Cryptic clues = station name

[LexyBoy]

For the last few days I've known how the answer is made up (confirmed by today's hint), but I just don't know what it is!! Another clue in 2 days indicating the region in which its situated and/or type of station please, if nobody's got it by then.

Likewise! The "(6,7)" confirmed that all the letters before "makes" were used, which I wasn't sure of before, but I just couldn't make anything that looked like a word out of the letters!
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Queen accepts authority of Church in the poorest state, before being described as common.

Would that be Worcester Shrub Hill?

 

[Bedpan]

A very good guess, but no.

 

[Seacook]

Aha, so it must be Bescot Stadium. Didn't thimnk of that one!

Next clue:-

Queen accepts authority of Church in the poorest state, before being described as common.

I hope that finding the answer was accompanied by slapping your forehead and saying "Doh!".

I am not confident about the next one, but could it be Chesterfield?
I'm thinking CH for church, ER for Queen, containing 'poor'= anagrammed EST + field for common. I can't see how "authority" fits in, though.

 

[Bedpan]

Ah, well. you'll have to excuse my clue construction, I am pretty hopeless at crosswords, spent an hour from Leicester to Luton looking at the Telegraph one last week and only got one clue partially right, and couldn't decide whether that was media or medic!

Anyway, almost two days now so no qualms about answering your question, Seacook. "Authority" is included in the phrase "accepts authority of", or put in another way, follows, such as ER follows the Chest the end of Chester. The only problem is that Chesterfield, although another good guess, isn't the right answer

As for Bescot Stadium, I had for some reason convinced myself that answer was going to be a station in a large town.

 

[Seacook]

Anyway, almost two days now so no qualms about answering your question, Seacook. "Authority" is included in the phrase "accepts authority of", or put in another way, follows, such as ER follows the Chest the end of Chester. The only problem is that Chesterfield, although another good guess, isn't the right answer

"Leadership" might have been better than "authority", or perhaps "concedes precedence", which is always a good term to introduce when mentioning the Queen - it looks natural, but does not mean what it says.

I have not thought too deeply about many possibilities, but it occurs to me that "street" could be indicated by "common", so how about Chester-le-Street?

As for Bescot Stadium, I had for some reason convinced myself that answer was going to be a station in a large town.

This depends on how you define town or large. In terms of population, the metropolitan borough of Sandwell is in the top 30 districts in England (roughly 290,000 inhabitants). Bescot Stadium is one of those odd places which are not where you think they might be; it is just inside Sandwell although to get out you have to go under the M6 to Bescot Crescent which is in Walsall (as is the foopball ground).

 

[Bedpan]

Thanks for the guidance, which I will try to remember, but no, sorry, not Chester le Street. I hope I didn't mislead you into thinking it was Chester-something.

 

[Seacook]

C-l-S was just the next alphabetically after Chesterfield. I hace tried a few more possibilities but nothing stands out.

So far I have considered Queen = ER HM or Victoria; Church = C or CE or COE or RC or kirk or chapel, but I have not yet looked at station names including saints' names (and, presumably named after a local church); common could mean field, green, ground, general, rough or low/lower. None of this has helped so far, but I have constructed two more clues this morning while perusing a list of stations and added them to my collection for future use (16 at present, but I'm not too happy with three of them).

 

[Bedpan]

I tell you what, you will really kick yourselves when you find the answer.
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Time for another hint (but we have a problem Euston, as my router has packed up and I don't know when I'll next be able to get internet access. I'll probably buy a new one tomorrow, but not sure whether or not I have the ability to set it up).

Anyway the hint is, or rather hints are......

1) The station name is more than one word.

2) There are three stations sharing the first word on the National Rail network: two of these are in the same city but the third is almost exactly 100 miles distant as the crow flies.

 

[Eagle]

I'm pretty certain now that it's Worcester Foregate Street.

I don't understand the cryptic at all, I'm sorry. I got this from your hints (and the fact that Shrub Hill was wrong).

 

[Bedpan]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

So close yet so far!!!!

 

[Eagle]

Worcester Park, then.

 

[Bedpan]

Thank God for that, Eagle. After Lexyboy suggested Shrub Hill as the first answer I would have thought that this would have finished in minutes.

Queen = ER and she accepts authority of (follows) (although Seacook has rightly sugested that "concedes preference might have been better than "accepts authority of") .....so ER at the end of the first word.

Church = CE and Poorest state = worst. So "Church in the poorest state" = CE on Worst, ie Worcest, with ER =on the end is Worcester, as Lexyboy posted the morning after I posted the clue.

Worcester is before a word being described as common, ie Park is another word for common, or so the on line thessaurus at dictionary.com says, so the answer is Worcester Park . Now I can at last go home to my internet free house.

 

[Eagle]

Scanner will melt, unfortunately.


I expect this to last five minutes.

 

[Seacook]

Cleary an anagram - New Mills Central


And the next clue is:

Some genitourinary infections vanish if nalidixic acid is prescribed

This is not an anagram you will be pleased to hear.

 

[Eagle]

43 minutes? I'm disappointed... :P

No idea where to start on your one (other than the fact it's genuinely a true statement—nice!), but in case it helps here is the structure of nalidixic acid:

Notice the potential for Michael addition on the left-hand ring... I'm thinking St Michaels? #organicchemistneversleeps

 

[Seacook]

43 minutes? I'm disappointed... :P

No idea where to start on your one (other than the fact it's genuinely a true statement—nice!), but in case it helps here is the structure of nalidixic acid:

Notice the potential for Michael addition on the left-hand ring... I'm thinking St Michaels? #organicchemistneversleeps

Yes, I'm quite proud of this one. Needless to say, researching nalidixic acid will help you not at all (well, not in solving the clue anyway).

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Looking back through the thread, the record for a solution appears to be three minutes. For my next one, assuming there is one, I will specify a time when it will posted and see if someone can beat that (it will be as simple as I can make it while still being cryptic).

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With two days gone, it's time for a hint. The first word of the clue is the most significant.

 

[LexyBoy]

Worcester Park, then.

D'oh!

Some genitourinary infections vanish if nalidixic acid is prescribed

Would be Shifnal. Nice clue.

Assuming that's correct, the next clue is:
Addition product of rearranged aldehyde with alkyl ester

(edit: had to re-word the clue as I can't spelling)

Bonus points if someone other than Eagle gets it

(I have a non-chemical clue up my sleeve if it's not solved within a day or two. It's not too hard though.)

 

[Seacook]

D'oh!


Would be Shifnal. Nice clue.

Assuming that's correct,

Almost impossible to be otherwise once you spot the clue type. It is amazingly difficult to find words that start NAL, but once I saw nalidixic acid in Webster's the clue was simple to construct.

I have not got anywhere with your clue yet, but I'm working on it.

 

[Bedpan]

Could this be Heald Green? (is Alkyl Ester is a constituent of Biodiesel?)

 

[Eagle]

is Alkyl Ester a constituent of Biodiesel?

Fatty esters make up biodiesel, yes.

Not sure how you got Heald Green from that.

 

[Bedpan]

Ah well, bit of a long shot really, but the first 5 letters of aldehyde can be rearranged into Heald, and alkyl ester is a green fuel, and the clue says addition product. I don't really know what I'm talking about re organic chemicals, my daughter is the chemist in our family but she's at University at the moment.

 

[Seacook]

At first sight I thought the clue suggested an anagram of aldehyde followed by the name of an ester, or a synonym (oil or fat were possibilities).

After extensive (30 seconds) research on t'internet, I found that aldehydes have the structure R-CHO which gives the possibility of Rochester, which is unsound for two reasons. "Ester" would not be cryptic, and indirect anagrams are frowned upon.

I can't find anything better, so it's probably time for a hint.

 

[Eagle]

Aldehydes have the structure RCHO which gives the possibility of Rochester

I think that might be it. (An ester would be RCOOR, but anagramming RCHO and RCOOR together doesn't work.)

Aldehydes (even rearranged ones, which would probably mean vinylic alcohols) don't add to esters in real chemistry, so it's not the name of some reaction.

 

[LexyBoy]

At first sight I thought the clue suggested an anagram of aldehyde followed by the name of an ester, or a synonym (oil or fat were possibilities).

After extensive (30 seconds) research on t'internet, I found that aldehydes have the structure R-CHO which gives the possibility of Rochester, which is unsound for two reasons. "Ester" would not be cryptic, and indirect anagrams are frowned upon.

I can't find anything better, so it's probably time for a hint.

Rochester it is

My intention was aldehyde = -CHO (I suppose that I always see the structure when I see the name, so it doesn't seem so indirect), alkyl = R and ester as-is.

(The alternative clue, which I thought up after, was probably better anyway - French stone sainted royalty. Ah well, that's what I get for trying to wedge in a theme )

Aldehydes (even rearranged ones, which would probably mean vinylic alcohols) don't add to esters in real chemistry, so it's not the name of some reaction.

The clue was originally "Addition product of umpoled aldehyde with alkyl ester" - which could be a real reaction (via a dithiane). Then I realised that reversing ("umpoling") CHO gives OHC, not OCH...

Anyway, your turn Seacook!

 

[Eagle]

The clue was originally "Addition product of umpoled aldehyde with alkyl ester" - which could be a real reaction (via a dithiane).

You mean like this?

I don't think that would work with an ester; I think the final product (an α-keto-hemiketal) wouldn't be stable enough for the addition step to work—there's too many oxygens in that area and no good leaving group.

 

[Seacook]

I will post the next clue at 18:58. Anyone who gets the right answer before seven o'clock will set a new record.

The next clue is:

Thumbin' a lift (7)

 

[LexyBoy]

I can't believe noone's got it yet, as it is surely Hitchin.
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You mean like this?

I don't think that would work with an ester; I think the final product (an α-keto-hemiketal) wouldn't be stable enough for the addition step to work—there's too many oxygens in that area and no good leaving group.

I think it would- alkoxide would be eliminated to give a 1,2 diketone (after deprotection). It is an organolithium nucleophile after all.

Alternatively it could bed to an unsaturated estes in michael fashion.

 

[Seacook]

I can't believe noone's got it yet, as it is surely Hitchin.

You are correct. Over to you for the next one.

 

[plymothian]

I will post the next clue at 18:58. Anyone who gets the right answer before seven o'clock will set a new record.

The next clue is:

Thumbin' a lift (7)

Hitchin !

 

[LexyBoy]

Righto. Don't have a good one ready so here's an easy one instead:

use section of pineapple for delicious cocktail