1. Ronnie Fish (P) had just been a resounding failure as Brutus (R) in the Quarrel Scene from Julius Caesar. [Money for Nothing, ch. 7, section 3.] Ronnie's man Bessemer (Q) and his new wife went to Bexhill-on-Sea for their honeymoon.

2. Smallwood Bessemer was the dancefloor Romeo. The Pop-Eye-the-sailor-look-alike was Agnes Flack, and T was Smallwood's (temporarily ex-)fiancée Celia Todd. ["Tangled Hearts".]

3. The cook was "a level-headed woman named Bessemer". Her noble employer (U) was of course Lord Blicester, Freddie Widgeon's uncle. ["The Masked Troubadour".] 1,800 ÷ 400 = 4 1/2d – see the "a little over fourpence a head" estimate in the text. Alternatively, you could argue that only 200 of the guests expected were genuine mothers, making it 9d.

4. Mrs Rosalinda Spottsworth – previously Rosalinda Banks, then Mrs Bessemer (cf. W), then Mrs Spottsworth (cf. X), and soon to become Mrs Brabazon-Biggar. [Ring for Jeeves, ch. 1/The Return of Jeeves ch.5.]

5. Bessemer, Ohio. Apparently this is a real place. Mr JG Anderson (Z) owned the Hotel Washington there. [Barmy in Wonderland, ch. 2.]

Round 172 - 19 December 2003

1. Lord Emsworth (B) was observed by his niece Jane (A) when, armed with his grandson George's airgun, he potted the Efficient Baxter in the seat of the trousers (in an eventful day, poor Baxter had already been shot once by George, and was to be shot again by Beach and Lord Emsworth). From 'The Crime Wave at Blandings'.

2. Uncle George (D), the sixth Viscount of Uffenham, was suspected (and rightly so) by his niece, another Jane (C), of defacing a statue sculpted by Stanhope Twine (E). While he didn't exactly witness the outrage, Bill (William Quackenbush) Hollister certainly could have dismantled Uncle George's alibi but, being a sportsman and sympathetic to the general concept of defacing Twine's artwork, there was little chance of that. From Chapter Eight of Something Fishy/The Butler Did It.

3. Some entrants guessed, reasonably enough, that this was Bertie Wooster, but in fact it was Stanwood Cobbold (F), pretending to be Mike (Mycroft) Cardinal and in love with Eileen Stoker, was compelled by his Code to become engaged to Lady Terry Cobbold, who was in love with the real Mike, currently passing himself off as Stanwood Cobbold ... From Chapter Eighteen of Spring Fever.

4. This time the uncle was Uncle Fred, Lord Ickenham (J), about to "tell the tale" to his niece Valerie (G) and enlist the aid of Lady Constance Keeble (K) to keep Valerie from spilling the beans to Lady Ickenham, Valerie's Aunt Jane (H). From Chapter Twenty of Uncle Fred in the Springtime.

Round 173 - 31 December 2003

1. In Chapter Ten of Heavy Weather, the Hon. Galahad Threepwood put the wind up his sister, Lady Julia Fish, by providing examples of the youthful exploits of her late husband, Major-General Sir Miles Fish, and promising that they would receive wide publicity should he, Gally, decide to send his Reminiscences, currently on the suppressed list, to the publisher.

2. Reformed safe cracker Augustus Robb, (V), recalled the time a former business colleague, Harry Corker, learned the hard way that alcohol and safe-cracking don't mix. From Chapter Eight of Spring Fever.

3. C, world famous explorer Lady Bassett was reminded by the appearance of A, interior decorator Cyril Mulliner, of her old friend B, the gin-drinking Chief of the Lower Issi in the short story "Strychnine in the Soup", which first appeared in book form in Mulliner Nights.

4. In the short story "Fate" from Young Men in Spats the absent Ed. Silvers (D) was more of a manufacturer than a consumer of the right stuff. Although Mr Silvers wasn't personally present during the action of this story, three of his representatives, in the form of bowler-hatted private detectives, were about to make their presence felt, much to the consternation of Freddie Widgeon and Mrs Silvers.

5. Reggie, the third Earl of Havershot (E), was trying to make his hard-drinking cousin Egremont Mannering see the error of his ways when he was reminded of his own less than exemplary past, notably the time he, Eggy and their mutual friend old Stinker Pomeroy rang in the New Year with a glass-breaking orgy of almost Pelicanian dimensions at the Café de l'Europe. From Chapter Three of Laughing Gas.

Round 174 - 8 January 2004

1. Lord Emsworth (A), seeking a respite from the inferno of the Blandings Parva August Bank Holiday Fete, ducked into an inviting cow shed only to discover that his little friend Gladys was already in residence, in durance vile for pinching two buns, two jem-sengwiches, two apples and a slicer cake in the tea tent. ("Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend" from Blandings Castle and Elsewhere)

2. Chuffy Chuffnell (B), after discovering Pauline Stoker in Bertie Wooster's bed-chamber wearing the latter's heliotrope pyjamas with the old gold stripe, was partly reassured by the knowledge that Bertie (C) had sought refuge in a potting shed, but remained sceptical about his sweetheart's motive in paying calls on her former fiancé in the middle of the night. (Chapter 9 of Thank You, Jeeves)

3. Following a supposed police raid on a gambling den at the Cedars, his Aunt Julia's Wimbledon house, Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge (who for once wasn't directly involved in the affair) was startled to discover Aunt Julia (D) in person cowering in a potting shed. ("Success Story" from Nothing Serious)

4. After being constantly patronized by Psmith (F) at their mutual club, bank manager John Bickersdyke (E) sought, but failed to find, sanctuary from his adhesive employee in the Hot Room of a Turkish Bath. From Chapter 23 (Mr Bickersdyke Makes a Concession) of Psmith in the City. This, as Mark Hodson pointed out (using Norman Murphy's invaluable In Search of Blandings as his source), was the same Turkish Bath used, if we can believe Dr John Watson's memoirs, on at least two occasions by Mr S Holmes. And this Turkish B. actually existed, just as Wodehouse described it, a mere 20 yards from the entrance to the Constitutional Club in Northumberland Avenue, the real-life model for Plum's fictional Senior Conservative Club.

Round 175 - 17 January 2004

1. Boko Fittleworth, after mistaking Bertie Wooster's whistling for the call of the lesser screech owl habitually used by young, blighted Edwin, (A), to announce his arrival, had come within an ace of copping his visitor on the napper with a china ornament, a sort of reflex action necessary to discourage boy scouts from making house calls. For the bonus point, Bertie describes Boko as looking like "a parrot that's been dragged through a hedge backwards". From Chapter Seven of Joy in the Morning.

.2. Visiting American gangster Soup Slattery (B), who personally disapproved of the fancy dress aspects of St. Rocque's Festival of the Saint celebrations, was shocked to the depths of his soul by his first sight of C, the Vicomte de Blissac, propping up the Hotel des Etrangers bar in the costume of a blizzard, which is apparently how inebriated French aristocrats pronounce `lizard'. From Chapter Four of Hot Water.

3. Newly arrived Clarence Chugwater (D) signalled his approach to the boy scout camp by giving the call of the striped iguanodon and was immediately challenged by the zebra mating call of the sentry, Private William Buggins, in Chapter One of Part Two of The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved England.

4. After being chivvied by a passing bulldog and forced to take refuge on the remains of a ruined castle and remain there, exposed to the elements, for the duration of a heavy downpour, a water-logged J Rufus Bennett (E) was annoyed to discover that his cries for help were taken for an owl's hoots by his valet, Webster (F). From Chapter Ten (`Trouble at Windles') of The Girl on the Boat (US Three Men and a Maid).

Round 176 - 25 January 2004

1. This was Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, (A), trying to put the bite on his pal James "Corky" Corcoran in "Ukridge's Dog College", from Ukridge (US title He Rather Enjoyed It).

2. That impoverished peer, George, the sixth Earl of Hoddesdon, (B), attempted without success to pry some loose change from the purse of his only slightly less impecunious sister, Lady Vera Mace, (C) in Chapter Three of Big Money.

3. Expecting to be confronted by a horror from outer space, Monty Bodkin,(E), was astonished to find his former and future employer Ivor Llewellyn, (D), was behaving like something out of the pages of Charles Dickens. The reason for the metamorphosis was simple – as his wife kept him on a tight financial leash, Mr Llewellyn needed cash and Monty had plenty to spare. From Chapter Three of Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (US title The Plot That Thickened).

4. Needing to raise 20 pounds to finance the mid-winter purchase of a basket of strawberries to accomplish the knightly quest set him by the fair maiden Clarice Mallaby, Mervyn Mulliner was laid a dead stymie by (F), a fire-breathing dragon named Oofy Prosser. From the short story "The Knightly Quest of Mervyn" from Mulliner Nights.

Round 177 - 2 February 2004

1. A = Sir Buckstone Abbott. (Summer Moonshine, Chapter 12)

2. B = Jeff Miller; he is addressing Clarissa Cork, author of "A Woman in the Wilds". (Money in the Bank, Chapter 24)

3. C = Wilfred the alligator, owned by Lottie Blossom. (The Luck of the Bodkins, Chapter 19)

4. E = Lord Ickenham, talking with Lady Constance about Mr Meriwether (aka the Rev Cuthbert "Bill" Bailey, another in the long line of Blandings impostors). (Service with a Smile, Chapter 3)

Round 178 - 13 February 2004

1. Gussie Fink-Nottle (in love with Madeleine Bassett) is the man yearning for newthood. (Right Ho Jeeves, US title Brinkley Manor, Chapter 2)

2. D = Muriel, the daughter of Lord Bromborough; E = Brancepeth Mulliner. ("Buried Treasure," Lord Emsworth and Others, US title Crime Wave at Blandings)

3. H = Joe Bishop, I = Leila York (née Elizbeth Binns). Extra credit: Among Joe Bishop's snakes are Clarice, Rupert, and Mabel. (Ice in the Bedroom, Chapter 21)

4. The lovers are Aubrey Bassinger (pen name Trefusis) and Charlotte Mulliner; Aubrey is interrupted during his proposal at Bludleigh Court by the sight of a rat. ("Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court," Mr Mulliner Speaking)

Round 179 - 23 February 2004

1. Lady Bassett has given her consent to Cyril Mulliner to marry her daughter Amelia, after he has blackmailed her by pinching her copy of "Strychine in the Soup". ("Strychnine in the Soup", Mulliner Nights)

2. Mrs. Waddington has finally warmed to George Finch (to quote Chapter 5, "she objected to George because he was George. It was, as it were, his essential Georgeness that offended her.") after discovering his redeeming feature: he is, like Percy, Lord Belpher, a policeman-puncher. (The Small Bachelor, Chapter 18)

3. Sir Murgatroyd (G) consents to the engagement of his daughter, Annabelle Sprockett-Sprockett, to Mordred Mulliner, whom he admires for having accidentally tripped up a bucket brigade after having (also accidentally) set fire to his room. Mordred further pleases Sir Murgatroyd at the end of the story by helping him burn down the heavily-insured Smattering Hall (this time not accidentally). ("The Fiery Wooing of Mordred", Young Men in Spats)

4. Mrs. Horace Hignett, after trying to prevent her son Eustace from marrying Billie Bennett, approves of Jane Hubbard, who not only wants to give her Windles as a gift, but is handy with the elephant gun (and hatpin). (The Girl on the Boat, US title Three Men and a Maid, Chapter 17)

5. This is a trick question. When Wilmot Byng (N), after earning the gratitude of Joseph Poskitt (M) by helping him win the President's Cup, asks for his consent to his marriage with Gwendoline Poskitt, Mr Poskitt informs him: "I will do better than that, my boy. I will formally refuse my consent. I will forbid the match in toto and oppose it root and branch." He does so, and as a result his wife insists on the marriage. So technically it is Mrs Poskitt who gives parental consent. (But I gave credit for either Poskitt.) ("The Letter of the Law", Lord Emsworth and Others; also in the US edition, but not the UK edition, of Young Men in Spats)

Round 180 - 2 March 2004

1. C is Sir Watkyn Basset, and B his niece, Stephanie Byng, who wants to marry Harold (Stinker) Pinker. (The Code of the Woosters, Chapter 9)

2. The uncle is Colonel Francis Pashley-Drake; his niece is Gladys Wetherby. ("A Good Cigar Is a Smoke," Plum Pie)

3. The uncle is Lord Uffenham, the man he approves of is Jeff Miller, and the niece is Anne Benedick. (Money in the Bank, Chapter 23)

4. The uncle is Major-General Sir Aylmer Bastable, his nephew is Freddie Fitch-Fitch, H is Annabel Purvis, and the "goldfish girl" is also Annabel Purvis. ("Romance at Droitgate Spa," in the UK edition of Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets, and in the US collection The Crime Wave at Blandings)

5. Ronnie Fish has given his uncle, Lord Emsworth, a choice. If Lord Emsworth consents to his marriage with Sue Brown and gives him his money, he will elope with Sue; if not, he will drive off instead with Empress of Blandings. Lord Emsworth prefers the former alternative (and so, presumably, does Ronnie). (Heavy Weather, Chapter 18)