Pablo's Armchair Treasure Hunt

Armchair Treasure Hunt 2003

Title: Driven
Setter: Stephen Lees
Themes: Sports Cars, Humphrey Spender

Hunters' Tales

"On to the falls and crossing the bridge at the weir there was much excitement from an Utterly Butterly large tub wedged under a tree, well the tub was yellow. Anne duly picked it up going "Oh, its got something in it". To then open it and find it full of ... butter !!"

"Overall understanding - To be honest we do not have an overall understanding."

"It was only when we resorted to psychological profiling that we had a breakthrough."

"The quiz refers to two types of 'DRIVEN' - cars and golf. The Stoke-by-Nayland Golf Club, at Leavenheath Suffolk, has 2 courses, the Constable and the Gainsborough. Both of these painters were born in Suffolk close by. There is also a Driving Range here. The televised Golf Tournament was sponsored by Hyundai, Jaguar XJ, Landrover and featured the Peugeot hole-in-one challenge. On the 2 golf Courses scorecards, there are red, yellow and white 'yards'. The red letters remind us that Beagle went to Mars, the red planet. Justin Rose was a baby (born) in Johannesburg in SA. The letters 'in ro', within his name, is an anagram of iron. The kitten is a baby and 'rose' means 'rise up' and hence the upside down map of SA."

"By now we have got themes to do with Ginetta Cars, Stephen Spender, UCL and lots of stuff about cars, but no way to link it all together or work out how to get to the treasure. Plus there is loads of random stuff left over that we have no idea what to do with. It all seems impossibly difficult. We conclude that we must be missing something really obvious."

"I do like the idea of a grid coordinate being spelt out, but Ipswich is a bit disappointing (as most people find)!"

"A likely candidate seemed to be the radio programme entitled "Hancock's Car". However, we obtained the tape and found that it makes no mention of the car's number."

"I looked at the base of the pole where a large puddle had formed. Was that a glimpse of something blue? I pushed away some brambles and pulled at the unappetising object, which revealed itself to be a waterproof bag, sunk into the surprisingly deep puddle. Trying to close my mind to the many possibilities about what such a bag may contain, I reached inside to find another bag in which something heavy was contained, most likely a body-part from an Essex gangster. No! It was a model campervan with the word "Driven" on the roof."

"The treasure, We didn't find the treasure. Despite two visits to Essex and digging up almost every tree and electricity pylon we couldn't locate it."

"At 72-74 Edgware Road one finds Coopers Big and Tall. Which is close to Mini Cooper... (hence that is going to have to be the answer)."

"Judging from the photographs, you set this quiz during the delightful summer we've had this year and so might be unaware that the Chelmer and Blackwater towpath is quite a muddy affair. Picture yourself standing on a canal bank in Essex as the January night falls accompanied by a professor of mathematics you met the day before yesterday; both pottering around trying to work out the exact angle a photograph of a nearby telegraph pole was taken; the silence only broken by the squelch, squelch of what until that morning were perfectly serviceable black leather shoes. Stay driven, indeed."

"We approached Essex with a pincer movement ..."

"Thereafter we spent a while wandering round the church and around Hoe Mill lock in the search for inspiration, but none was forthcoming, so we headed for Langford to see if there was anything relevant there. One route took us past Ernest Doe's headquarters, one more puzzle confirmed but nothing else, and Langford seemed a very dull place."

"... but the final whistle has luckily saved us from further investigating this potentially long and windy dead-end. Its amazing just how many All Saints Churches there are in Essex and indeed in all the towns and villages mentioned. We also started seeing Ash trees everywhere we looked."

"Most Purple Red Herring; a purple ribbon was tied around a tree along the (quagmiric) C&B riverside tow-path between the green/white arrow and the Ulting River Gauging Station. I nearly dug the tree up so convinced was I that this was a post-merger equivalent of a Logica 'L'. It wasn't."

"Most frustrating image was the woman next to All Saints on the back page. So familiar yet her identity remains a mystery, despite e-mailing the image to just about everyone I know. Somebody out there is convinced that this is the Ali McBeal actress. Can't see it myself."

"A few years ago an apparent location near Osterly Park turned out to be just the launching site for a 30 mile journey to the Chilterns. This had a similar smell about it."

"Surely a fundamental feature of a wankel the fact that it has no valves?"