Crosswords2 mins ago
The MM Links Game - May Week 3
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May I bid you a very warm welcome to the third week in the reign of “Sir Robin of Linksley” (aka Aquagility).
Perhaps our very own crofter was joking last week, but he reminded me of the days when I WAS a crofter myself, more or less. For five years in the mid 1980s, I leased a two-roomed bothy (a humble cottage) on the shores of the Sound of Mull, between Oban and Tobermory, and as near to heaven as it’s possible to be. It was located a mile from the nearest road, it even had its own little harbour. It came with five acres of land and I was told I could have any five acres I liked – as long as I fenced it in. So I elected to conveniently forget the fence and to have a different five acres every day. Consequently, my efforts to grow my own vegetables were of benefit only to the resident roe deer!
Perhaps our very own crofter was joking last week, but he reminded me of the days when I WAS a crofter myself, more or less. For five years in the mid 1980s, I leased a two-roomed bothy (a humble cottage) on the shores of the Sound of Mull, between Oban and Tobermory, and as near to heaven as it’s possible to be. It was located a mile from the nearest road, it even had its own little harbour. It came with five acres of land and I was told I could have any five acres I liked – as long as I fenced it in. So I elected to conveniently forget the fence and to have a different five acres every day. Consequently, my efforts to grow my own vegetables were of benefit only to the resident roe deer!
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Living the life of a hermit, I spent most days out in my little wooden dory (a flat-bottomed boat) collecting driftwood for fuel and barter. It was a driftwood economy, and two waterlogged fish boxes would buy me a rabbit (dead but needing to be dressed – or should I say undressed?). My children (even then) were aghast at my irresponsibility and persuaded me at least to have a telephone installed (no mobiles phones in those days). In fact, this link to the outside world was to open up a new chapter in my life, because quite soon I started to get offers of last-minute locum jobs on diving boats. This led to some very exciting excursions and some very good friends.
My first of such trips was to the uninhabited island of St Kilda, 40 miles out beyond the Outer Hebrides. Our twelve passengers were not divers, but visitors going out to work with the National Trust on restoring the abandoned village houses. The sea was pretty rough, so in the wheelhouse we had the intimate company of twelve young people being very sick and having to hold on while they waited for their turn with the only bucket.
My first of such trips was to the uninhabited island of St Kilda, 40 miles out beyond the Outer Hebrides. Our twelve passengers were not divers, but visitors going out to work with the National Trust on restoring the abandoned village houses. The sea was pretty rough, so in the wheelhouse we had the intimate company of twelve young people being very sick and having to hold on while they waited for their turn with the only bucket.
When we DID have a party of divers, they usually wanted to dive on wrecks, which were plentiful off the west coast of Scotland. There may be only one period of an hour or so each day, when the tide allows diving on a particular wreck, so there can be great competition between the boats to get there at the critical moment. Of course, it takes but a moment to chuck the divers in, but retrieving them is quite a different matter. The divers tend to surface in dribs and drabs, and when you have two or three large and ungainly boats, each trying to identify and pick up its own people, the result can be mayhem. These skippers have less give-and-take than your average Italian taxi driver!
Enough of that! As always, for the every-day running of MM, I will follow the same rule as introduced by crofter on word length. Each of my chosen link words contains at least four letters and at most eight. Stray outside this range and you will be wasting one of your attempts! Each of my selected words may go in front of or after my challenge word. The competition will officially close at 7.00pm on Sunday evening when crofter will declare my selected words, then apply the same rules for awarding points that have been applied during all MM Link Games in the past. My third set of four words to have their links predicted will appear below at 9.00am.
Enough of that! As always, for the every-day running of MM, I will follow the same rule as introduced by crofter on word length. Each of my chosen link words contains at least four letters and at most eight. Stray outside this range and you will be wasting one of your attempts! Each of my selected words may go in front of or after my challenge word. The competition will officially close at 7.00pm on Sunday evening when crofter will declare my selected words, then apply the same rules for awarding points that have been applied during all MM Link Games in the past. My third set of four words to have their links predicted will appear below at 9.00am.
