Mind Games on the Web -- A Most Unusual Puzzle

Vol 3, No 3 Presented by the Smart Science® system and Bill Graham as a free service for entertainment and education
To subscribe to Mind Games on the Web, click here

A MOST UNUSUAL PUZZLE

by Bill Graham

Dog's Mead Puzzle As soon as I saw this puzzle, I knew it was special. It was challenging, unusual and old-fashioned. In my personal experience with puzzles, it is unique. There is always one extra quality that a puzzle must have in order for me to enjoy it to the fullest extent, and that is that I can solve it. This puzzle barely made the final qualification. I worked on it for an hour one night getting almost nowhere, and then two hours the next night when finally the last few answers fell into place. If you enjoy a challenge, this will be worth your while. I am indebted to Patti Hottman for sending it to me. A small hint is at the end of the column.

Dog’s Mead

This puzzle concerns an English farm that has been in the Dunk family for some years. A part of the farm is known as Dog’s Mead. The year is 1939.

Additional information:

One acre = 4,840 square yards
One rood = 1/4 acre
One pound = 20 shillings

ACROSS

1 Area in square yards of Dog’s Mead
5 Age of Martha, Father Dunk’s aunt
6 Difference in yards between length and breadth of Dog’s Mead
7 Number of roods in Dog’s Mead times 8 DOWN
8 The year the Dunks acquired Dog’s Mead
10 Father Dunk’s age
11 Year of Mary’s birth
14 Perimeter in yards of Dog’s Mead
15 Cube of Father Dunk’s walking speed in miles per hour
16 15 ACROSS minus 9 DOWN DOWN 1 Value in shillings per rood of Dog’s Mead
2 Square of the age of Father Dunk’s mother-in-law
3 Age of Mary, Father Dunk’s daughter
4 Value in pounds of Dog’s Mead
6 Age of Ted, Father Dunk’s son, who will be twice the age of his sister Mary in 1945
7 Square of the breadth of Dog’s Mead
8 Time in minutes it takes Father Dunk to walk 1 1/3 times around Dog’s Mead
9 The number, which multiplied by 10 ACROSS, gives 10 DOWN
10 See 9 DOWN
12 Sum of the digits of 10 DOWN plus 1
13 Number of years Dog’s Mead has been in the Dunk family Small hint for Dog’s Mead

You have to find a good place to start. I would start in the bottom half. You can figure out the first digits of 8 ACROSS and 11 ACROSS. There are only two possibilities for 15 ACROSS; and 9 DOWN, 10 DOWN and 10 ACROSS are all interrelated.

Answer to Volume 3, Number 3