Overland Odyssey

[pointer]

I seem to be the only person stuck on number 85. Could anyone please give me a clue so that I can work out the answer. I've explored all kinds of avenues but haven't got anywhere. It's probably dead easy. I've also followed various postings about number 97. I've googled 'monarch of the road' and read the newspaper articles that come up. The only word I can find in them that might fit is 'omnibus', but I can't work out the horse-power link. Can anyone out there help me? I've been puzzling over these last 2 clues for about a month now and look forward to being put out of my misery. Many thanks in advance.

[mahonia]

85 Tour disheartened (ie without middle part) + another word for stage players.

97 You've got the right answer. Try looking up Flanders and Swann - one of their songs will tell you the horsepower link as will the question number!

[gen2]

Disheartened suggests you take the middle out of a word. You follow this with another word for players (6)

I have already explained 97 in this post lower down this page

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puzzles/Question233261.html

[pointer]

Many thanks to the 2 kind fellow quizzers who answered my cry for help. I'm annoyed with myself because since reading a newspaper article found for me by Google, I've been singing the Flanders & Swann song to myself! Also for no.85, I'd worked out what I had to do but was foolishly trying to put the 'players' in front of the 'tr' - so near and yet so far!