The Foxer

Looking at him today it's hard to believe that Roman was once a wealthy man. During the boom years of the early Eighties, my Chief Foxer Setter's collages were syndicated all over the world and made him millions. When I first met him, he lived nextdoor to Billy Ocean, drove a russet-coloured Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, and owned more Franz Marc art than the Guggenheim and Tate put together. Things started falling apart circa '92. First his best friend/brother-in-law/accountant disappeared with a substantial chunk of his fortune, then a business venture – Roman and some associates were in the process of converting a vast underground air base in the Balkans into the world's first museum museum - was scuppered by the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars.

The 127-cell honeycomb below is a fancy form of wordsearch in which every cell is used, and words can curl and zigzag but never overlap. Each hive foxer has a unique theme – the last one was ‘boxing'– but Roman respects the defoxing community far too much to disclose it prior to defoxing. What he is prepared to tell you is how many answers you’re looking for. The perfectly interlocking solution to today’s puzzle is made up of 19.

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SOLUTIONS

The theme to Gothnak's foxer: the Battle of Lake Trasimene  (defoxed by Little_Crow)

a. Ambush board game - “Hannibal’s victory over the Roman army at Lake Trasimene remains, in terms of the number of men involved, the largest ambush in military history” (Arioch_RN)
b. Dornier 217 (Little_Crow, JohnnyG)
c. Flag of Insubria/Milan - Flaminius was killed by an Insubrian, Ducarius (Little_Crow)
d. Robert the Bruce statue, Bannockburn (Lazzars)
e. George Peppard (Artiforg)
f. Malpaso Dam, Mexico (unsolved)
g. Battle of Blood River memorial (Little_Crow)
h. Joseph-Noël Sylvestre (unsolved)
i. SAI-Ambrosini SS.4 (AFKAMC)
j. MV Gaul (unsolved)
k. Earthquake (Little_Crow)
l. Operation Carthage (Stugle)