Idle Moments

Idle Moments – April/May 2025

March 24, 2025
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Well, hello there! Sorry I missed the opportunity to inflict confusion and irritation upon you last time but I was indisposed. Nothing serious, just a pre-planned heart bypass operation, but a problem with the wound in my leg (where they took out a vein to make the artery grafts) meant that I spent a second consecutive Christmas and New Year period in hospital. Still, things seem to be just about back to normal now, thanks for asking. Oh, you weren’t…!

I thought I’d have a bit of a change this time, so no brewery anagrams or number puzzles. I thought, ‘Why not try a Find the Brewery test’. I’ve done a few in the past and nobody complained. Having decided that my first (1975) Good Beer Guide is too deeply hidden behind a front row of later GBGs, I’ve saved that for another day. Instead I pulled out A Century of British Brewers by Norman Barber of the Brewery History Society (pub. 1994). The breweries were all in Greater London and the dates when they stopped brewing are also given. Native Londoners will probably be able to identify some, but can you place them all?.

  1. John Lovibond & Sons Ltd. (1962)
  2. Brandon’s Brewery Ltd (1949)
  3. Hodgson’s Brewery Co. Ltd. (1965)
  4. Thomas Clutterbuck & Co. (1916)
  5. Thunder & Little Ltd. (1914)
  6. Meux’s Brewery Co. Ltd. (1921)
  7. Page & Overton’s Brewery Ltd. (1954)
  8. Cole & Burrows (1906)
  9. Mann, Crossman & Paulin Ltd. (1979)
  10. William Gomm & Son (1908)

A. Putney
B. Stanmore
C. Twickenham
D. Brentford
E. Kingston
F. Greenwich
G. Whitechapel
H. Tottenham Court Road, WC1
I. Croydon
J. Mitcham

My stock of consecutive celebrities is getting smaller and some letter combinations have run out but there are still some available so here’s another tranche:

  1. EF: ‘First Lady of Song’
  2. VW: American female singer (soul/funk/R&B)
  3. JK: President ‘Jack’
  4. KL: Singer – Love Letters (in the Sand)
  5. AB: Art expert/Russian spy
  6. RS: German composer (Four Last Songs)
  7. OP: Politician (Con.) privy councillor
  8. CD: ‘Pilot of the Airwaves’ singer
  9. LM: English female singer/songwriter
  10. GH: Scottish captain (and full back)

And so we come to trivial knowledge. Keep going; you’ll soon be finished, then you can start enjoying yourselves.

  1. What is the name of the archipelago 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides whose four main islands are called Hirta, Soay, Boreray and Dùn?
  2. What Commonwealth city has a suburb that shares its name with the solution to the question above?
  3. In musical terms, what is a Mondegreen? (Readers of the Radio Times might also have learned this from Susie Dent’s Word of the Week, which is where I found it.)
  4. Which underground railway in London commenced service in 1927 and closed in 2003?
    Please note that in the following questions I am just using the current tube line names, not original (or even intermediate) company names.
  5. Spotted on a YouTube video recently from a shot of preserved wall tiling at platform level, which tube station on the Piccadilly Line was originally named Gillespie Road before being renamed in 1932?
  6. Carrying on with a few more renamed tube stations, what was Dover Street station (opened 1906) on the Piccadilly Line changed to in 1933?
  7. Walham Green station on the District Line, opened in 1880, changed its name in 1952 to what?
  8. Also on the District Line, Shaftesbury Road opened in 1877 and its name was changed as early as 1888. To what?
  9. A little bit different; when the Central Line was opened in 1900, it did not have a Holborn Station but a separate station a little to the west. This closed in 1933 when the new Holborn Station, linked to the Piccadilly Line, opened. After what was the abandoned Central Line station named?
  10. The Rideau Canal, recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, was built between 1826 and 1832. It is 202km (126 miles) long with 49 locks. In which Commonwealth country is it located?

Phew! All done. I might only have missed one edition but a gap of four months (and not doing a lot else apart from lying in hospital or recuperating) left the old (using that term advisedly) brain cells a bit short of practice. Hopefully, I’ve spotted most of the howlers and other cock-ups (and Tony will spot the rest).

Have a nice Spring.
Andy Pirson

As usual-ish, here are the solutions to the puzzles set in the December/January Idle Moments column (not February/March ‘cos I was indisposed).

Brewery anagrams:

  1. Danger By Toe – Great Beyond
  2. Rain Van – Nirvana
  3. Stoop Grew Doubt – Brewdog Outpost
  4. Reuse Mint – Mutineers
  5. Few Lower – Werewolf
  6. A Broad Inca – Bianca Road
  7. Salty Ken – Tankleys
  8. Normal G – Long Arm
  9. She Arrived In Pdf Tune – Friendship Adventure
  10. Add Sample H – Mash Paddle

Consecutive celebrities:

  1. GH: ‘Water’ and ‘Messiah’ [George (Frideric) Handel]
  2. RS: Brother of Eden Kane (and Peter) [Robin Sarstedt]
  3. JK: ‘Pirate’ singer [Johnny Kidd]
  4. CD: Scientist on the Beagle [Charles Darwin]
  5. KL: Former Mayor [Ken Livingstone]
  6. OP: Film producer [Otto Preminger]
  7. DE: ‘Guitar Man’ [Duane Eddy]
  8. ST: Piedmont blues man (partner of Brownie) [Sonny Terry]
  9. EF: Son of Henry (from Detroit) [Edsel Ford]
  10. LM: Actress with a ‘Zee’ (Liza Minelli]

General knowledge:

  1. When the London tram system was closed down in July 1952, the last tramcar was placed on display (clearly visible to passing traffic) at Chessington Zoo (in the car park at the entrance).
  2. According to a BBC Home Service radio broadcast on 23 November 1954, another lost ‘last’ tram was discovered in the Kingsway Tunnel, at least according to the Goon Show (‘Last Tram from Clapham’).
  3. The number of tramway (or light railway) systems currently operational in the United Kingdom is eight.
  4. And the first new tramway/light rail system to open in the UK was the Tyne and Wear Metro, which started operations on 11 August 1980.
  5. The Blackpool tramway system opened for passenger service in 1885 (on 29 September).
  6. Still on the Blackpool system, the main operating fleet (excluding the illuminated specials) consists of 33 vehicles (15 double deck ‘Balloons’ and 18 articulated Flexity 2 types)
  7. The poem In the Bleak Midwinter was written by Christina Rossetti. It was first published in Scribner’s Monthly in January 1872.
  8. And the tune Cranham to which In the Bleak Midwinter is most commonly sung was written by Gustav Holst.
  9. The first known collection of twenty five Caroles of Cristemas in English, by John Awdley, was published in the fifteenth century (1426).
  10. Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol, was published in 1843.