKAMC)
d1. soweto (Viscount)
c2. laser (Viscount)
d2. gulag (AFKAMC)
c3. scuba (AFKAMC)
d3. radar (AFKAMC)
rubies (defoxed by Viscount)
e1. jack ruby (FunkyFrank)
e2. black prince’s ruby (Viscount)
e3. ruby slippers (Viscount)
e4. liberty bell ruby or redstone (AFKAMC)
e5. 1k17 szhatie (alison)
british cars of the 1970s (defoxed by AFKAMC)
a3. avenger (AFKAMC)
a4. dolomite (alison)
a5. granada (Viscount)
b5. marina (AFKAMC)
c5. capri (AFKAMC)
stop motion animation (defoxed by Colonel_K)
b3. the crab with the golden claws (CaptainBinky)
b4. lucanus cervus (Colonel_K, Viscount)
c4. ray harryhausen (AFKAMC, Viscount)
d4. the lost world (AFKAMC)
d5. the magic roundabout (AFKAMC)
21. KESTREL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_VH-71_Kestrel#/media/File:Naeapaxr_VH071_whitehouse.jpg
Not-24 is BESSIE Braddock https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4816651
(The bus station name on the sign was a good clue!)
8 might be THANATOPHOBIA, fear of death. There doesn’t seem to be a word for fear of taxes!
18. VENGEANCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vultee_A-31_Vengeance#/media/File:Vultee_plant_Nashville_LOC_fsa.8d00305.jpg
19. Maybe CEPHALOCHORDATA, just because of 18.
Sorry, I jumped the gun there a bit, you could also have CEPHALOCARIDA, CEPHALOPODA, CETACEA, maybe more?
14 is the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pyramids
Could be a ship or a place or something quite random, though.
Conquérant and Tonnant were both captured by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.
19. CETACEA?
2. IMPRESSIONISTIC?
15. ANTIBES, NEW ORLEANS and PARIS all have museums dedicated to absinthe.
If it was Antibes then BESSIE could go in at 16
…
Which would seem to make 17 SIEVE
(Replies now in the right place, hopefully.)
10. CIGAR? Or some item of related paraphernalia – HUMIDOR?
Edit:
9. SORGHUM
10. HUMIDOR
Making 11 DORTMUND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air_operations_during_the_Battle_of_Europe
4. NILS DACKE
https://www.guidebook-sweden.com/en/guidebook/destination/dackestatyn-nils-dacke-memorial-virserum
Which would put him at 20 – before KESTRAL
Might just have to be DACKE, we haven’t had a zoological class ending -NI or -NIL!
Which would make 19 CEPHALOPODA
1. PCR?
(Revolution Square, Bucharest – former HQ of the Romanian Communist Party)
That specific building was the Union of Romanian Architects – https://bucharestapartment.net/the-union-of-romanian-architects-a-unique-design-concept/
Wouldn’t know if that would be full answer of there’s an acronym
Built on the ruin of the SECURITATE building – I’d guess that’s what we’re after.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitate
12. The U-boat is U-552 I think.
Could be THURSO at 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thurso
6 RACK?
5 BIAFRA? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra
(Putting 8’s -PHOBIA in at 4)
Life is annoyingly busy at the moment, two forgotten in a row!
The ship in 20 is the Arktika, which became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole in 1977.
A WW2 destroyer that was scrapped in 1977 is the DORTCH, which would fit in 12, after Dortmund
It’d need to go in the same place as Dortmund to fit though.
Yes it would – I’m misreading my own notes 🙁
The book in 22 is The Spider’s Web by Peter Berresford Ellis, one of the Sister Fidelma novels, in which she is a Celtic nun, described in the book as a RELIGIEUSE, which fits after Kestrel (I’ve checked this one :))
7 is the ACKWORTH plague stone https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/303586
Which makes 13 Fort EDMONTON
1. SECURITATE
2. TERPSICHOREAN
3. ANCHORAGE
8 (at 4) GERONTOPHOBIA?
1. SECURITATE
2. TERPSICHOREAN
3. ANCHORAGE
8. GERONTOPHOBIA
5. BIAFRA
6. RACK
7. ACKWORTH
12. THURSO
9. SORGHUM
10. HUMIDOR
11. DORTMUND
16/20 This wargame/A WW2 destroyer scrapped in the year this ship hit the headlines
13. Where this picture was taken
14. CONQUERANT? TONNANT?
15. ANTIBES
24. BESSIE
17. SIEVE
18. VENGEANCE
19. CEPHALAPODA
4. DACKE
21. KESTREL
22. RELIGIEUSE
23. The current USMC model features them while the US Army one doesn’t
16/20 This wargame/A WW2 destroyer scrapped in the year this ship hit the headlines
16 at 12: UNDAUNTED (previous comment awaiting moderation, apparently)
13. EDMONTON
so 14 TONNANT works!
1. SECURITATE
2. TERPSICHOREAN
3. ANCHORAGE
8. GERONTOPHOBIA
5. BIAFRA
6. RACK
7. ACKWORTH
12. THURSO
9. SORGHUM
10. HUMIDOR
11. DORTMUND
16. UNDAUNTED
13. EDMONTON
14. TONNANT
15. ANTIBES
24. BESSIE
17. SIEVE
18. VENGEANCE
19. CEPHALAPODA
4. DACKE
21. KESTREL
22. RELIGIEUSE
23. The current USMC model features them while the US Army one doesn’t
20. A WW2 destroyer scrapped in the year this ship hit the headlines (1977)
20 could be BURZA or DORTCH/ESPORA
ONSLAUGHT or VOLAGE could also be contenders for 20
I like ONSLAUGHT.
23. something MISSIONS? something WEAPONS?
I’m not sure what ‘model’ refers to in this clue – is is a physical model (as in an actual marine figure) or model as in ‘way of going about things’, something more nebulous.
Or even specific models of some ubiquitous piece of equipment. That would probably be spelt out more explicitly, though.
Aha. It seems I was right and wrong respectively. Good work, Colonel!
Either ONSLAUGHT or ESPORA could give an obviously plural answer. No idea what it is, though 🙂
something PLATOONS?
I’m favouring something BUTTONS.
But it’s also possible that it’s CHEVRONS, or even APRONS.
What do IFVs have when they’re landing on a beach?
Sod it. I’m just going to claim it’s “USER INSTRUCTIONS” and say it’s coz the average US Army soldier can’t read. Goes for any possible piece of equipment or materiel.
Unless it’s something SPONSONS.
I’m guessing the word is servo but I’m still trying to find the item that has one.
It’s not an answer I’d advance with confidence, but I was thinking possibly SERRATIONS on a Ka-Bar or other fighting knife. I haven’t, so far, found a way to prove it.
The only vaguely sensible word I found was SECTIONS…
Roman tells me 23 is (like all the answers in a wordchain) a single word. He also let slip that the ‘models’ in question are small enough to fit inside a body bag (Don’t read too much into that receptacle – my Chief Foxer Setter is in a morbid mood at the moment).
Colonel_K has forged the last link in this word chain. The models referred to in clue 23 are bayonets and the word is SERRATIONS.
@Tim
a) who in their right mind launches a website between Christmas and the New Year?
b) how wedded are you to WordPress? Though it does nest replies neatly, even on mobiles, I can’t see that it allows fancy text, embedded links or images (Facepalm).
c) are you/Roman still accepting user-generated Foxers?
a) Launching on Jan 1 appealed to my sense of orderliness and gave me extra justification for being grumpy over Christmas.
b) A change of comment system at some point isn’t out of the question, but there are other things I’d like to achieve first like an automated subscriber benefit system (If any subscriber is still commenting under a grey moniker, please drop me a line).
c) With open arms! Assuming Roman approves the submission, your foxer will go up alongside or in place of the ‘official’ Friday puzzle.