The GCHQ Puzzle Book: Perfect for anyone who likes a good headscratcher

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g) MEXICO [BONEY M; E = EMCEE SQUARED; X MARKS THE SPOT; I = SQUAREROOT OF MINUS ONE; LOTS MORE FISH IN THE C/SEA; O FOR THE WINGS OF A DOVE] MORDEN/9, MILE END/10, MOORGATE/11, MONUMENT/12, MAIDA VALE/15, MANOR HOUSE/15, MOOR PARK/16, MANSION HOUSE/17, MARYLEBONE/17, MILL HILL EAST/17, MARBLE ARCH/19, MORNINGTON CRESCENT/25 If each number is replaced by the first letter in its name (e.g. 1 ➔ O(NE), 2 ➔ T(WO)), then each sequence spells out a word. The odd sequence out spells a word (RENNET) when each number is replaced by the last letter in its name. a) 23. The sequence is the first numbers with E in the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd position etc. Twenty-three is the first to have E in the 10 th position. b) MONARCHY ENGLAND: 1553 (year of accession of MARY I), 1760 (GE ORGE III), 1216 (HE NRY III), 1461 (EDW ARD IV), 1189 ( RICHARD I), 1625 ( CHARLES I)), 1660 (C HARLES II), 1413 (HENR Y V): 1558 ( ELIZABETH I), 1216 (HE NRY III), 1714 ( GEORGE I), 1830 (WIL LIAM IV), 1689 (M ARY II), 1216 (HE NRY III), 1547 (EDWAR D VI)

These spell ANSWER IS FRENCH WORD, and they appear in the grid in a pattern that can be interpreted as Morse Code (a single letter is a dot, a pair of letters is a dash). The pattern is: SHREW. All references are to the title of a Shakespeare play: The Merry Wives of WINDSOR (a town in southern England); The Merchant of VENICE and Two Gentlemen of VERONA (2 cities in Italy); Timon of ATHENS (a city in Greece); Pericles, Prince of TYRE (a city in Lebanon) and The Taming of the SHREW. Can be prefixed by a 3-letters creature: ANTACID, BATHER, COWBOY, DOGGONE, EMULATE, FOXGLOVE, HENBANE, JAYWALK d) Ewan McGregor - Obi Wan Kenobi - Alec Guinness - George Smiley - Gary Oldman - Commissioner Gordon

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e) ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL, ONE RING TO FIND THEM, ONE RING TO BRING THEM ALL AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM Decoding the question gives: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BREAK THE CODE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION - which is true! February 2 nd. All the other dates fall on the same day of the week (Monday in 2016); it always falls on a different day (Tuesday in 2016).

The archivist has added the letters of the names (A=1, B=2, etc) to each other when there is an AND in the title. So for example U2’s RATTLE and HUM yields R, A, T, B(=T+H), G(=L+U), R(=E+M) c) The Lord of the Rings: (4+3+7+2) × 9 = 144 = Guests at birthday party (or Combined ages of Bilbo and Frodo)h) A, C, …, Y and B, D, …, Z: HEaR/HERb, cLOVE/LOVEd, RATe/RAfT, TANg/ThAN, AiM/jAM, PEAk/PEAl, mASTER/ASTERn, LOoT/pLOT, qAT/rAT, STARLINGs/STARtLING, VALuE/VALvE, NEwT/NExT, yEN/zEN b) WISCONSIN. There are only 6 US states that can be spelled using the symbols of the elements and WISCONSIN is the only one that can be thus spelled in more than one way. d) What will your daddy do when he sees your mamma kissing Santa Claus (Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade) BULBS, COUCH, DEPTH, EASEL, GENII, HOPED, JAMMY, LABEL, MAIMS, NIECE, PATHS, QUOTE, SEATS, TITHE, VERVE, YACHT

f) ABSORB: similarly, but with king’s moves, ARGENTINA, MACEDONIA, BARBADOS and AUSTRALIA are spelled out f) Denzel Washington - Captain Bennett Marco (from The Manchurian Candidate) - Frank Sinatra - Danny Ocean (from Ocean’s 11) - George Clooney - Batman - Michael Keaton - Beetlejuice We hope you weren’t put off by any of: (John) Terry/Kerry, (County) Cork/York, Nottingham/Mottingham or Lune/June!

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The scores derive from comparing the respective letters in the name and seeing which comes earlier in the alphabet. The score in the set is 6-(the number of successive later letters). Where the letters are the same the top player wins the tiebreak. Thus for Henman v Gallek GALL precede each of HENM so that is 6-4 to Henman, A precedes E, so that is 6-1 to Gallek, and K precedes N so that is 6-1 to Henman. b) 50. The sequence is those numbers which are the sum of 2 squares. 50 is the first number that is the sum of two squares in two different ways. 50 = 49 + 1 and 50 = 25 + 25 Careful With That Axe Eugene, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict

Nine/9 pins: DRAWING pin, FIRING pin, HAIRpin, HATpin, KINGpin, ROLLING pin, SAFETY pin, TAILSpin, TIEpin BANDS: BEACH Boys, HOT Chocolate, BEE Gees, IRON Maiden, SEX Pistols, STATUS Quo, ROLLING Stones, DIRE Straits, m) ELM (5 2+12 2=13 2): with A=1, B=2, …, Z=26 the letters in each trigraph form Pythagorean triplets Elements: Barium MEAL, Carbon COPY, Cobalt BLUE, Copper BEECH, Gold RUSH, Iron AGE, Lead PENCIL, Neon LIGHTING, Nitrogen CYCLE, Oxygen TENT, Platinum BLONDE, Silver SCREEN There are 9 words in the sentence asked about, 22 words in the kwestion and 6 in the self-referential sentence.

maid(en)s a-milking: CHAMBERmaid, IRON maiden, maid MARIAN, OLD maid, maiden OVER, PARLOURmaid, maiden SPEECH, maiden VOYAGE Extract the letters A-G from the opening lines of these songs and use them as notes to form the tune, retaining the original rhythm of the song. YULETIDE GREETINGS. O3 = 3 rd letter of O/OX YGEN, K8 = 8 th letter of K/POTASSI UM … P4 = 4 th letter of P/PHO SPHORUS.