Here’s this week’s devilishly fiendish Round Blogworld Quiz question (see the previous ones and their solutions here). As usual, find the link between these cryptic clues. A point for each item you get, and an imaginary cream bun of regal proportions if you get them all. If you get the link straight off, please don’t give it away too early!
What connects Liz Taylor to a broken bridge, a fighter pilot’s fruit, a sailor’s saxophone record and a confused inboard banging?
Clues will be given as necessary, and the solution will appear later.
I’ll kick off with long shot – John Coltrane was in the Navy. Was he the saxophonist?
I think there is a Red Baron peach (I’ve also got Red Baron onions in the garden at the moment).
Coltrane is correct, Red Baron not…
is a broken bridge the millenium bridge? Or london bridge falling down?
Nope
There is a red wine called Fighter Pilot — Californian.
It’s good but it’s not right, JL.
This is quite tricky. The famous broken bridge is in Chennai, or it may refer to a broken nose, perhaps?
Right, an early clue. The broken bridge is not necessarily really broken. Or indeed, a bridge.
More of a ‘broken bridge’…
Mohammed Hanif, the author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes, was a fighter pilot in the Pakistani airforce?
What???
I had tried anagrams but the only one I could make was ‘begird’.
Hmmm….
Or Pontefract?
There was a fighter pilot called Everett T Raspberry.
Is the answer smelly?
Um, no!
Clue time: The ‘bridge’ is only a bridge and only broken in local mythology.
If you crack the last bit you’ll get the rest easily.
The fighter pilot was in the RAF.
is the fighter pilot Douglas Bader? Thats the only one I can think of
How can you lot indulge in fripperies when British manufacturing is crashing down around your ears.
Does ‘a confused inboard banging’ involve shore leave in Bangkok after twelve months at sea for a short-sighted sailor?
Indeed, but not relevantly to this case, alas.
Another clue as you’re clearly struggling: The RAF pilot is more famous for work he did long after he stopped flying.
Is the pilot Roald Dahl and the fruit a giant peach?
got it!!!
the peach thing that is.. not the actual answer
Aha – yes JL. And, I assume, Worm.
That ‘confused’ inboard banging: presuming it’s not ‘angina bird bong’ it’s got to be either ‘a darning gibbon’ or ‘a bra-binning god’.
On the right lines, JL…
I can see that Liz Taylor, London Bridge and the Giant Peach all had something in common …
Not London Bridge…
Ah. I had an idea about them all starting off in UK and ending up in US …
No but that would have been a good one. Shall I do it next week?
The glorious Liz Taylor, who was much older than often reported, was made a Dame in recognition of her contribution to victory in WWll, during which she gave succor to every British sailor, and a few army types as well, but her greatest contribution came during the Battle of Britain, when she offered herself in marriage to any fighter pilot who, on meeting her, showed he was invulnerable to the dreaded knee tremble and ‘confused inboard banging’ (a RAF term meaning “the old kite’s got a hard on, and I’m not sure I’m in control”), and then go on to stuff a bag of lemons in Goring’s gob by downing eight messerschmitts and five heinkels in an afternoon. The rakish Wing Commander Richard Burton, renowned for regularly visiting the WAAF’s mess before turning his spitfire into the sun, then diving deep, before coming up behind his unsuspecting target and………………………………………confirmed his interest in Liz’s offer by saying “I’ll have a double dose of that – don’t you know; my sax is well tuned, and I’m ready to play like a Charlie Parker record – smooooth, no crackles, no pops, and then I’ll break a few bridges’.” This latter expression is of unknown origin, but is believed to have been coined by The Dabbler in its relentless quest to make the weekly quiz incomprehensible to idiots like me….
Ok, next clue:
Liz Taylor movie.
Right – Elizabeth Taylor was married to Richard Burton, James and the Giant Peach was directed by Tim Burton, Burton Bridge cracked when King Edward II rode into Burton in victory, and if you hear a strange knocking in your hull you’re likely to be going for a burton. I’m a bit at sea with this one.
The bridge was supposed to go to Scotland.
Giant’s Causeway.
Liz was in Giant, Coltrane had a record called Giant’s Steps.
Yes! Keep going…
Brobdingnagian!
I can’t believe you did that anagram! I was working on those letters for ages!