Sloggers and Betters Main Event

After the pub-crawl the night before, the main event of the weekend started at 11am. Overnight it had got rather cold... and snowy! Here was the view from the dining room at the Stableside as I had my breakfast.

Fortunately, I didn't have far to go. The Fox & Roman...

...was just across the road from the entrance! Our host, John Henderson,  had a supply of name badges, pens and crosswords. I sat down at a table with the event's main puzzle, An Exercise in Futility, and was soon joined by 4 others, John, Simon, Richard and Jeff - two other solvers and two setters.

The empty grid looked like this...

These were the instructions...

Three stages of an exercise in futility are represented in the grid. In eight clues, wordplay ignores one letter of the solution (Stage 1; the red squares are supportive upon arrival) and the definition is for the entered answer (Stage 2, upon return). The answers to ten other clues are too short for their grid entries, a situation solvers must rectify to represent Stage 3. The figure responsible for the exercise is represented by (i) the unclued answers; (ii) the blue cell; and (iii) the letters in the grey squares.

No, we didn't understand it, but we set off solving what we could. It was a good team effort and we all chipped in with ideas for answers and working out the wordplay. After about an hour we were doing quite well and had filled in enough of the grey squares to work out the anagram and identify what our two missing letters were.With that, and a hint from the setter about what "the red squares are supportive upon arrival", meant, we identified the figure responsible and the 3 "Stages".

But lunch came and we still hadn't cracked the middle squares, so we ended up getting the answers to the last few from another table.

Oh so clever! Follow the link above to access the crossword and this blog from crypticsue to explain the answers. A challenge worthy of the location and the collective cruciverbal expertise there!

After lunch we tried the other crosswords, which you can find here. You can also find blogs explaining each of them on the fifteensquared site.

Part way through the afternoon, I got a rather nice surprise. Somebody came up to the table where I was sat. "John Moody?", he asked. "Yes.", I repled. "Tom Reynolds", he said. Oh my goodness! Tom was my boss at British Gas when I left in 1987... and we hadn't seen each other since! He had seen my name in the list of people signed up to the event and followed the link I had left there to see if I was the John Moody he knew!

Well we didn't have long before he had to go for his train home, but we had a good chat catching up on the last 31 years! And now I know he is a setter, I must look out some of his crosswords and do them.

As the evening came on and people were thinning out, John D and I stayed on and had our evening meal in the pub. The food there is excellent.

By 9pm, I was starting to feel a bit weary so headed back to the Stableside across the road. I'd been in the Fox and Roman for 10 hours! I had gone for a bit of a walk in the morning to photograph the stops along our pub crawl, so I had at least had a bit of exercise, but by no means my usual target. Never mind. I'll be walking about York today with young Sarah and her friends.

So that was a fun event. It was great to meet some other bloggers and a number of setters. Thanks John H. I think I'll be doing more than just The Times crosswords from now on. But first there is the small item of the National Championships next weekend! More training for that next week!

Sloggers and Betters Pub Crawl

I arrived at my accommodation  at the York Stableside mid-afternoon.

Although I'd asked for a single, I got a room with a double and two single beds! I settled in and tried a couple of the crosswords for the event.

Well, the pub crawl was as advertised, with a quiz starting in Brigantes, along with the buffet. First was the York Tap.


It was about a 40 minute walk from the Stableside, and quite easy to find. But it was heaving. How would I know who was for the S&B event - I'd never met any of them before? Unwilling to ask anyone if they were a Slogger or Better, in case someone took offence, I contented myself with enjoying the beer and watched for people leaving shortly before 7. Sure enough they were going to our second stop, Brigantes.

I found the quiz already under way upstairs and was met by our host, John Henderson, and pointed in the direction of john_dun, who suggested I come to this. It was good to meet him and share our North-East connections.

Then it was the shortest leg of a pub-crawl ever. You could have crawled it in a minute... From our function room upstairs at Brigantes, it was just across the landing and through the door on the other side to the York Brewery Tap Room!

Chatting for too long we missed our host leading the way to our next stop, The Golden Ball - another fine hostelry with excellent beers.

Fortunately, Google Maps came to our rescue, and we found our way there without difficulty. As the landlord there was leaving that weekend, we all put a message on his leaving card, even though he wasn't there to serve us.

Come 10pm we turned in the City Centre direction to our last port of call, The Ackhorne.

Not closing until midnight, we were able to stay quite late. Whilst others took cabs, I persuaded John to walk back to the Stableside with me.

Well that was a good night out. It's a long time since I've been on a proper pub crawl!

Jumbo Blogging Day

Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1347 - 13th October

This was quite a straightforward Jumbo with only the stew at 55A and the nasty form of torture at 5D being a new words to me. But both were easily derived from checkers and wordplay. Done online, I don't have any notes on any particular difficulties.All done in about 39 1/2 minutes, which may be close to a PB for me for the Jumbo. One or two entertaining clues noted in the text; BIRTHSTONE my favourite, I think. Having learnt about the Greek stew, I decided to make it for Sunday dinner last weekend. I served it with rice and a greek salad. Very tasty! Thanks setter for the culinary lesson (and the rest of an entertaining, but not-too-taxing crossword). How did you all like it?
P.S. I am in York today for the fifteensquared Sloggers and Betters event. Hoping to see some of you there.

( Read all about it... )

QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1209 by Teazel

A very relatively gentle offering from Teazel that should provide encouragement to our less-experienced solvers, and maybe result in PBs for some.[Edit: It would appear I've underestimated the difficulty and 1D has been troublesome for some]. I was held up only by uncertainty at the ending of 11a. I got a bit worried by 1 and 3 down that we were in for a bit of a saucy time, but that was the end of it. I enjoyed being reminded of the bikini at 18a, but COD goes to the simple 6d for the straightforward introduction to the semi-&lit type of clue. 22a may generate a MER (minor eyebrow raise) from some, but there was really very little to frighten the horses. Just over 5 minutes for me, despite 11a, as a result. Thanks Teazel! How did you all like it?
P.S. I post this in advance of heading to York today for the fifteensquared Sloggers and Betters event. Hoping to see some of you there.

( Read all about it.... )

Sloggers and Betters Weekend this Weekend

Looking forward to this. We start with a Pub Crawl!

 It will be good to meet some fellow bloggers and some setters!

Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers Walk - Helmingham

When I saw this walk posted, I remembered an excellent walk I'd done in the Suffolk Walking Festival in 2015. A beautiful estate and lots of deer. I was looking forward to it... and was not disappointed. This was the listing.
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Park by the church. But how do you get to it? I should have paid attention as Keith was standing there to direct people and I didn't stop... until I drove through the estate, failing to find the way to the church car park and came round again. Lol.

This was our route.

I was a bit of a windy day so we were all wrapped up even though it wasn't too cold. Keith introduced us to the walk...

He said there are some stiles. And quite big ones. "Will there be step ladders to get over them?", someone asked in jest. "Yes", he said. And he wasn't kidding! As we shall see.

Crossing the bridge we set off across the park....

...with the impressive Helmingham Hall, home of the Tollemache dynasty since the 15th century, in front of us. "When John Tollemache first started work on Helmingham in 1480, it was built in traditional half-timbered style with an overhang to the upper floor both out and inside the courtyard. Since then there have been a number of changes in external appearance, but the basic form of a courtyard manor house still remains, as do many of the original brick chimneys". Read more about it here. We didn't get close enough to see it, but the Hall has  60' moat and two drawbridges which "have been pulled up every night since 1510, making Helmingham Hall an island by night".

We walked through the 400 acre park.  There are some amazing trees, up to 900 years old.

It was lovely to see all the deer. Some got spooked by us and ran away, but some just watched.

And then we got to the stile. Yes. As I said, Keith wasn't kidding! about 7 ft high with, yes, a step ladder! As you can imagine, it took a little while for the 30+ of us to get over it. Someone suggested there ought to be a chute to slide down from the top. Now that would be fun!

We walked off into the countryside. There were lost of autumn berries.

After we got back to the park, and crossed that stile again, we headed for the obelisk. Some people climbed up to it to see if there was anything on it to explain... 

...but there wasn't. So I had to look it up after. Here is what I found on the hall website... "In the archives there are reports of the Mound being used by the Helmingham Volunteers to practise their musketry during the Napoleonic Wars, but the Monument itself was constructed in about 1860, from the bricks of an ornamental seventeenth-century walled arboretum on the site, which had fallen into disrepair." ..and, from here, "Obelisk, c.1860. About 20m high and standing on a mound about 7m high. Red brick. A square plinth about 2.5m high has a square sinking in each face. The needle-formed obelisk rises without interruption, tapering to a width of 0.5m at the head. A prominent landscape feature in the centre of Helmingham Park. The mound was part of an C18 wilderness garden; a summerhouse of c.1760, together with a brick wall, was demolished and the bricks reused in the obelisk. Included as Grade I in the H.B.M.C. Register of Historic Parks and Gardens."

Then it was past the Hall...

 
...and more deer...

...over more stiles, with an encounter with some fruits that were not sloes, but damsons.

.Past the impressive gatehouses...

..and on to Helmingham Church.

There are, of course, several impressive monuments to the Tollmarches, like this..

Well. That was a selection of my photos. Here is a slide show of all of them. (Flash required).

You see them all individually on Flickr and more details of the route on MapMyWalk.

What a lovely morning's walk and an amazing place with bags of history. Thanks Keith!

Bradfield Woods Walk.

"Would you like to go for a woodland walk?", said the missus. It was a beautiful autumn morning again so we headed for Bradfield Woods, a favourite in the spring time but not a place we had visited much in the autumn.

We decided to do the Orange walk of about 2 1/2 miles. Here is our route....

There was still some mist about as we started which gave a lovely atmosphere.

Here are some volunteers doing some clearing.

There were plenty of berries...

..and rather fewer mushrooms than we expected, But we did see these...

The birdsong was lovely and there were still some flowers about, like this scabious.

A gentle Sunday morning stroll before heading for home to cook the Sunday lunch.

Here is a slide show of my photographs.

You can see my photo album here on Flick and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.

Shotley Point Walk

It was a lovely sunny morning. We had to take William to Ipswich for a Suffolk Youth Orchestra trial rehearsal (that's him on the brochure cover!) and had 3 hours to spare before collecting him. So rather than going home and back again we went for a walk... from Shotley Point.

This was our route.

We parked by the Bristol Arms...

...starting from the old pier.. 

...and headed along the north bank of the Stour estuary to Erwarton Bay.

From here we went inland  to Shotley and on to Shotley Hall through the lovely Viking Woods..

...complete with wooden Green Man.

We stopped at Shotley Chirch to admire the immaculately kept naval graves...

..and vineyard...

...before getting to the River Orwell.

If you've been reading my blog posts, you may get a sense of déjà vu here: we've been following some of the route of Joyce's Shotley Peninsula walk! Along the way back we saw a huge container ship arriving...

 the Shotley Marina...

...and the foot ferry heading for Harwich.

A lovely couple of hours walk and we were in good time to collect the cello maestro before heading for home.

Here is a slide show of my photos...

You can see them all here on Flickr, and see more details of our route on MapMyWalk.