2023 Christmas Quiz - Its KCC Rhyming Slang!

Yes its Quiz time again, and this year - would you Adam and Eve it - I've had a new idea. Maybe its the influence of our new ex-Cockney member Bruce B, but whatever the reason I've suddenly come aver all funny and developed a compulsion to speak in Rhyming Slang. Now most of you will know only too well just how this works, but for those who don't, I couldn't find a better explanation than this, from the unlikely source of Rice University, Houston:-

"Rhyming slang works by replacing the word to be obscured with the first word of a phrase that rhymes with that word. For instance, "face" would be replaced by "boat," because face rhymes with "boat race." Similarly "feet" becomes "plates" ("plates of meat"), and "money" is "bread" (a very common usage, from "bread and honey"). Sometimes the full phrase is used, for example "Currant Bun" to mean "The Sun" (often referring to the British tabloid newspaper of that name). There is no hard and fast rule for this, and you just have to know whether a particular expression is always shortened, never shortened, or can be used either way."

I couldn't have said it better myself! Except to give a couple of chess examples. So Gatling, for instance would obviously refer to John "Gatling Gun" Nunn, and Nuremberg would naturally be Tony "Nuremberg Trials" Miles. Simples!

Below you will find a list of 28 rhyming slang clues to the names of 25 current KCC members (by which I mean registered for the club in 2023-24, or attendees of club nights in the current season) plus 3 former members (all quite recent). In several cases there are multiple clues for a single KCC member (shown as a,b,c etc) - which should make your life much, much easier. They all give rise to phrases - usually two words, but definitely not always - which rhyme with the surnames of KCC members. And to make things even easier, the clues are presented in alphabetical order, by surname, of the solutions. Generous, or what?!

Your primary task, then, is to identify the 28 KCC members, but if you are really keen, you might like to try and work out all of the 45 individual rhyming slang phrases. But to do that you will really have to get right inside my brain, which might not be the smartest course of action. Because, in no particular order, a passing knowledge of the following subjects will be useful in solving some of the individual clues - chess (who'd have guessed?); Welsh cuisine; fairy stories; Shakespeare; Rolling Stones' songs; US TV series; designer labels; Private Eye characters; 16th century Scottish history; 1960's US folk music; Billy Idol songs and Looney Tunes cartoons. Seems quite a normal knowledge spread to me!

Apologies in advance to the 9 current members who I couldn't find a sensible rhyme for. I won't make it too easy by telling who they all are, but you will probably work out very quickly that Javier and Katya, for instance, are amongst the group that totally defeated me!

Enough explanation. Let the Quiz begin!

1 Midnight
2 Dragon
3 Habsburg
4a Imperial
4b One Horse
5 Lord
6 Puff the Magic Dragon
7 Weather
8 Blacksmith
9a Belly
9b Transport
10a Grand
10b Wham Bam
10c Hoover
11a Waifs
11b Dog
11c Polluter
11d Latest
11e Mysterious
12 West*
13 Abercrombie
14 Black & Decker*
15 Sid
16 Now
17a Minimum
17b Difficult
17c Narrow
17d All the World
18 Rebel
19 Purple*
20 Stiff
21 Draft
22a Henry
22b Bara
23 Late-Night
24 Fire
25 Stay Out
26 Johnny
27a Greater
27b Chewing
27c Blue
27d Elmer
27e Little Red
28a Big
28b Andrew

(* = former KCC member)

As usual, I'll post the answers early in the New Year, so feel free to take your time.  This song won't directly help you get any answers, but having already tipped you off that the Rolling Stones feature somewhere in the quiz, it seemed highly appropriate.

Happy Quizzing - and Happy Christmas!