Pablo's Armchair Treasure Hunt

Armchair Treasure Hunt 2011

Title: An Enigma
Setter: Garry Smith
Themes: Alan Turing & Codebreaking

Results, Prizes and Special Awards

As usual, the points awarded for each question are equal to the number of incorrect or omitted answers to that question. This ensures that questions are valued according to their perceived level of difficulty. It also makes for big differences between teams at either end of the scale, so if you didn't get too many points then this is not necessarily a reflection on your ability.

You can also peruse the detailed marking scoresheet should you so wish - it shows that the two top teams arrived at the same total through quite different scoring profiles. See also the setter's note* on marking.

The winners of special prizes are lauded beneath the table.

ATH 2011 Results
  Team Name Captain     Box Pts Prize  
1= A.M.Turing Struck My Big Fox Whelp Andy Henderson     13 2375 Best Overall Solution £100
1= Psychologicals Mei Leung     5 2375 Best Overall Solution £100
3 PathfindersATH Kailas Modha     9 2365 Third Overall Solution £50
4 Peter D G Smith et al Peter D G Smith     10 2340    
5 Lady Strange & the Earl of Yarborough Rosalind Barden     7 2294 ACE of Questions £25
6 Puzzletome Harry Maton N   6 2270    
7 Tweleve Pack Noel Aitchison & Joce Rakower-Butelet     11 2262    
8 Apopheniacs Anonymous Mark Abbott     4 2249 Oscar for Best Film priceless 
9 No Management Potential Steve Hames     8 2192    
10 David Kee Team Gillian Hardy     3 2122 Third to Treasure £50
11 Q4T Logicals Greg Gomberg     2 2047 Second to Treasure £75
12 Alcoholus Lubricatum Chris Andrews     1 1963 First to Treasure £100
13 The Famous Five Brian Mills     14 1620    
14 The Chiltern Fellowship John Baxter     12 1276 Brute Force Attack £25
15 Team Poirot Anne Traynor   V?   990 Undecidability Prize £25
16 The Stragglers Bart Bramley N     969    
17 Space Invaders Martin Milnes       869    
18 Hartwell Family Amanda Hartwell       854    
19 Colossus of Codes Chris Baker       796    
20 Alan Who? Jell N     740    
21 The Slow Learners David Thomas       723    
22 The Tragic Roundabouts Clare Marsters       671    
23 Team Norway Tim North       611    
24 I'm Spartacus Adam Butler       472    
25 Burghfield Burghers Mike Wood       465    
26 Clueless Tony & Keyless Liz Tony Colclough       446    
27 The Margaritas Sarah Jones-Wilkinson   V   103 Best ATH Virgin Entry £25

Key:

N = Non-Logica team
V = ATH Virgin
Box = Treasure Box ticket number

Special Prizes:

The setter felt moved to make the following special awards:

  • Lady Strange & the Earl of Yarborough: ACE of Questions award for answering all 78 questions correctly. A.M.Turing Struck My Big Fox Whelp also achieved this distinction.
  • The Chiltern Fellowship: Brute Force Attack award for taking this cryptographic technique into the physical world, and finding the treasure knowing only that it was somewhere in Shenley Wood.
  • Team Poirot: In the spirit of G£del and Turing, the Undecidability Prize goes to Team Poirot because there is no way of determining whether one of their number was an ATH virgin. It was a fleeting, possibly unconsummated relationship with the ATH, a long time ago :) All of the others were definitely ATH virgins.
  • Bonus points were awarded to three teams: Tweleve Pack, No Management Potential and The Famous Five, for finding the treasure at night, and to The Margaritas for an ingenious answer and for telling me something about St Albans that I didn't know.

*A Note on Marking

The solution which was published earlier told you what I proposed to award marks for. In the event, I decided not to award marks for three items which were included in the solution:

  • [DIA2] - [DIA2] and [DIA10] were essentially the same thing - identifying Cantor, G£del and Turing - so I didn't award any points for [DIA2], which was also not directly connected with any specific item in the ATH.
  • [DIA6] and [DIA7] - about "Grok diagonal turn?..." - would have awarded points for simply paraphrasing what the sentences said. There were points for the anagram, though.