End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

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gma
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by gma »

Game on!!! :axe:
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75

"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by sejintenej »

gma wrote:Game on!!! :axe:
Gerrie might well understand some of this

First clue - heavy bombing 16 April 1941 (plus gas though JR disputes this) - perhaps George Bernard is not quite involved
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Ajarn Philip »

Oh David, David, David, I wish you hadn't done that...

Anyway, I now know that 16th April 1941 was an extremely busy day. Among other things:

there was a by-election in West Bromwich
HG Wells wrote a letter to GBS
Camberwell was heavily bombed
There were aeroplane accidents near Biggin Hill, Seaton (Devon) and Charleston WV...
3 incendiary bombs were dropped in fields in Co. Durham - preumably the pilots could't find Camberwell...

OK, back to work.
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by sejintenej »

Ajarn Philip wrote:Oh David, David, David, I wish you hadn't done that...

Anyway, I now know that 16th April 1941 was an extremely busy day. Among other things:
Camberwell was heavily bombed
3 incendiary bombs were dropped in fields in Co. Durham - preumably the pilots could't find Camberwell...
Right idea, wrong place(s) Very first item found by Google but if that doesn't work try Peggy Walker on the Beeb
(who is NOT part of the story so far as I know)
Gerrie can guess but the GB clue won't be found from Google.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Ajarn Philip »

OK, so we're in Belfast...

it's after 2 a.m. - I'm off to bed!

Gerrie, where are you when I need you?
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by sejintenej »

Ajarn Philip wrote:OK, so we're in Belfast...

it's after 2 a.m. - I'm off to bed!
Gerrie, where are you when I need you?
Don't ask me what she does with her afternoons (or nights for that matter) - its none of my business

OK. You have to go out on a limb on two things. I promise that Google cannot help you on either of these:

a) the connection between Belfast (that night remember) and "Palace" (you have to guess which one!!!!)

EDIT: I need to make this a bit easier. A "secret" organisation with a past Jerusalem (place, name, not song) connection very occasionally creates "serving brothers" as in this case

b) George Bernard was another clue. He will be mentioned in another clue but put that aside for now; you are looking for the player at the Palace in 1942.

The answer is my name but I doubt that "Gordon"'s minions will help you. Confused? that is the idea.
Last edited by sejintenej on Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by gma »

Gerrie, where are you when I need you?
Sorry Hon, knee deep in a client's self-inflicted business c**p and then trying to make window for post office!! Will be clear soon and will get stuck into David's Agatha!!
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75

"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
Definitely not.
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Ajarn Philip »

Well, that was disappointing. So your family runs the Crystal Palace pizza takeaway in Belfast. Huh, am I supposed to be impressed? :lol:


Okay, bit of a long shot, but how about Alexandra Palace?
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by sejintenej »

Ajarn Philip wrote:Well, that was disappointing. So your family runs the Crystal Palace pizza takeaway in Belfast. Huh, am I supposed to be impressed? :lol:
Okay, bit of a long shot, but how about Alexandra Palace?
At a guess 6 miles 225 degrees from there. Remember that there is a clear connection with the previous date and place. Yes - a Crystal Palace pizza takeaway in Belfast might have been bombed on that night - I honestly don't know but I doubt it.
Princess Alexandra? sorry but not her at this stage but we might get to the Abdication some time; that would be a sideline
I also edited the last clue to make it easier - have you seen that addition?

Pizza takeaway? Nah - the other side ran eateries on Blackpool front for a long time but I never went there. Because of a twist of international law they didn't have to pay income tax! Neither of these two lines has any bearing on the puzzle

Spitting teeth? how many are left?
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Ajarn Philip »

We've hi-jacked this thread - it's not even closely related to the topic.

Could someone please move the 'riddle of the sej' to another section? (Since it probably won't go away for a while yet...)
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by gma »

Could someone please move the 'riddle of the sej' to another section? (Since it probably won't go away for a while yet...)
Hear, Hear! This could take some time! Decks are very nearly clear and am laying out Sej's clues ready to indulge!
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75

"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
Definitely not.
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Ajarn Philip »

Well, I thought Buckingham Palace was a bit too obvious... maybe St James?

So - Buck/St James' Palace, Knights Templar (freemasons? Dan Brown - the Da Vinci Code??? Naaah...), April 1941 (not 42? player at the palace in 1942...?) -

time bomb...(16 April 1941 St James Park)?

(By the way, cheese was rationed to 10 oz per week in May 1941.)

We wouldn't be talking about a musician from Belfast performing at St James's Palace on the evening of 16th April 1941, I suppose?

Hmm, the Ceremony of the Keys was disrupted by the bombs.

(Paul McCartney's parents were married on the previous day...)

And regardless of relevance, this is worth a read:
Ray Holmes
August 20, 1914 - June 27, 2005
Intrepid airman who rammed a German bomber over London to ensure it did not attack Buckingham Palace

IN ONE of the celebrated episodes of the Battle of Britain, sergeant pilot Ray Holmes became something of an overnight hero when he rammed a Dornier bomber over London to prevent it, as he had reason to believe, from dropping its bombs on Buckingham Palace. On the morning of September 15, 1940, Holmes had taken off from Hendon with other Hurricane pilots of 504 Squadron, to intercept a formation of 36 Dornier Do17s which had been reported to be closing in on Central London.

Acting as tail-end Charlie for his squadron, Holmes was keeping a weather eye open for German fighters as the aircraft approached the German bombers. He attacked two Dorniers, seriously damaging the first and causing its crew to bale out. The second sheered off as he fired at it. A third Dornier appeared to Holmes to be making directly for Buckingham Palace, but as he lined up on it — aiming to shoot through its cockpit window in a head-on attack — and pressed his gun button, the hiss from his breechblocks told him that he had run out of ammunition.

Holmes made the split second decision to prevent the enemy reaching its objective by ramming the Dornier, aiming to clip the left hand edge of its twin-rudder tailplane with his left wing. In fact he sliced the whole tailplane off and the Dornier, with its outer wings also ripped off by the violence of the impact, plunged to earth in the forecourt of Victoria station. As Holmes later recalled of the impact: “There was a bit of a bump but nothing much. I thought I had got away with it. But immediately the plane went into a spiral dive and I couldn’t pull out of it.”

Holmes took to his parachute at a desperately low 350ft and came down by the side of a house on Ebury Bridge Road, ending up with his parachute lines snagged on a drainpipe, suspended comically over a dustbin in the back garden. “I undid the parachute and stepped out. There were two girls in the next garden, so I vaulted over the fence and kissed them both,” he recalled.

Meanwhile, his Hurricane had crashed in Buckingham Palace Road at 400mph, burying itself many feet below the surface. The Dornier pilot had managed to bale out but subsequently died in hospital from his injuries. Mercifully, there were no casualties on the ground from either the Dornier or the Hurricane crash.

Holmes was taken by rescuers to the Orange Brewery in Pimlico Road, where he was steadied with a fortifying brandy before being taken to Chelsea Barracks, where he was checked over by an army medical officer. Thereafter, he was returned by taxi to RAF Hendon, where it was “business as usual” .

Raymond T. Holmes (always known as “Arty” because of his initials), was born and raised on the Wirral, where he was educated at Wallasey and Calday Grange grammar schools.

After leaving school he went into journalism, beginning work as a reporter on the Birkenhead Advertiser. He was also one of the early recruits to the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, joining it in 1936 as its 55th volunteer and completing his aircrew training. By the time the Second World War broke out he was already an experienced pilot, and he joined 504 (City of Nottingham) Squadron, flying Hurricanes.

As it happened, the intense airfighting over London on September 15, 1940, marked the virtual culmination of the Battle of Britain. Thereafter the German bomber offensive continued at night.

When Fighter Command went on to the offensive in the spring of 1941, Holmes flew fighter sweeps over occupied France. Subsequently he was sent to Murmansk to instruct Soviet airmen in the Hurricanes that were being delivered to them via the Arctic convoys, also escorting Soviet bombers on air raids over German occupied territory. On his return from Russia, he qualified as an instructor and spent two years at the Central Flying School.

Later in the war he specialised in photographic reconnaissance, joining 541 Squadron and flying high-altitude Spitfires over Germany to get high resolution pictures of targets. Such missions took him to the Ruhr, Berlin and Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. Towards the end of the war he was flying dispatches for Winston Churchill as King’s Messenger. He had in the meantime been commissioned, and he ended the war with the rank of flight lieutenant.

Demobilised in October 1945, he resumed his prewar career in journalism, specialising in agricultural photography and developing colour photographs in his own lab. He also had his own news agency which concentrated on covering Liverpool law courts for local and national newspapers.

As it happened, Holmes had not seen the last of his trusty Hurricane. After many years of research to pinpoint the remains of the aircraft, an excavation was carried out in Buckingham Palace Road in May last year, and parts of the Hurricane were recovered, the latter part of the operation being shown live on television. The remnants were given on loan to the Imperial War Museum, but parts of the engine casing that had been shattered beyond effective restoration were used to cast some miniature Hurricane sculptures, one of which was presented to its pilot.

A supremely modest man, Holmes lived life to the full, and was playing tennis well into his eighties. He was granted the freedom of the Wirral last year.

Holmes is survived by his wife, Anne, by their son and daughter, and by two daughters of his first marriage to Elizabeth, who died in 1964.

Ray Holmes, Battle of Britain fighter pilot, was born on August 20, 1914. He died on June 27, 2005, aged 90.
I'm off to bed - over to you, Ginnie.
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by sejintenej »

gma wrote:
Could someone please move the 'riddle of the sej' to another section? (Since it probably won't go away for a while yet...)
Hear, Hear! This could take some time! Decks are very nearly clear and am laying out Sej's clues ready to indulge!
Agreed; taking to pm but probably not able to do that until tonight. I promise that Agatha Christie never had so many coincidences, and Philip - go with your thoughts, not logic.

David
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by CHAZ »

How was the summer term for DS?
I have recently joined the site and spent the afternoon reading about the trials and tribulations of DS.
I do hope all is now OK
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Re: End of Lent Term - another Post Mortem

Post by Happy »

I've just read through this post again and I have to agree with so much said, but especially with Huggermugger - my heart goes out to you. I don't think there's been enough said to support the worries of parents in your position.

I would, as an OB, say that all of the concerns, except bullying, were parr for the course. As I haven't attended another senior school myself, I can't compare it as such.

However I realised that having children of your own makes matters a little more sensitive, especially if you haven't been through it yourself. The various levels of worry and guilt you feel which can arise from wobbly phone calls, texts, the "get me out" conversations are very stressful. I'm glad DS has decided to stay - it must be a huge relief for everyone.

We've come through the "get me out" well-reasoned conversations to the point where my DD still wants to leave her school :( .
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