The clue

“Steel yourself,” I tell my friend. “There’s a lot to see.”

“I don’t mind,” he tells me. “As long as you include items on my wish list as well as yours.”

So I remind him that I am an excellent navigator. Bridging the gaps between our priorities will be a cinch. And just to prove it I start our day at a sports ground beside a river. Not only does it tick one of Friend’s boxes, it’s only 950 yards southeast of one of my must-sees — an eye-catching crossing that was one of several built from a strong material for which this town was once famous. There’s another such crossing not far upstream, although the most celebrated lies nearly 10,500 miles from here. Its location is fitting, given my next stop. Nearly three miles south-southeast of the sports ground, it’s a museum dedicated to a naval captain (mother: Grace).

Friend, however, is stunned when I tell him where we’re going. He reminds me that he wants to see the childhood home of a successful team manager (mother: Sarah), just over a mile south-southwest of the sports ground.

“No worries, mate,” I tell him, because I want to see where a singer-songwriter’s dad had an ice-cream parlour. It used to lie half a mile northwest of the manager’s childhood home. “I’ll set a course for it as soon we’ve seen the National Trust hall, a 17th-century mansion and the university.”

“What, all of them?” Friend splutters.

“Yes. Think of it as a circumnavigation,” I tell him.

“More like the road to hell,” Friend growls.

The questions
1. What’s the name of the sports ground beside a river?
2. What was the team manager’s surname?

The prize
The winner and guest will stay for two nights, B&B, in a Windermere Lake View room at Langdale Chase, the Times and Sunday Times North Hotel of the Year 2024. Reopened in 2023 after a sensitive refurbishment, the hotel offers 30 rooms and suites in a lakeside setting of high Victorian grandeur. New this year is the Albatros, a 1920s motor yacht on which the hotel is hosting three Windermere sailings a day as well as private charters and sunset champagne cruises.

Back on dry land, guests can sip cocktails in the bar before enjoying treats such as Cumbrae oysters, treacle-cured steak and Yorkshire rhubarb in the Dining Room restaurant. For details visit langdalechase.co.uk.

The prize includes one three-course dinner for two (excluding drinks) in the Dining Room and an Albatros cruise. It must be taken before December 19, 2025, subject to availability and excluding bank holiday weekends.