Within the grid below, we've buried the names of 24 places where morris dances have been recorded. They run in all directions, sometimes backwards (rather like some morris dancers we know).
You'll find all 24 names listed beneath the grid.
But we think word grids are too easy for words, so we've jumbled up the letters of each place name before hiding it. Thus SHERBORNE actually appears in the grid as HORNBRESE. It could have been Hornsbeer or Herbsnore, but they didn't fit.
We've tried to make each of these anagrams sound like a real English place name. Some may seem a little improbable, but no more so than many of the absurd place names to be found on a real map of England. Also, some of them aren't very good. Sorry about that.
BE WARNED: We could only actually squeeze in 23 complete place names..... so we wedged in the last one by breaking it in half, and putting the two halves in different places.
Go to the end of the page to find out how to print out the grid, and how to e-mail your entry to us (by 0001 GMT on 8 February 2000, please).
Have fun!
N I H T O N L I C K T O N D U N G
N I L B O G E Y O D R A Y J S N V
O E I D I C H F E L L U B I I T X
T S H A U N T O N T R A C T O R M
T E E G D J D V U B X K N M Z E K
I R D O I Y R Z I L F E B J R T C
N B O B N K E D J O B N V L B N E
G N W A T C A H N D A O I X I I B
K R T D O E D T L P V N G Z D W L
I O N I N N B O X A S J V N D S A
R H I N D Q U A R T E R A G O N Y
L X L N O J R V O X Z W J V R R R
J V F Z G N Y E H M A S T X F Z J
Abingdon
_ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _
Adderbury
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Bampton
_ _ _ _ / _ _ _
Bidford
_ _ _ _ _ r _
Bledington
_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Brackley
_ _ a _ _ _ _ _
Bucknell
_ u _ _ / _ _ c _
Ducklington
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _
Eynsham
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Fieldtown
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Finstock
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Headington Quarry
_ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _
Hinton
_ _ t _ _ _ '
Idbury
_ _ r _ _ _
Kirtlington
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _
Leominster
_ _ _ _ _ _ ' _ / _ _ _
Lichfield
_ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _
Longborough
_ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _
Oddington
_ _ _ _ _ n / _ _ _
Sherborne
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Stanton Harcourt
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wheatley
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Winster
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Yardley Gobion
_ _ _ _ / _ ' / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _
You really need to have the grid down on paper to solve it. But simply printing out this page as it is doesn't work. So, COPY and PASTE the grid and the list of place-names on to a plain text file, and print it from there.
To e-mail your entry, send us your text file as an attachment with all the answers filled in. Make sure you get them the right way round!
©1999 Simon Pipe, Mark Rogers, The Outside Capering Crew