Run 945

Treasure Hunt Bash
Three Tuns, Guilden Morden

Sunday, 9 August 2009

Hares: Underlay & Captain Fantaaastic

BASHERS: 20  PEDAL BITERS: 1  APRES: 2

A week before the Cycle Treasure Hunt and Capt'n F and I still had to generate some clues. Luckily the weather was kind to us and we found 120 potential questions for an eight mile route. The hard part was cutting them down to a manageable 60. Finally completing the question sheets two days before the event, we let out a sigh of relief.

The day of the treasure hunt started off cloudy with potential for rain, but the RA did his stuff and the day only got better. The circle was called and in typical hash style teams of 4 soon became teams of 5. Plied with question sheets, pencils and crayons, the teams set off.

It was soon clear that some sly tactics were being used by members of the "Happy Larry" team as they were determined to not overtake any other team in case the other team might gain any advantage from seeing where an answer might be gleened. Team "Will, Flo, Count, Pee, Shag?" made it clear that raiding fruit from trees lining the bridleways was preferable to looking for clues.

The teams made their way out of Guilden Morden and into Steeple Morden without too many incidents. Shortly after arriving at the beer stop in Litlington, Dogger was found to have bought the local post office out of M&M packets to stop other teams picking up this "treasure". This wasn't to be the last of his dastardly deeds! He was later caught preventing Lady P escaping from a phone box.

Continuing on towards Abingdon Piggots, Donut appeared in a dishevelled state brandishing a handful of flowers. He had fallen in a ditch of nettles in an attempt to pick this piece of "treasure". If only he had waited another 200 yards where he could have picked this flower in great abundance without taking a dive.

The final part of the route followed a bridleway back towards Guilden Morden. Unfortunately by that time the Convenience Store was shut so there was no opportunity to buy M&Ms, however the Edward VII pub was able to supply a metal bottle top.

Back at the pub, the question sheets were marked, and the judges comments were final. The scores varied from 54.5 to 61.5, with Team "Will, Flo. Count, Pee, Shag?" winning. Additionally, down-downs were given to the bares (bike hares??), Dogger, Shagpile, White Rabbit, Pussies Galore for misdemeanours, and to Donut for desecrating some boy-racers open-topped car. Finally a naming of Philip, who will evermore be known as Small Deposit.

On On to Hitchin,
Underlay & Capt'n Fantaaastic