Answers: Sherlock Holmes
Pub Clues and Forward References
This section was an unforgivable spoof on the Five Orange Pips with the Blue Buttons being substituted to lead to The Good Yarn in Uxbridge [8]. The story hinted that this should be paired with the Astrology section but you could, just from the story, have pinpointed the pub.
The first paragraph contained no points or references but simply allowed Pablo to reminisce about past Armchair Treasure Hunts. The second paragraph did however contain the phrase "good yarn" when describing the Clark Wetherspoon sea story. This reinforced the use of the phrase in the Village Voice and Christmas Reading. Those who studied the original Holmes story will realise that Dr Watson was reading a Clerk Russell story so an immediate visit to any Wetherspoon's pub or a trawl through the their web site would then have been sufficient to pinpoint The Good Yarn's location.
No points for the next observation that Dave wandered into the realms of self-delusion and fantasy as his namesake was introduced. For someone who has recently celebrated his 50th birthday the phrase "five-and-forty at the outside" was a little OTT. However, this was closely followed by a reference to Hanwell and the Grand Union Canal. Although Dave does live in Hanwell, teams could have inferred that there was a reason for mentioning said canal - it runs through Uxbridge not far from the Good Yarn.
The next deviation from the real story was the introduction of Stransom family history. The whole section concerning H C Pearson, Queen Victoria and the Stransom ditty can all be found inside the Good Yarn which was redeveloped from the H C Pearson site. The mention of Queen Victoria also allowed yet another reference to Windsor, although no one spotted this [14].
The next references to be spotted were in the introduction of Sir John Oldcastle and Isaac Wilson. These are both Wetherspoon pubs to reinforce the early Wetherspoon mention but, in addition, Sir John Oldcastle was the main source used by William Shakespeare for our hero Sir John Falstaff who makes a significant contribution to Stage 3 of the Hunt [7]. That was strengthened by describing Sir John as a "well-known Shakespearean actor" {}. Isaac Wilson was fictitiously ascribed as "a famous Oxford Blue" as the forward reference to the Oxford Blue pub in Windsor, which also features in Stage 3 [10].
The next few paragraphs were a tongue-in cheek allusion to the behaviour of the teams in the ATH. The mention of the bus timetable and the route 11 alluded to the Orange Brewery as, for instance, Reuters teams could have got said bus outside the Fleet Street office and been dropped off right outside the pub.
The next reference introduced was the "postmark of Farringdon". The Sir John Oldcastle pub is only yards from the tube station which could have allowed teams to visit and check out one of the many Wetherspoons News broadsheets where they would have found the Good Yarn pub with its address.
The final clues came from the first "sheet of paper" and its enigmatic list. The list is simply the items that can be found around the tailor’s dummy in the window of the Good Yarn. The mention of Tycho Brahe, Lukasiewicz and Von Neumann list with their star signs should have led teams to note that these three mathematicians were born on December 14th, 21st and 28th respectively so giving the days on which teams should have turned up at the pub. The last line gave the address of the Good Yarn in Uxbridge as the High Street. This is also the road on which the tube station is located (turn right on exiting station) and the 12.30 to 2 pm obviously gave the time of day when Paul or Dave could be found.
The Crossword
This was included as an amusing diversion and had no value to finding the treasure. There is the possibility of disagreement over the answers as we pinched it from a book which did NOT give any solution. We have been generous with the marking [6].
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