First Series - coming soon!

The Puzzles

The Last of the Series

1. A girl goes skating with her brother. She slips over. Why can't he help her up?

2. Why is hunting for honey like a legacy? (from John O'Byrne o' Dublin)

3. Where might Mr Data Devisings play with verbal gilt and dream of huge fry?

4. If the postcode for Boston is GI19 7TF and the postcode for Denver is HA14 5TR can you suggest a suitable postcode for Madrid?

A simple numerical puzzle:

5. 19 is to 26 as 31 is to **?

6. There was an old fashioned clockmaker whose wife was a mathematician. Last year she made him a cake decorated as a clockface with the numerals made of red icing. She invited 5 couples for tea and the cake was cut up into 12 pieces in such a way that the number on the 2 slices that each couple had, added up to the same. What was that number?

This year she planned that the amount of red icing was also to be equal for each couple. How was the cake to be divided into 12 pieces this time?

Two couples, however, failed to turn up for tea. So the clockmaker's wife divided the cake with 5 conventional straight cuts from the centre. She gave each guest couple a single chunk of cake to take home, and kept 2 pieces back for herself and her husband. Each couple's share then had an equal amount of red icing. How had she divided the cake up?

7. Val's garden is extremely crowded. In it she has some sheep, the local pastors have sent their congregations, there are some garden plants, beds stuffed with wool and woollen locks. When all the students have left she is left with one wild animal. Explain.

As this is the last programme of the series here are a couple of puzzles to ponder during that dark tea-time of the soul when Puzzle Panel is off the air...

 

8. The world's most difficult crossword clue (from Douglas Barnard's book The Anatomy of the Crossword)

No adequate description of father's cuemanship (4 letters).

9. You are one of 100 prisoners to be subjected to the ritual of the hats. All the prisoners are blindfolded and buried up to their necks in the sand in a long straight line. Each one has a hat put on his head, either a black hat or a white hat. The blindfolds are then removed and each man can see only the heads of the men ahead of him. He can therefore see the colour of the hat each man is wearing in the queue in front of him, but he cannot see whether his own hat is black or white, nor can he see the whiteness or blackness of the hats on the heads of the people behind The despot then starts at the rearmost man and asks him to state the colour of the hat he is wearing. If he gets the colour right he is freed, if he gets it wrong he is doomed! Now the man at the back, Rearsby, is a cricketer and a gentleman, and he happens to be an expert on the ritual of the hats and is a regular listener to Puzzle Panel! He has come up with a scheme to save as many of the prisoners as possible, which he has explained to the others before the ritual began. How many can be saved, who shall be saved and how?