The clue
It was obvious there would be friction today. Friend would try to muscle in on my itinerary, and demand to see an area that links two sporting venues. Then he’d want to feast on a local delicacy after which this coastal town is named.
So in a bid to forestall any fighting, we’ve made a pinkie promise. Yes, we’ll see the sporting venues. At teatime we’ll even play on one of them, while inspecting the other, which girdles it.
We’ll eat out too. But first we must attend to some history.
And therein lies a problem. Here, along the eastern approach to a city, there’s a lot to consider. So we begin on a spoil heap at the southeastern corner of a second coastal town three miles northeast of the first. It overlooks the site of a battle quickly decided by a single rebel charge.
Then we return to a village on the edge of the first town, to seek out an earlier fight. Nearby, 20 years after that, there was yet another confrontation: but this time it didn’t get to hagbut fire and the push of pikes, thanks to a queen’s surrender.
Meanwhile, just east of the first town’s high street is a private school. Founded nearly 200 years ago it was the alma mater of two significant politicians. In more recent times both had to deal with nail-biting crises. Neither was military.
It’s all so exciting that I realise we’ve missed our appointment at the sporting venue.
“What a Black Sunday this is becoming,” Friend laments. So I have to shell out for an even bigger supper to compensate.
The questions
1. What is the name of the second coastal town?
2. What is the name of the private school?
The prize
The winner and up to seven guests will enjoy three nights’ self-catering at Bluebell Farm in south Devon. This stylish and relaxed four-bedroom farmhouse sits in the hamlet of Woodleigh, on the edge of Avon Valley Woods — next to a church that was mentioned in the Domesday Book. It has freestanding baths, a wood-burning stove, film projector and piano. Outside a walled garden and a private paddock await, while the wild sandy beaches of Bantham are only a short drive away.
Bluebell Farm is offered by Sand & Stone Escapes — a boutique holiday let agency with a carefully curated collection of homes across the UK, from Cornwall, Devon and the Cotswolds to Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye. The prize must be taken between September 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, subject to availability and excluding public holidays as well as December 24-January 2.
How to enter
Answer the questions and complete the entry form above or here by the end of Thursday, June 19. One entry per person.
See here for the full competition terms and conditions from The Times & The Sunday Times. Your information will be used in accordance with our privacy and cookie policy.
Last week’s prize
The answers are Pinsent and Cromer. Bea Ferguson-Clark from West Yorkshire wins two nights’ B&B at the Headland in Newquay.
