rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:20 pm

Well, it must be ages since the last one (I think that's what I said last time too, and the time before that ...)

So, just for the weekend here is a nice simple one which won't survive for long (said that before, too, but this one really won't!) :-

What is it that links the following?

1. An escaped PoW

2. An excitable long range sniper

3. Fraternal commanders

4. An oily creator

Sorry the last one sounds (and admittedly is!) a little bit vague, but see how you go anyway. Clues available if needed, but they really shouldn't be.

Peter

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:45 pm

Wot, no takers?

Clues clearly required! Trouble is, one little one could provide the answer to the whole lot all in one go. Can't have that. Try this:

As you probably realise, the second item contains the sobriquet of a member of a particular regiment. (Those who hadn't spotted this could always consider why Hook/James Booth used the epithet when shoving Howard away from the window when celebrating the supposed arrival of "the relief column.") So - leaving that film aside, of course - who is our most excitable (or dangerously over excited) example?

That'll do the trick, I'm sure. The fourth item, being a bit vague, is less likely to lead you to the others than they are to it, so it might be worth leaving until the last.

Away you go, then ...

P.

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:58 am

My wife does the crossword in our house so I've always been rubbish at things like this......

Peter

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:03 pm

.. and I'm just thick.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:04 pm

Arrant nonsense! As paid up AZW anoraks, you are all perfectly capable of sorting this one out with your eyes closed. I gave you an easy clue but was convinced that I'd now made it far too easy. However, it now seems you want spoon feeding! Laughing

I can't believe I'm doing this, but here goes:

1. Well, there are hardly that many to choose from, for goodness sake. I can only think of one myself! Elements of his story have been disputed but his identity itself is hardly obscure. Can't believe this one remains unanswered - just too easy.

2. Surely another clue is not needed? The sobriquet, incidentally, is of any member of that regiment. And here was a particularly and dangerously over excited member. (Well, if that isn't enough ...)

3. You won't need a clue to this, after solving the previous two easily now. But while I'm in a silly, generous mood, let's amend the clue to three words now, and make the middle word battalion. Now come on!

4. The first two or three will reveal the link anyway, so this one will just fall into place.

I think you've all known the answer for days but are just winding me up. Now behave, or I just won't set you another when the next one's due, in about 2013!!!

Peter Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:30 pm

Peter,

you seem determined to make us all look silly.

1. I can only think of Churchill, but he's hardley AZW.

2. Again I can only think of John Williams.

3. No idea.

4. Since I haven't got 1, 2 or 3, I've no idea.

There, at least I'm game, so shoot me!

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:44 pm

1. Grandier

That's as far as I can go!!!!!

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:47 pm

Alan

No, it's me that is silly as I really thought this one would be a doddle. It's not always easy to get the balance of a puzzle dead right, as there is no point at all in a ridiculously tough one, but when it's one that involves a link it is often the case that it turns out easy when one is solved.

I certainly think there are several on the forum who'll get all or some of them, and plenty of others who'll get one to help the rest on on its way. (It came to me in the bath, so I thought it would do nicely during a quiet time here. Too quiet, as far as this thread is concerned!) So - rescue me please, Mel, Peter, PBQ, JY (must be on holiday or he'd have got it in a jiffy) Keith, Martin, Gallo, Saw, Rich, Ron and others.

So I'll leave it on the table, together with the clues provided.

If it doesn't go then, Alan - shoot me instead!

Good luck all,

Peter

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:49 pm

Ah, Mel! You were posting at the same time as me! At last - I knew you wouldn't let me down. Correct, of course. Keep going, mate ...

P.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:39 pm

Peter,

I cracked it this afternoon, but I can't post from work so it has had to wait until now. Sadly not on holiday on advice from the F & C Office.

1, Trooper H.B. Grandier, Border Horse, a native of Bordeaux, France.

2, The excitable young man was not actually an officer in the Royal Artillery, he was merely there to observe - His Imperial Highness the Prince Imperial of France, Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte.

3, The brothers who commanded both the battalions of the 24th Regiment were William & Henry Degacher, from St. Omer, France.

4, The oily creator was also from St. Omer, France and a friend of the brothers Degacher - Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville.

John Y

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:15 pm

John

Good man! Knew you wouldn't let me down. I was just beginning to think it really was me who was going mad. Nice clean sweep there, and also a good effort from Mel.

Yes, Louis wasn't allowed the Queen's commission but had deliberately chosen the RA over the RE when he passed out of the "Shop" because of his family's gunnery traditions.

OK, we'll have another rest for a couple of years. Unless, of course, public demand persuades me otherwise ... Laughing

Peter

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:25 pm

Peter

You forgot the two brothers linked with the Sun King.

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:17 am

I'm feeling just a bit out of the loop, so to speak , but if you put one of these up every year I'm guessing that in a decade or so I'll begin to figure out the rules. Is this quiz perchance based somehow on the "game" of cricket? Wink

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:35 am

Of course I did know the answers but was merely trying to prompt others to try, ah hem...

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:16 pm

This was like a version of "Round Britain Quiz"